As a backer of Yooka-Laylee, that first game really felt like a Monkey's Paw wish of a video game. "Oh, you want a new 3D platformer in the style of Rare's N64 output? Okay. Here's a platformer in exact the style of Rare's N64 output that has somehow learned zero lessons from the last 19 years of video game development." I still kind of liked it in a very guilty pleasure "this is a substandard version of what I want, but I'm not getting it elsewhere" sort of way, but the level design evokes the worst, most sprawling parts of Donkey Kong 64. It sounds like they eventually improved the controls and camera after I played it, but no amount of quality-of-life tweaks will ever fix how lost I felt navigating most of the worlds.
I'm hearing better things about Impossible Lair, so obviously they've improved, but I'm not sure if I yet buy the narrative people are peddling about them being the "true successors" to the Rare name. They're certainly emulating the same kinds of games Rare was making 20 years ago, but I wonder how much that deliberate throwback stuff appeals to people who aren't already nostalgic for it like I am. Modern day Rare, while obviously not the same company it once was, also seems to be doing fairly well for themselves with Sea of Thieves after a rough launch and a decade spent in the Kinect wilderness.