Remastered Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor Yooka-Replaylee is pointedly not saying it’s coming to Switch 2, but it’s definitely letting fans think that it is

Yooka-Laylee, the Kickstarted spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, is getting an upgraded remaster in the form of Yooka-Replaylee. The devs at Playtonic have just announced that this remaster is coming to consoles, including PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and “Nintendo.”

Yes, the announcement just says “Nintendo” – with a sly little ellipsis and an eyes emoji to make you sit up and take notice. The trailer even puts a pair of googly eyes on the Nintendo logo to really drive the point home. Yooka-Replaylee is also ditching PS4 and Xbox One, platforms more or less equivalent in power to the original Switch, leading to one inevitable conclusion: this is a stealth Switch 2 announcement. 

Of course, Nintendo itself has not yet officially announced the Switch 2, and we technically don’t even know what the console is going to be called yet, so any game that’s in development for the platform is going to have to play coy with these sorts of announcements. Regardless, Playtonic is certainly egging fans on here, responding to excited queries with playful gifs. They’re now saying “it’s Alarmo,” but somehow that seems like a bit of misdirection.

There’s a devilish part of me that hopes the “Nintendo” platform Yooka-Replaylee is coming to is actually the N64, in some sort of official demake that brings the platformer’s tribute to Banjo-Kazooie full circle. But really, I’m as convinced as anyone that this is indeed a sly Switch 2 reveal. Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait too much longer for the official word from Nintendo.

After reports that an Xbox exec said “nobody cares about Banjo-Kazooie,” he’s correcting the record: “I absolutely know how much Banjo-Kazooie means to our fans.”