At the ages of 18-20, I really loved Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie and DK64 (getting all the bananas!), but Yooka-Laylee lacks their "heart."
I'm twenty years older now, obviously, and while Yooka-Laylee is not a bad game per se, it feels dated. Platformers have gotten better. It feels like a parody of a better game that evolved with the times, like Mario Odyssey. The worlds are nearly empty. The controls are bad enough to make you say aloud, "I'm better at video games than this!" as you miss easy jumps. The story is bland, and the characters instantly forgettable.
There's cool retro, like Shovel Knight, and there's bad retro, like Yooka-Laylee. I appreciate its sentiments, but it doesn't capture the Banjo magic enough to make you love it. You'll want to, but... you won't. It feels like a generic brand of your favorite childhood after-school cartoon. It will feel like fake Lego's. Patently fake.
I occasionally play Yooka-Laylee, but once I do, it's just not compelling for me to continue for more than 10 minutes. I have other things I'd rather do and other better games to play, at least these days.
My two cents.