Yooka is one of two main protagonists of the game Yooka-Laylee and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. He appears as a playable character alongside Laylee in Brief Battles, and Brawlout as well as a findable character in Tracky Train. He is a green chameleon who carries his bat friend, Laylee on his head.
Name Origin 
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The name Yooka is a two-name pun with Laylee, as both words are being used to form the musical string instrument known as the ukulele (although it is more of a mis-pronunciation, as ukulele is meant to be pronounced "ookha-leh-leh").
According to Steve Mayles, Yooka's name has a second meaning. Yooka's name was based off of the Hawaiian word "uku", which means "small brained person".[1]
Ironically, the name "Yooka" is a homophone with a real life male human name: Luca.
AppearanceEdit
Protagonist Yooka is described as "a green bloke with no pants." The character is a lime-green colored, male chameleon. He is further described as having eyes that are blue in color, and these are surrounded in arched, dark-green markings. He also has a long curled tail, pronged casque upon his head, and even scarlet-red markings and spikes upon his back, eyelids, hands, toes, and tail. He has a round yellow patch upon his torso.
Personality Edit
Yooka is the easy-going, adventure-craving half of the buddy-duo.[2] Always having a calm attitude and keeping Laylee at bay, he is an affable, intelligent and relaxed chameleon.
Abilities Edit
Abilities only used by Yooka Edit
- Slurp Shot - Yooka shoots out his tongue to eat objects like berries and butterflies and is used for other abilities.
- Tail Twirl - An attack that can be used while moving, hitting any nearby enemy.
- Double Jump - After jumping, Yooka can jump one more time.
- Slurp State - Yooka gains an elemental property when licking a certain object
- Lizard Leap - Yooka uses his tail to give an extra jump boost.
- Lizard Lash - Yooka grabs onto an object by using lick, and his tongue pulls him forward towards the object.
- Buddy Bubble- A bubble made of flatulence used underwater that allows the duo to breathe, and use their normal abilities underwater.
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- Air Attack - An aerial attack that deals one damage to any enemy it contacts.
- Flappy Flight - Allows the duo to fly for a certain amount of time.
- Buddy Slam - Yooka jumps and Laylee hits Yooka downward in mid-air to hit the ground hard.
- Glide - Slows down the falling speed of the duo.
- Camo Cloak - The duo becomes light-refractive. While being light-refractive, the duo will be able to evade detection from Corplet Security and Security Cameras, and the duo will also be able to refract light to activate light-activated switches.
- Reptile Roll - Laylee uses Yooka as a wheel to go up steep hills and travel fast.
Quotes Edit
Development Edit
Steve Mayles originally designed a tiger, but this was changed to make him appear more like an underdog, as tigers are usually seen as strong creatures. Steve Mayles then went with a frog, but decided to scrap that idea. At one point, Playtonic Games even experimented with insects as well.[3] A friend of Steve Mayles told Steve to check out the game Chameleon Twist 2 on the Nintendo 64, and Steve Mayles got the idea of a Chameleon as the main character.[4]
GalleryEdit
ArtworkEdit
ScreenshotsEdit
AnimatedEdit
TriviaEdit
- Yooka was mostly inspired by Banjo from the Banjo-Kazooie series.
- The internal names for "Yooka" and "Laylee" in various files are "Cam" (likely short for Chameleon or camera) and "Batty" respectively.
- During the official reveal of the game before the Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter, many fans mistook Yooka as a female.
- Despite clearly being a chameleon, Yooka is often stated to be an unidentified reptilian species.
- While intentional or not, Yooka has two tongues- one that is in his mouth normally on the character model and a second that sticks out to eat butterflies or berries. They can often be seen at the same time, if the player looks closely.
- Presumably in an attempt to avoid this appearance of two tongues, the tongue in Yooka's mouth no longer appears on the model, though curiously it does return in specific areas.
