Conker's Bad Fur Day
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| Conker's Bad Fur Day | |
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| Developer(s) | Rareware |
| Publisher(s) | Rareware THQ (Europe) |
| Engine | modified Banjo-Kazooie engine |
| Release date(s) |  March 5, 2001 April 6, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) ELSPA: 15+ OFLC: M OFLC (NZ): R16+ |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Media | 512Mb (64MB) cartridge |
| Input | Nintendo 64 Controller |
Conker's Bad Fur Day is a Nintendo 64 video game made by Rareware and Nintendo that was marketed as an "adult" platform game. It stars Conker the Squirrel, a Rare character who had previously appeared in other games marketed towards children, such as Diddy Kong Racing for the N64 and Conker's Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Color. Bad Fur Day featured scatological humor, cartoonish violence and a penchant for parodies. A remake of the game was made available on the Xbox in 2005 in the form of Conker: Live & Reloaded.
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[edit] Origins and controversy
Conker's Bad Fur Day was originally going to be titled Conker's Quest and was later titled Twelve Tails: Conker 64. Early screenshots suggested the game would feature cute characters and colorful settings. Rareware had a long history of making games of this sort, such as Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing, and at first Conker did not appear to be any different.
However, Rareware started to fear that the game would simply get lost in the platforming crowd, and critical mockery of 'yet another cute platformer' caused the original game to be drastically overhauled. When the announcement was made that Conker would be re-tooled into a "controversial" game with lots of scatological humor, many did not initially believe it, and assumed the press release was an April Fool's Day joke. However, as the months went on, the change quickly was understood to be very real and permanent. Inspired by South Park, the game's producer, Chris Seavor, lobbied to revamp the graphics and attitude, and it transformed into the Bad Fur Day. Seavor himself voiced Conker in this new version.
Even though this game did well in both the UK and US, it fared worse than expected, in part because of its prohibitively high cost and early 2001 release: a year later, the Nintendo 64 was discontinued after the release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, yielding to the new GameCube system.
Another factor was Nintendo's fear of controversy[citation needed]. Even though it was to be published by Rareware themselves, Nintendo felt that parents might accidentally buy the game because of the cartoon squirrel who had appeared in other games.
Nintendo of America refused to even acknowledge the game in their Nintendo Power publication, and all advertising was limited to late-night cable television and ads in Playboy. Neither of the two Conker games that Nintendo published (Conker's Pocket Tales and Bad Fur Day) are even mentioned on the Nintendo website, http://nintendo.com. Despite (or perhaps because of) everything working against it, the game has enjoyed a cult following, actually growing in popularity despite it being for an older console. Much of the gameplay in Conker's Bad Fur Day features parodies of various movies, including The Terminator, Reservoir Dogs, Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, The Untouchables, The Exorcist, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, Alien, Aliens, Full Metal Jacket, The Matrix, Jaws, and Saving Private Ryan (plus, the shouted out "save ferris" on the beach in the "It's War" level is obviously a spoof towards Ferris Bueller's Day Off), as well as games like Wolfenstein 3D and Sonic 2.
[edit] Special abilities and powers
[edit] Physical powers
Probably the most straightforward abilities of Conker's are physical. Being a squirrel, he can duck then jump a high distance vertically, as well as jump at least twice his height in any direction. Also, he can spin his tail around quickly like a helicopter for a few seconds. (Rather than give it an official-sounding name, as is the habit of moves in video games, Conker just calls it the "helicoptery-tail thing.") This allows him to jump a little higher, navigate in the air to accurately land, and slow his descent if he's far from the ground. After a few seconds, the tail slows down, and he drops and isn't able to do it again until he's landed and jumped again. Besides this, he has few other physical powers. He can swim underwater for a while until he runs out of breath, jog indefinitely and not get tired, and is strong enough to push heavy round objects, which in one of the later levels are a "big bourgeoisie boiler's brass bollocks".
[edit] Antigravity chocolate
Another aspect of Conker's powers comes from antigravity chocolate spread around the game. When eaten by Conker, they would refill one lost portion of health. In a parody of similar platformers with unexplained floating pickups throughout levels, they were originally created by the Professor, but he threw them out the castle window when he started a new project. Afterward, Conker could eat up to six of them. They're large pieces of chocolate about half the size of Conker that float and rotate in a stationary position. There are two types of chocolate; regenerative chocolate and one-time chocolate. One-time chocolate disappears after eaten, and doesn't re-appear until Conker exits then re-enters the world. Regenerative chocolate re-appears 10 seconds after being eaten, apparently out of thin air. Antigravity chocolate does not provide protection against certain things, such as falls from especially high heights, being severed in two by spinning blades, or being dismembered in a grinder. However, it does protect against being hit with a heavy object from above, such as a large dollop of poo.
[edit] Context Zones
These usually activate on "B-button pads", and sometimes while Conker is in mid-air. However, they are always evident by a light bulb appearing above Conker's head with a "ting!" noise and can be activated by a press of the B button. Conker can do things he couldn't normally do outside Context Zones; he usually pulls a far-too-big thing out of his far-too-small pocket, although sometimes he turns into an anvil and slams into the ground. B-button pads under barrels of beer can give him "drunken" abilities as well (He is able to stagger around and urinate). Although most Context Zones only work once, some can be used more than once, or even indefinitely. However, most of the context zones lose their purpose after being utilized, even if they are continuously usable.
[edit] Graphics and sound
When Conker's Bad Fur Day was released, many publications and websites considered the graphics to be the best to date on the N64 (even better than Perfect Dark's) (see IGN Review, GameSpot Review). The game featured dynamic shadowing (shadows stretch and skew depending on nearby light sources), colored lighting, and more. Though these graphics techniques were not completely unheard of at the time, they were still fairly new to video games. The game also featured large areas with a large draw distance and no distance fog, a rarity among Nintendo 64 games. Conker's Bad Fur Day also featured detailed facial animations including lip synching. Again, this wasn't the first game to do so, but at the time, the vast majority of 3D games had characters with completely static or minimally animated faces. Also some characters had individually rendered fingers rather than the standard "brick." In short, Conker's Bad Fur Day featured a number of technical effects that gamers were not yet used to seeing. Though for all of these graphical effects, the game did suffer from some frame rate drops.
Developer Rareware had a close relationship with Nintendo and they are known for squeezing out as much performance as possible from a console. Conker's Bad Fur Day was one of the last games published for the Nintendo 64; Rare had all of their previous developing experience from 10 published Nintendo 64 games going into the project. So perhaps it's not surprising that Conker's Bad Fur Day is considered to be one of the best-looking Nintendo 64 games technology-wise.
Also notable was the game's large and diverse vocal track, which easily rivaled that of other N64 titles which were well-known in this regard, such as Star Fox 64.
[edit] Ports
In 2005, it was re-released on the Microsoft Xbox as Conker: Live & Reloaded. This game features improved graphics, a whole new multiplayer designed for a Live-enabled campaign, Xbox Live support. Despite selling well the first week of its release, it fared worse than its predecessor, with many gamers voicing their disappointment that it was just a port (rather than a whole new Conker game). In the game, there is a "port" joke quipped by Conker, who says that he thought Live and Reloaded was just a straight port and not simply a "hack" (referring to the dupe pulled on him by the game's developer during the training level). Another disappointment was that the single player game was censored, with bleeps covering the words "shit", "twat" and "fellatio" (which was not used in its proper context), which were present in the original N64 version. This port proved to be a costly commercial failure.
[edit] Levels (Chapters)
The opening scene shows Conker as an angry king, sitting miserably on a throne with a cup of milk in his hand. The throne is surrounded by a number of bizarre characters. Conker tells the audience that it is a long story and starts telling the tale from the beginning. The opening is a parody of the classic film, A Clockwork Orange, right down to the music which is the theme from the movie.
The next scene shows Berri, Conker's shapely girlfriend, doing aerobics. Someone is calling her on the phone, but she does not notice because of her earphones. The person on the line is actually Conker, who explains that he is coming home late because the soldiers are going off to war the next day and want him to go drinking with them. In the next scene, he's so drunk that he throws up on the way out of the Cock & Plucker bar and staggers off down the path opposite the way home.
- Hungover: In this chapter, Conker finds himself completely hungover and enervated. He must deal with a scarecrow called Birdy and a gargoyle that blocks his path. This stage serves mainly as a tutorial.
- Windy: This chapter serves as a sort of overworld; most levels are accessed through Windy. The area receives its name from the large windmill in the center. A large portion of Windy is Poo Mountain, an enormous pile of excrement where the Liverpudlian dungbeetles live. Other habitants of this area include wasps and the queen bee.
- Barn Boys: This chapter is a large barn and the surrounding area. Inside the barn, Conker may find a sentient pitchfork, Frankie, bullied by a paint pot and a paintbrush. Other characters found in this stage include an evil robot designed to look like a haystack (a parody of the The Terminator movies), the king bee, and a sunflower with large breasts ("stigmas").
- Bats Tower: In this level, Conker is asked to help a school of blue-blooded catfish retrieve their fortune from a safe guarded by a bullfish. The bulk of the level takes place inside the vast safe. Characters encountered a cog with multiple personalities, his female companions, fire demons, and a "bourgeois big-bollocked boiler".
- Sloprano: This stage takes place inside Poo Mountain. It opens with a cutscene of one of the Liverpudlian dungbeetles telling Conker about a thing "that just came outta the shite" and "there's some money up there if you can be arsed gettin it". this stage is mainly a battle between Conker and The Great Mighty Poo, a sentient pile of feces who sings a scatological operetta while flinging poo at Conker. Conker must defeat him by throwing giant rolls of toilet paper in his mouth. The stage also holds a giant pipe similar to a garbage disposal and a pair of weasels that Conker must bribe his way past.
- Uga Buga: This stage is a prehistoric-themed world filled with dinosaurs, cavemen, and stone creatures. The stage is quite vast and includes a nightclub, a shrine to a dinosaur statue, a lava flow-boarding course, and a stadium similar to the colosseum, where Conker tames a velociraptor and battles a giant caveman.
- Spooky: This stage largely takes place inside the house of one of Conker's vampiric ancestors, Count Conkula (as seen on his grave, although the level is called 'Count Batula'- referring to Conker in his Bat form). Conkula's appearance and actions are directly based on the film Bram Stoker's Dracula. Here Conker is transformed into a bat by his 300-year-old ancestor, and must fetch villagers for nourishment for Count Conkula. After Conkula dies from overeating, Conker returns to normal, but must fight a sudden influx of zombies with his trusty shotgun to escape.
- It's War: This level involves Conker infiltrating and attacking the Tediz, an army of malevolent teddy bears, in a parody of Saving Private Ryan. Conker progresses through the inside of the Tediz base, killing hundreds of the stuffed bears and rescuing Private Rodent. Conker barely manages to get out alive when a psychotic puppet activates self-destruct and destroys the base.
- Heist: This level parodies The Matrix. Conker and Berri are asked to infiltrate the Feral Reserve Bank. After fighting their way through a recreation of the famous lobby scene, they encounter the Panther King, and the final boss, an alien named Heinrich inspired by the movie Alien.
[edit] Multiplayer
A fan favorite in regards to multiplayer, Conker's Bad Fur Day featured several different forms of multiplayer. When Conker: Live and Reloaded was released, however, most of the multiplayer types were eliminated, a fact which caused some grief among fans.
- Death Match: A standard kill-everyone-else round, determinable by time or amount of lives. Can be played in every multiplayer arena (except Race, Tank) and also a unique-to-this-variant arena called Bunker, which features several traps and special areas.
- War: Features the Squirrels-Tediz war which is noted in the single-player game. The basis of this was upgraded in Conker: Live and Reloaded, becoming the only multiplayer function in that game. Divided into two portions.
- Total War: The Squirrels and Tediz have occupied two sides of a symmetrical fortress, which features sniper towers and a sewer level. Using a poison gas canister, the objective is to kill as many of the opposition as humanly possible, within the time limit or until their lives run out. The poison gas isn't essential, but advisable.
- Colors: A more conventional style also referred to as Capture the Flag. Once again, both forces have taken up a side of the battlefield, though it is now asymmetrical (though the bases are the same in architectural design), and the aim is to steal the enemy flag from their base and escape to your own.
- Heist: Don Weaso from the game continuity is organising a heist from the bank (just like in the game continuity) with four coloured teams involved. The opening cutscene heavily parodies Reservoir Dogs, right up to the naming of the four weasels he enlists to pull off the job: Mr. Blue, Mr. Red, Mr. Yellow and Mr. Green. Although really a four-person every-man-for-himself game, it can also be modified to two weasels on each team. The teams infiltrate the poorly-guarded vault and attempt to steal the moneybag. As each colour wants to please the boss, the teams are pitted against each other.
- Raptor: The cavemen are in the mood for raptor eggs, and the raptors are in the mood for fresh caveman. Owing to the obvious advantage, the raptor team can only have a maximum of two raptors, whereas the cavemen can have a team of up to eight.
- Beach: The Frenchies (squirrels) are attempting to get to Paris, but the Tediz have the coast guarded. The Colors map is changed, with the squirrel base replaced by a beach. The Frenchies must get to the tunnels under the Tediz base within 90 seconds each to remain safe; when the time limit expires, they get hit by a laser beam. The Tediz goal is simple: kill Frenchies. And they have an arsenal for it as well: Turret Gun, Bazooka and Sniper Rifle. The only way for the Frenchies to dispatch their enemies is the dynamite plunger, located where the bazooka is in Colours.
- Race: Similar to the Race portion of the single player game, each player must navigate the lava river on the floating surfboards and cross the finish line first. Hitting each other with weapons is perfectly suitable, as is the various upgrades (missiles and nitro-boosts) spread around the course.
- Tank: The only multiplayer variant to feature the tank, each player must drive around and kill each other. Similar to Total War is the poison gas option, and similar to Race is the various upgrades around the course.
[edit] Voice cast
- Chris Seavor .... Conker the Squirrel, The Fairy Panther King, Prof. Von Kripelsac (Ze Proffessor),Mr. King Bee, Gregg the Grim Reaper, Carl/Quentin, The Army Captain, Franky, Paint, Brush, Birdy, The Cheese, The Sweet Corn, Rodent, The Big Big Guy, Don Weaso, Fajo the Money, Gargoyle, Jack, Marvin, Buga The Knut, Count "Conkula" Batula, The Fire Imps, Haybot, Wayne & the Wankas, (All Male Voices except for The Great Mighty Poo)
- Louise Ridgeway .... Berri, Jugga,Mrs. Queen Bee, Marta, Mrs. Sunflower, The Tedi Experiment, (All Female Voices)
- Chris Marlow.... The Great Mighty Poo
[edit] Trivia
- The original ending was going to involve Conker walking up to a mirror in the pub, bursting into tears, pulling out a gun and aiming it at his head. The screen would fade out, and a gunshot would be heard. This ending was dumped because "It didn't spot much for a sequel." This is ironic, because when Chris Seavor was asked about a new Conker game, he said it would focus entirely on the SHC/Tediz war, and Conker would be killed off in the first scene.[citation needed]
- The game's soundtrack won the 2001 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for sound.
- The bizarre request for "Mepsipax" by Birdy, is an inside joke at Rare. A R&R worker nick-named Beardy, named after his immense facial hair, was known for having a penchant for Pepsi Max. To avoid copyright infringement, Rare changed it to Mepsipax. Birdy's manner of speech is also derived from him.
- The game had heavy ratings around the world, but the Australian version had a mild M15+ rating making it unrestricted. It also had a different warning on the front cover to other countries.
- In the strategy book printed by Nintendo Power, a joke was made about the content in the game through an unanswered question in the end of the book, encouraging people to be able to decipher the video game ratings system. Alongside a picture of a stick figure of Conker 'thinking' of a stick outline of his head with eyelashes and an angel halo, the question asked, "I thought this game/guide would be about a cute little squirrel. Why is it so disgusting?" The answer: "Place the box underneath a light source. Look for the "M" rating and the phrase "Not intended for anyone under the age of 17". If you cannot see it, buy glasses."
- Nearly every shot in the scene where Conker and the Army Squirrels reach the Teddy Bear's base on the beach references to the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.
- On the Windy chapter, the large, old box which jumps around, has the print "Made in Twycross". Twycross is where Rare is located.
[edit] Cameos
- Banjo and Kazooie can both be found in the Cock & Plucker at the beginning of the game. Banjo's head is mounted above the fireplace much like a hunter's trophy and Kazooie's head has been made into the handle of an umbrella found in a closet.
- The missile the Haybot boss fires looks very similar to Armydillo's missiles in Donkey Kong 64.
- The alien boss at the end of the game makes the same sounds as Fulgore from Killer Instinct when Conker hits it.
- If you leave the controller idle, sometimes Conker will get out his Game Boy and play Killer Instinct.
- In Donkey Kong 64, there is a poster with Berri in it found on the ceiling in a bedroom.
[edit] External links
- Germany-based web site centering around Conker's Bad Fur Day and Conker: Live and Reloaded.
- Conker's Bad Fur Day on GameFAQs.
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Conker series
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Conker's Pocket Tales • Conker's Bad Fur Day • Conker: Live & Reloaded |
| Banjo-Kazooie games | Banjo-Kazooie • Banjo-Tooie • Grunty's Revenge • Banjo-Pilot • Banjo-Kazooie 3 |
|---|---|
| Battletoads games | Battletoads • Battletoads (Game Gear) • Battletoads & Double Dragon • Battletoads in Battlemaniacs • Super Battletoads |
| Conker games | Conker's Pocket Tales • Conker's Bad Fur Day • Conker: Live & Reloaded |
| Donkey Kong games | Donkey Kong Country / Land • Donkey Kong Country 2 (GBA) / Land 2 • Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) / Land III • Donkey Kong 64 • Diddy Kong Racing (DS) |
| Perfect Dark games | Perfect Dark (GBC) • Perfect Dark Zero |
| Killer Instinct games | Killer Instinct • Killer Instinct 2 • Killer Instinct Gold |
| Sabreman games | Sabre Wulf (GBA) • Underwurlde • Knight Lore • Pentagram • Mire Mare |
| Jetman games | Jetpac (Refuelled) • Lunar Jetman • Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship |
| Other games | Blast Corps • GoldenEye 007 • Jet Force Gemini • Star Fox Adventures • Grabbed by the Ghoulies • Kameo: Elements of Power • Viva Piñata • It's Mr. Pants |
