This is a tough one for me.
I can see the passion and care that went into creating a love letter to Donkey Kong Country..... but also i can see this is pretty much a copy paste clone of Donkey Kong and in doing that it exposes every single place this game is weaker and no way near as finely tuned and refined as the far superior Donkey Kong games.

I also made the massive mistake of picking this game up after just playing DK country returns HD on the Switch 2.

This game is such a direct copy of Donkey Kong in almost every way which means that it also exposes every thing it does wrong. The controls and momentum don't feel the same resulting in more frustration that satisfaction. The level design simply isn't as good. DK Country has so many moments that filled me with glee and excitement and Yooka-Laylee often feels forced and generic. The pace feels slower as well.

One major frustration with this game is the opening and how much dialogue you have to skip through. Every character is telling you what to do. Instead of pacing their game and gradually introducing features to the player or letting the player figure stuff out through game play and exploration the opening of the game has you talking to endless boring NPC characters over explaining every single feature of the game or menu. Its just frustrating and very tedious. It made me annoyed with the game before it had really started.

If you don't own a Nintendo device from the last 20 years then by all means this is a great alternative. You could even emulate DK country returns HD on Wii U and see what this game is trying (and failing) to achieve.

There is charm here and i understand what the developers were trying to do but i don't feel that they stuck the landing and believe they would have been better off creating something original instead of ripping off the exact same mechanics from Donkey Kong which only exposes the weaknesses instead of any strengths.