Retro Review: Conker’s Bad Fur Day (Nintendo 64)

At the time, Rareware was known for making a lot of cutsey platformers like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64.  So you can imagine they were working on another one.  Just as Banjo was taken out of Diddy Kong Racing and given his own game, the same deal happend with Conker.  This cute, cuddly squirrel was given a game full of sunshine, rainbows, and happiness targeted at children.

Here is what Conker’s Quest originally looked like when it was a kids game.

The game went through multiple names changes.  One day it was called Twelve Tales: Conker 64.  Another time it was called Conker’s Quest.  Eventually, people stopped hearing about this game.  Things went silent.  People figured maybe the game was just cancelled.  That was until Rareware showed was what going on behind closed doors.  Rareware felt Conker was just becoming like every other cutesy cartoony platformer and wanted to change things up a bit.  The game was now called “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” and it was now an M rated game with sex jokes, vulgar language, and graphic violence.  At first, people thought that Rareware just playing a joke on their fans.  Rareware is known to do that.  Those British people have an interesting sense of humor.   Rareware revealed a trailer that showed this was no sick joke, and that Rareware was dead serious about going into this direction.

Here is the trailer for the M rated “Conker’s Bad Fur Day”.  As you can see, it’s a parody of Saving Private Ryan.  Instead of nazis, they have bear nazi’s called Tediz.

Not crazy enough?  Did I mention you can urinate/piss on enemies?

Oh and come hear the Great Mighty Poo sing.

Watch a sunflower with big breasts get pollinated

Nintendo and Rareware weren’t really sure what type of commercials to release for this game.  They didn’t want to send the wrong message and make parents think this was a kids game with all the pretty colors.  SO here’s a commercial they ran late night when the kiddies were tucked away at night.

Final Thoughts: Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a cult classic.  It has some of the best graphics ever seen on the Nintendo 64 and they were able to pull it off without that emulator pack.  It was full of hilariously raunchy moments, great sound, great controls, and jam packed with gameplay.  Also the multiplayer kicked a lot of ass.  There are so many different type of modes for multiplayer to enjoy.  And if you’re a movie buff, you’ll enjoy all the satiracle references to movies such as Alien, The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula, and much, much more.

Rating:  10 out of 10.