Super Yooka-Laylee Kart is an upcoming arcade racing game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Playtonic Friends, bringing the characters of the Yooka-Laylee series into a competition of their own. Yooka and Laylee race as separate drivers, joined by familiar friends and rivals, with courses taking them through returning and new settings. The change of genre also brings a different visual approach: colourful pixel artwork is combined with modern rendering rather than reproducing the three-dimensional presentation of the platform adventures. Playtonic revealed the game at the Day of the Devs Summer Game Fest showcase on June 5, 2026, followed by its own announcement on June 6. The racer combines a single-player story campaign with competitive multiplayer, custom tournaments and Time Trials, placing precise driving alongside weapons and opportunities to retaliate against other racers. Vendi and Trowzer joined Yooka and Laylee in the June press demonstration, while the first public playtest later offered a larger selection. As of October 16, 2026, the game is announced for PC through Steam and its release date remains to be confirmed.
Gameplay Mechanics
Races combine close control of the kart with special moves, advanced driving techniques and weapons that can be used in different ways. Being struck or disrupted by opponents also contributes to the Rage system, which turns those setbacks into an opportunity for revenge: a driver can unleash accumulated Rage through powerful abilities capable of changing the course of a race. Alongside the immediate contest for position, coins introduce decisions that continue between races. Keeping coins improves speed, but the same currency can instead be spent on perks between events. A player therefore has to weigh the benefit of carrying a larger reserve against the advantages available from spending it, including whether to save for a later race in a tournament. The single-player campaign gives these systems a progression of tournaments, rival races and skill-based challenges against computer-controlled racers. Its challenges are intended to teach and develop driving techniques while providing secrets to unlock. Outside the campaign, custom race setups let players alter weapon availability, rules, gameplay modifiers and tournament configurations. Announced examples include races limited to homing projectiles, increased speed and meteor showers, allowing a group to set up both competitive contests and more chaotic variations. These custom settings change how a race plays; a course editor has not been announced. The complete campaign story, final character roster and full track list remain unrevealed.
Multiplayer Modes
Multiplayer includes online races, dedicated lobbies for friends and local split-screen for up to eight players. Playtonic is building the online racing around rollback netcode, making the networked competition part of the game’s development from the outset. The eight-player figure applies to the announced local split-screen mode; a separate final online player limit and cross-platform play have not been confirmed. Players can also compete through Time Trials and leaderboards, concentrating on their finishing times rather than exchanging attacks during a normal race. The first public test paired this mode with a ghost of the player’s personal best, making it possible to compare a new attempt directly with an earlier run. Steam lists Remote Play Together alongside the local multiplayer features, as well as achievements, Steam Cloud and full controller support. A controller is recommended. These modes complement the campaign by offering short races, repeat attempts at a particular course and tournaments with rules chosen by the players, without requiring every competitor to progress through the single-player challenges together.
Game Development
The first public Steam playtest ran from July 17 to July 24, 2026 and focused on Time Trials, giving invited players two tracks, seven characters and four racer archetypes with which to test the handling. Playtonic subsequently referred to the courses as Tribal Stack and Marsh Demo; their names and the test’s character count describe that development build rather than the final game’s full contents. More than 7,000 people took part. In its July 24 feedback report, the studio outlined improvements to item aiming, directional input zones and hop-turning at low speed or while stationary, together with full button remapping, separate item-use inputs and an optional automatic-acceleration setting. It also discussed changes to the camera and sliders for depth of field, parallax and pixelation to address visibility and visual comfort. Further ideas being investigated included clearer corners and signs, minimaps, racing lines and track prompts, together with friend leaderboards, downloadable ghosts and lap-segment comparisons for Time Trials. Those proposals were development plans rather than a promise that every option would appear in the finished game. The next playtest was announced as a test of online versus racing and weapons, with its date still to follow. Steam’s prerelease listing specifies 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, an Intel Core i5-4460, 16 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 750 Ti and 10 GB of storage as the minimum PC requirements. It lists English audio and interfaces in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified Chinese. These requirements and supported features may change during development.