- NA release: 5th March 2001
- EU release: 13th April 2001
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Rare
- Publisher: Rare (NA), THQ (EU)
- N64 Magazine Score: 89%
During the course of the N64’s life, Rare showed off Twelve Tales: Conker 64 , a cutesy 3D platformer starring the squirrel from Diddy Kong Racing. With Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 already announced, people noted how many cute 3D mascot platformers Rare were making. Due to this criticism, Conker’s game was transformed. It was still a mascot platformer, but not a child friendly one. Instead, it was full of gore, swearing, and obvious sex references.
The plot is wonderfully ridiculous: a panther king spills his milk due to a broken leg on his table. His insane scientist deduces that the missing height perfectly matches a squirrel. That said, it takes a while for this plot to reach Conker, who goes the wrong way on a drunken stumble home and gets caught in all sorts of things, like hatching a dinosaur, becoming a vampire bat, making a shy sunflower giggle to bounce on her breasts, and fighting an opera singing giant poo. All mixed in with a ton of film references from the era (luckily, for the game, extremely memorable films that are still notable today).
The biggest flaw of Conker’s Bad Fur Day is, sadly, the gameplay. The moving and jumping isn’t as refined as Rare’s other platformers in the system. The game does alleviate this with the large variety of things you’ll be doing in the game, so you’re playing the game in slightly different ways all the way through. The last few chapters are shooting segments, and these are, unfortunately, the worst parts to play as they don’t utilise the N64 controller well at all.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a hilarious and amusing game, which makes it even more of a shame that it’s so clunky to actually play.
Fun
Although this in itself is quite a linear premise, the important thing about Conker is that it never seems simple while you’re playing. Each and every puzzle or test of joypad dexterity you encounter is vastly different from the previous one, and requires you to think differently every time. One moment you’ll be trying to figure out how to climb a dragon’s snot-covered tongue, the next you’ll be racing around at high speed, attempting to smack unruly cavemen with the business end of a frying pan.
Geraint Evans, N64 Magazine #53
Remake or remaster?
The Xbox Remake refines the gameplay, and I would personally recommend that version over this (unless you want the multiplayer mode from the original). The shooting sections are proper third person shooter sections as well, which is a big improvement. The downside is the increased censorship, but there’s really only one moment where it is noticeable. With people accusing the Rare Replay version of extra censorship, I think people forgot how much was bleeped in the original. It looks great, running in HD on newer Xbox consoles, although a widescreen update would be very welcome.
Official Ways to get the game
The original can be purchased on Xbox One/Series as part of Rare Replay, and the remake, Conker Live & Reloaded, is also available on Xbox One/Series.
Europe
Japan
North America
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
I played live and reloaded on the Xbox years ago and was dissapointed when they censored all the swearing while they left it uncensored in the N64 version. Still played it though, was really fun.
Hoping, and kinda expecting, that Conker comes to the Nintendo Switch Online.
I played through it again on N64 only a few years ago and I still absolutely love it 😃
The structure of the game is much more to my liking than the sprawling and confusing vastness of Banjo-Tooie and I’ll never regret choosing Conker over Tooie all those years ago, despite being one of Banjo-Kazooie’s biggest fans!
It’s quite clear I’m a Conker fan, and how this made its way into the N64 in the form it did I still can’t quite believe. It’s very Rare-esque with its humour, just dialled right up!
I still recall this having a room full of students in hooked and in fits of laughter when played in single player at my school(!). I can recall very few games getting such a captive audience!
I agree with your thoughts on some of the gameplay issues. I recall the camera being frustrating at times, and despite most areas being fairly linear in nature there were a few times I couldn’t work out where I was going. It was so much about the variety and set pieces though.
I enjoyed the switch about halfway though as well, where it suddenly got a lot darker. All the time still not for kids, the first half felt more juvenile compared to the humour and tones of the second half. Would love to see this on NSO and a proper sequel at some point in the future.
I never really had any issues with the controls in CBFD. Yes, Conker isn’t as graceful to control as Banjo, but the levels are designed around his more limited moveset.
What CBFD doesn’t get enough credit for is just how many different styles and genres of gameplay are represented in this game. One moment it’s a 3D platformer, the next it’s a hoverboard racing game, then it turns into a 3D Tank Shooter and then into an over-the-shoulder 3rd person shooter (Long before RE4 popularised the format; hell, RE4 even stole CBFD’s laser sight! Let alone its camera perspective!)
There’s at least 6 entire game’s worth of gameplay mechanics and gameplay engines crammed in here. CBFD isn’t so much a 3D platformer as it is a huge mismash of different genres in one. It feels like a game that took 5 odd years to make, and that’s because it did! It is, without a doubt, the single most impressive game for the console from a design and technical perspective.
Anyway, I have to shout out the incredible Director’s Commentary series of gameplay videos put out by Chris Seavor around 10 odd years ago. Some really fun game design insight and a great laugh as you watch how shit he is at playing his own game 😀