Conker's Bad Fur Day

"Long time... you love game long time."

Conker's Bad Fur Day… The history of this game is, to say the least, quite interesting. As you may or may not know, this raunchy M-rated platformer was not Conker's first video game appearance. In fact, Conker first made his gaming debut in the popular Nintendo 64 title “Diddy Kong Racing” in which Diddy Kong and his friends had to defeat an evil pig named Wizpig. Conker's first starring role was in the Game Boy Color game “Conker's Pocket Tales”, the plot being about an evil acorn who had kidnapped Conker‘s girlfriend, Berri, as well as all of Conker‘s birthday gifts. Needless to say, Conker was a much different squirrel back then. For years Rare had been hard at work on a Nintendo 64 platformer starring the fuzzy red squirrel, the original title being “Twelve Tales: Conker 64”. While the game did look graphically impressive, many were complaining it looked too similar to Rare's previous platform game, “Banjo-Kazooie”. And so, Rare decided to go back to the drawing board with Conker and make a few minor changes. Unfortunately, many people still thought it looked too much like a Banjo clone. That is when Rare decided to go back and give “Twelve Tales” a complete makeover.

When they unveiled the game again at the E3 it was quite evident that “Twelve Tales” had taken a drastic change. Sure, it still had the adorable lead character as Conker the squirrel, but Conker's world had gone beyond anything Rare had ever done before. It was no longer a mere Banjo clone. Since when did a Banjo game have a singing pile of poo? This was “Conker's Bad Fur Day”. The completely reworked, revamped and extremely twisted version of “Twelve Tales: Conker 64”. In fact, the only similarity that “Conker's Bad Fur Day” and the originally planned “Twelve Tales” shared was the lead character, and even Conker had changed quite a bit.

It was now filled to the brim with poo jokes, sexual innuendo, fowl language, blood and gore-- Conker basically became the anti-Banjo. I'll admit, when I first heard the news I was shocked and a little disappointed. I was looking forward to “Twelve Tales” and I am far from being a fan of excessive toilet humor. But looking back, I'm glad Rare turned the one cute game into this twisted game it is today. Even for someone who isn't a fan of toilet humor (such as myself) can enjoy this game. In fact, it's one of the greatest games I have ever played and as far as platform games go, Conker is right up there with “Super Mario 64”.

Gameplay 10/10

Something that makes Conker so different from platformers before it is the fact that it does away with the annoying item hunting that you find so often in Rare's games like “Banjo-Kazooie” and “Donkey Kong 64”. Sure, there will be times when you need to get a key to open a door or collect some cheese for a hungry mouse, but it's not nearly as tedious or annoying as the kind of collecting you had to do in “Donkey Kong 64”.

Conker is also different because it doesn't stay limited to just running around and fighting enemies. There will be times where you get to ride a tank, surf on lava, hunt down zombies with a shotgun, ride a pitchfork, become a bat and fly about, ride a raptor-- there are so many different things you'll be doing during the game. It really is quite different than anything with seen before it.

The controls are also fairly easy to learn and you shouldn't have any trouble with them. During the course of the game Conker will come across “context sensitive” pad (or “B-pads” as they are often called. When a light bulb appears above Conker's head you hit B. Conker will perform an action that will greatly help you out in that particular area of the game-- such as become an anvil or getting over his hangover.

Conker's basic moves consist of wielding a frying pan which become of great help during the game, back flips, jumping and (of course) the “helicoptery tail thing”, a move that will let Conker fly over short distances. All in all, the controls should rarely be a problem, although sometimes the camera may act a little faulty.

Story 8/10

So many people complain about the storyline in “Conker's Bad Fur Day” because it sucks. I think what people fail to realize is that it's SUPPOSED to suck.

It's Conker's 21st birthday and he's celebrating with his friends at the local “Cock and Plucker” bar. After a few dozen drinks Conker decides it be best if he start going home or else his girlfriend, Berri, would get upset with him again. Upon leaving the bar Conker proceeds to vomit on the shoes of a monk, and after a brief apology he continues on his way home. Unfortunately, Conker is completely and utterly wasted.

Conker passes out in the middle of nowhere and wakes up the next morning sporting the worlds worst hangover. Conker has no idea where he is and is desperate to get home to get some sleep. He seeks help from a drunken scarecrow named Birdy. Elsewhere, the Fairy Panther King (ruler of the land, I suppose) is quite thirsty and requests a glass of milk from his servants. They retrieve him the milk which the Fairy Panther King put on his table. Unfortunately, the table only has three legs causing the milk to tip over and break.

The Fairy Panther King puts his top scientist, The Professor, to figure out what is wrong with the table. After many countless experiments, The Professor notices the missing table leg. The only thing in the world that can replace the table's missing leg is a squirrel-- a RED squirrel to be exact. And so the Fairy Panther King's men are on the search for Conker to capture him and force him to prop up a table so the king may drink his milk.

The story is just so lame and poorly thought out that you can't help but love it. It's quite evident that Rare purposely made the storyline of the game this inane and pointless. It adds to the games charm.

Graphics 10/10

Without the doubt, the best the Nintendo 64 has to offer. The graphics in “Conker's Bad Fur Day” surpass the impressive N64 graphics of “Turok 2”, even. Everything is vibrant and colorful and the game makes use of real-time lighting effects. For the Nintendo 64 the textures are amazing-- everything looks like what it's supposed to look like. There are a few 2-D sprites here and there, but it's a small price to pay when you see how spectacular the rest of the game looks.

Each of the character have facial expressions as well, and they can really impress how they feel. Conker, by far, has the most impressive facial expressions in the game. Which was a wise choice by Rare. After all, you're going to be playing as Conker throughout the game. The amount of expressions Conker can have seems endless. He has expressions that convey joy, sorrow, pain, anger, shock, drunk-- just about everything is covered with Conker's facial expressions.

Sound 10/10

As well as graphics, “Conker's Bad Fur Day” has the best sound to ever be heard in a N64 game. Every character talks. There's more talking in “Conker's Bad Fur Day” then there was in “Star Fox 64”. And considering how amazing the graphics are and how much data sound uses in an N64 cart, you really have to wonder how Rare was able to pull it off.

The voice acting the game really is great. The voices fit each character perfectly. Conker's new voice is much better than his previous voice in “Diddy Kong Racing”, Gregg the Grim Reaper's high pitched squealing voice is somehow very fitting. Everyone's voice matches the characters perfectly. The game even features a musical number preformed by a beast known as The Great Mighty Poo. The song will get stuck in your head, trust me.

Speaking of music, it's just like anything you'd expect from Rare. The music is upbeat, fitting and every bit as catchy as the music from “Banjo-Kazooie” and “Donkey Kong Country”. The main hub track, Windy, especially stands out. It's happy, cheerful, catchy and I love it. The music really is a delight.

Replayability 8/10

I'm not going to lie, there are some parts of this game that after doing it once you are NEVER going to want to do it again. The Rock Solid Club comes to mind… HOWEVER, there are plenty of moments in the game that is great to play it over again. And don't think you have to start a new game in order to replay your favorite parts because you're able to go back and select “chapters” of the game as you progress. And one you beat the game you're free to replay any moment you desire.

Rent or Buy?

If you still have your Nintendo 64 laying around somewhere, I highly suggest you get this game. It should be extremely cheap since the N64 has died off and the game shouldn't be very hard to find. Unfortunately, it didn't sell very well due to the lack of coverage by Nintendo. It really is a fantastic game and one of the greatest I have ever played.

OVERALL: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/05