Conker's Bad Fur Day

aka: Conker's BFD, Conker's Quest, Twelve Tales: Conker 64
Moby ID: 3622
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Description official descriptions

Conker the Squirrel has had a really bad day. Too much partying, too much booze - and the result is predictable: a terrible hangover. What is less predictable, however, is the fact that Conker has no idea where he is. All he wants is to go home to his girlfriend Berri, but it seems that an unknown force has thrown him into another world. The ruler of said world, the dumb, but vicious Panther King, is having a serious problem: he has been just drinking milk when he discovered that the table in his throne room is missing one of its legs. Unable to solve the problem by himself, the enraged monarch sends for the mad weasel scientist, Professor Von Kriplespac, who suggests a red squirrel as a replacement for the table's lost leg. The Panther King sends his minions after Conker, who has to explore the bizarre world, deal with its eccentric characters, stay alive, and find a way to return home.

Conker's Bad Fur Day is a grotesque counterpart to Rare's own cheerful, child-oriented 3D action platformers (such as for example Banjo-Kazooie). Intense swearing, violence, and instances of "toilet humor" co-exist with cute animals and a brightly colorful fantasy world. The game also contains segments that parody famous movies, such as The Matrix, Terminator, and others.

The core of the gameplay is 3D platform action. Conker can jump, climb, swim, and attack enemies with various weapons (the default one being a frying pan). Conker can also collect money, which is sometimes needed to advance to a new area. The game world is reasonably open, containing an overworld from which the player can access large levels that take a while to explore. Talking to characters and performing tasks offered by them is one of the main devices used to advance the plot and unlock a different area.

A multiplayer mode is also included, allowing 4 players to battle it out in many different styles of multiplayer gameplay, including a deathmatch, a race, a "capture the flag"-like mini-game, etc.

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Credits (Nintendo 64 version)

61 People (43 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Project Leader
Game Design
Gameplay Software Engineer
Music composed and performed by
Lead Artist
Character Design
Technical Software Engineers
Audio Software Engineer
Task and Camera Software Engineer
Visual Effects Software Engineer
Multiplayer and Front End Software
Background and Layout Artists
Cutscene Artists
3-D Animators
Sound Design
Additional Game Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 40 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 93 ratings with 6 reviews)

Delightfully Evil.

The Good
As one of the last "big" titles for the Nintendo 64, and one of Rare's last "Nintendo" titles, this game went places you never thought a Nintendo game could go. To date, I've still never seen a game that crams in as much profanity, blood, gore, sexual innuendo, drunkenness, gross-out tactics in the first few levels alone, and what's truly shocking about all of it, it that it's actually FUNNY. Unlike a lot of games that just cram in things for shock value, the things presented here actually have a purpose.... As far as things go in the game, anyway.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous, with lots of diverse areas, special effects, and great facial expressions for the characters, all of this without the use of the Expansion Pak. As far as sound goes, the music goes from unbearingly happy, to some of the most impressive techno that's never spun off of a CD. The voices are great, and the game never shuts up for a second. Absolutely stunning for a cartridge game, and nothing ever came close to this title. Every burp, fart, and zombie groan remain as clear as can be.

As for the humor, yes, it's definitely not for the easily offended, but in all the crude grossness, there are some truly clever movie parodies, and even just some of the casual conversations are just funny. The game has a squirrel who is trapped in a world he drunkenly staggered into and doesn't understand, which in a way, seems like a bizarre version of "Alice in Wonderland". Conker gets irritated with the situations around him. He just wants money and to get home to his girlfriend.... While having a good time along the way, of course. He's definitely an anti-hero with personality.

The Bad
Since it's a Rare game, that means lots of fetch quests and item findings. And sometimes, that just gets old. However, the gameplay is so diverse, it keeps it from getting tedious too much too often. And with it being a 3D title, the camera does a good job in keeping up, but sometimes, there are just some angles that get irritating, which leads to a lot of falling or too precise of walking over troubled areas. But really, the bads are so minor in comparison to the "goods" that this game offers.

The Bottom Line
It's a shame that this came out so late, and Nintendo's perceived "kiddie" image turned some gamers away from the system and missing the title. The game is hilarious, and the humor ranges from the crude and nasty to really clever puns and hilarious conversations. The humor's a little more sophisticated in the game than one would expect. This is NOT a title for the easily offended, because as classic and unforgettable as it is, not everyone's going to find the humor in battling a giant, opera-singing pile of poo.

The game deserved more recognition that it got, as even Nintendo had very little to do with this title. But for one of the best all-time titles on the system, there may be room for Mario and Zelda, but a little drunken squirrel named Conker also pulled out of of the most impressive games around. For the Nintendo 64 and for gaming in general.

Nintendo 64 · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2004

It's a good game,but seems a bit disjointed

The Good
Conker's Bad Fur Day used to be called Twelve Tails:Conker 64.It was supposed to be a kids game with excellent graphics.Somewhere along the line,RARE got sick of it and started to make a new game with the characters.They came up with BFD,an M rated game filled to the brim with sex,viloence,and swearing.Nintendo somehow let them release it and now we have one of the last good N64 games. First of all,the graphics are extraordinary.They're better then Donkey Kong 64,and that even had the expansion pack.The world is colourful in one scene,dark in the other.It just looks amazing.Next,the sound is very good too.The music is good,and there's even a musical number in here that would never make it into a Mario game.The voices are excellent,mostly done by British actors.The multiplayer mode is very well done,offering plenty of variety in the games.

The Bad
While the controls are good,the camera can get behind quite a lot.There's a lot of jumps and the camera doesn't make them easier to do.The main problem I had with the game was its overall feel.It's obvious that this game is uneven mainly because it's just scenes slapped together that used to make a different game.The game seems very short and when you're done,you don't want to play the one player game anymore.I'm surprised RARE would release a game that seems this rushed.

The Bottom Line
Even with its problems,this is a very fun game.While a lot of the jokes fall flat on their face,there is some pretty funny scenes in this game.It should be played,yet I think RARE wasn't really putting much effort into this game.

Nintendo 64 · by SamandMax (75) · 2001

Rares magnum opus and a stunning finale for the N64

The Good
Anyone who ever owned a N64 will regard it as more than a game system, it was a labour of love by a pioneer of the industry, that love manifested by the genius mind of producer/designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The story of the N64 was a story that began in 1996 with the revolution spun by Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye, continued with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time, Donkey kong 64, Banjo Kazooie, Super Smash Bros before coming to a close with Perfect Dark and finally its most under appreciated master piece …. Conkers Bad Fur Day.

Before the release of Conkers Bad Fur Day, Nintendo maintained a strict policy of ensuring that all its material would be inoffensive to families. This policy resulted in the development of several kiddy games,cementing nintendos image as a “kiddy” company in face of competitors like Sega and Sony (Sega capitalized on this with its “Sega does what Nintendont” campaign for the Mega Drive console). It was also notorious for allowing Nintendo to foolishly censor violent video games like Wolfenstein 3D , Mortal Kombat and Doom, removing most of the bloody gore that made those games so appealing. With that in mind, no one should be surprised if they walked into sony playstation fan and described the concept of Conkers Bad Fur Day before being laughed at.

At the time in the year 2001 nothing like Conkers Bad Fur Day had ever been achieved and nothing quite like it ever came since, not even its graphically superior Xbox port/remake Conker: Live and Reloaded. The basic concept of Conkers Bad Fur Day is this: Conker is a red squirrel who recounts the events of a day which he started out in a hangover, far from home and how he reluctantly finished the night by becoming king. Along the way he meets a drunken scarecrow, deals with a steaming pile of operatic singing feaces, encounters big chested babes, brutally maimes and slaughters several adorable animals, and lets out several swear words. Oh and by the way theres a plot by a Panther king to use him as a replacement for one of the legs on his stool and there are several parodies of iconic movie scenes.

Even gameplay wise: Conkers was then an unrivalled beast of a platformer. Sure it kept the basic 3d platforming elements laid out by Super Mario 64 which were run, jump and explore but it added a rather distinguishing feature- the context sensitive buttons which populated Conkers world. These buttons allowed Conker to perform actions that can solve the problem that would be presented in his current surroundings. Press a context sensitive button near Birdy the Scarecrow and Conker will give him a bottle of beer. If you press a context sensitive button during the War levels Conker will pull out two guns and be ready shoot. The presence of context sensitive buttons in Conkers Bad Fur Day not only made the game more accessible and reduced the need for the tutorials that plagued the likes of Banjo Kazooie, but it allowed for each level to stand on its own. One level features Conker hoverboarding with a bunch of thieves who have stolen his money. Another features Conker fighting off a bunch of Gladiators by hypnotising a dinosaur and towards the end he pulls off a shootout that parodies the now legendary lobby scene from The Matrix.

What set Conker even further apart from its peers was how it avoided becoming a collect-a –fest. Unlike Super Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie where the player was required to search out every nook and cranny so they could collect as many stars or jigsaw pieces as possible to progress. Conker required that players collect money, but the importance of the money was de-emphasized by having it conveniently put in easy to spot places that would not require Sherlock Holmes to find. As such the money was perceived by players not as an important must have item but a mere mc guffen that served as an excuse to drive the plot.

Perhaps the games most famous aspect was the toilet humor that occupied much of the dialogue and physical actions. In what was to become one of the most legendary boss battles ever, Conker is faced with the wrath of the Great Mighty Poo, a baritone voiced, corn eating, opera singing mountain of poo who sings about how he’d love to ram Conker “up my butt”. Gameplay wise the scenario is a generic bossfight,but the fact that The Mighty Poo sings in this fight elevates it to a level of comedic gold and disgust.

Conkers Bad Fur Day was also a technological marvel for the N64 and was one of the first games to really bring its characters to life with lip synching. What really deserves a special mention here is the effort that Rare put in to store a full over soundtrack within the limits of a 100mb Nintendo 64 cartridge. The Voice acting itself was and still is outstanding especially considering the limited number of voice actors hired. It was a surprise to hear that Chris Seavor, the games creator and voice of Conker voices nearly single character in the game except for the females. What Rare achieved with the voice acting was a rare feat that sadly occurred at the end of N64s life.



The Bad
Despite all the praise I have for this game, there was one criticism that I believe i must mention. Much of its relevance will be lost on future generations. When Conkers first came out, it came out in a time when mascot platform characters such as Mario, Sonic, Crash were dominant belonged to a particular system and rivalled eachother. Crash and Sonic have become platform agnostic and Mario and Sonic now share cameos in their games. These days 3d platformers are hardly the craze that they were at Conkers release. Much of Conkers shock value has also died as well. In 2001, it was shocking to think that a video game character could swear. In the post GTAIII world of 2009 its almost normal.

Despite these criticisms the game design is still quite solid and holds up on its own.

The Bottom Line
A wildly twisted take on the cute Nintendo and Rare were famous for. Buy it if you can find it .

Nintendo 64 · by Gravesy (46) · 2009

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

Conker's Bad Fur Day was originally announced way back in 1997 as Conker's Quest. It was then changed to Twelve Tales: Conker 64. Then Rare decided it was too much like all other 3D platformers and decided to go with the whole mature feel with Bad Fur Day. Conker in his original cutesy form can be seen on the Game Boy game Conker's Pocket Tales.

References: movies

  • The Matrix:The lobby scene complete with bullet dodging and slow motion moves. Almost exactly as done in the film.
  • Saving Private Ryan: The beach scene done almost identical to the film with limbless man looking for severed arm and the underwater scene walking up the beach.
  • Jaws: Two parodies here. One parodying the girl being pulled around from the opening sequence and the chasing up the pier sequence.
  • Bram Stoker's Dracula: The whole Dracula sequence. "Aah the children of the Night, vat sweet music they make".
  • Terminator: The Terminator ending part with the eye and the terminator coming out of the flames. "Buff you asshole!"
  • A Clockwork Orange: The opening sequence with Conker on the throne
  • Eye's Wide Shut: Password from club same as in the movie
  • Indiana Jones: The rolling boulder
  • Wizard of Oz: When you flush The Great Mighty Poo, he says almost the same thing that the witch says when Dorothy dumps water on her., ''something something.. what a world, what a world''
  • Star Wars: The name of the caveman Bunga the Knut (like Jabba the Hut)
  • Jurassic Park: Raptor Eating the cave man just like in the movie
  • Lost in Space: The chase seen where the spider mines chase him down the hall and one gets his leg cut off when the door closes.
  • Conan the Barbarian: Whole opening sequence like Conan
  • The Untouchables: Weasel boss beating one of his cronies to death with a baseball bat
  • Blair Witch Project: Bloody handprints on the walls in Conkula's castle.
  • Gladiator: The whole gladiator colliseum fight scene
  • Reservoir Dogs: In the multiplayer game. "here are your names......mr. red, mr blue etc etc.
  • Exorcist: The little girl twisting her head
  • Dr. Strangelove: The scientist character is almost exactly like the title character from that movie. In a wheelchair, slightly German accent, motorized mechanism on wheelchair that occasionally acts up...
  • Aliens: The final battle is taken from the climax of the movie, complete with the hydraulic suit and the line, "Get away from her, you bitch!"

References

  • When Conker gets bored he takes out a Game Boy and plays Killer Instinct.
  • In the option room/file select you can see a Banjo head from Banjo-Kazooie. There is also a Kazooie umbrella.

Information also contributed by lechuck13 and Tiago Jacques

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Matthew Bailey, skl, Ben K, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, ryanbus84.

Game added April 3, 2001. Last modified March 3, 2024.