Checkmate is an ingenious checkpoint robot featured in the video game, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, designed by none other than Dr. Puzz. This character serves as a crucial feature of the game, allowing players to save their progress by simply passing the green light. The name Checkmate is a clever combination of the phrases checkpoint, mate, and checkmate. The term checkpoint refers to a designated point in a video game where a player may restart from if their character dies or loses the game. Mate is used as a term for friend or companion, while the word checkmate is a known chess term that describes a move that leaves the opponent’s king unable to move without being captured. Checkmate’s appearance is that of a red antique camera with two silver sides. The eyes of the camera serve as the robot’s visual sensors while its black lens is accentuated with a silver stripe that goes around it. Positioned above the lens is a green button that flashes blue. As soon as the protagonists, Yooka and Laylee, approach Checkmate it emits a green beam of light that creates an outline of their position. This feature helps the protagonists to retrace their steps if they lose the game or restart from the last checkpoint. In the game, there are two special Tonics that players can use to affect the behavior of the Checkmates. The More Checkmates Play-Tonic increases the number of Checkmates in a level by one or two, while the Quill Multiplier decreases by twenty percent. Conversely, the Less Checkmates Tonic removes all but one Checkmate in the middle of the chapter and the first Checkmate at the beginning of the chapter. This makes a chapter significantly more challenging, but the risk pays off by increasing the Quill Multiplier by one-hundred percent. If the protagonists fail five times the Checkmate they are currently using transforms into a Golden Checkmate. The Golden Checkmate allows them to skip ahead to the next Checkmate if they select yes. Notably, the protagonists can purposely die five times at the beginning of a chapter while using the Less Checkmates Play-Tonic to activate the Golden Checkmate. This feature allows players to skip to the middle of the level quickly. If the player repeats this process, the current Golden Checkmate will teleport the player straight to the end of the level next to the Beettalion that needs to be rescued. While using Golden Checkmate can be advantageous, it may cause players to miss out on collecting Quills and T.W.I.T Coins.
