Before we begin, we are talking about Mature Rated games, while I'll be trying to keep this segment family friendly, reader discretion is still advised...
I don't know about you, But I love the 3D Platformer, It was the #1 genre of the N64, My favorite console of all time. It had games like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot 1-3, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Spyro 1-3, Croc 1 & 2, Ape Escape Series, Banjo-Kazooie series, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank series, Sly Cooper Series, Donkey Kong 64, heck I have fond memories of That Toy Story 2 game that always was a tad bit hard at times for me (then again I was 6 at the time and the pinnacle of my gamer life was Kirby 64), I even have nostalgia for games you wouldn't exacly consider Traditional Platformers like the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series (think about it for more than a rash reaction with Picard from Star Trek: Next generation facepalming with a cutesy poo "I'll just leave this here...") and Super Monkey Ball. But one game satnds out as one of the most interesting and one of my favorite Rareware games of all time, That was the deconstruction of the genre known as Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Conker was the other game forshadowed in Diddy Kong Racing, along with Banjo Kazooie. Twelve Tales: Conker 64 (Originally titled Conker's Quest), was your average cutesy platformer aimed at a younger audience. Originally intended for the Nintendo 64DD, then moved to the regular 64 after the delays and eventual failure of the DD. You had to gather presents scattered across four worlds by Hoodlums, a wizard who placed them across four worlds which we don't know that much about since the game was canned before release. But Pictures and video exist of the greens, Roman/Greek based areas, the Wild Wild West, Ice Worlds, Dinosaur Worlds, and worlds based off of medieval times... It's unknown how they might be connected, but the original game seems to be lost in time, or lost in the depths of collectors collections, one known copy of this canceled game is known to exist, but it's been going in the hands of different collectors over time. In 2012, there was 30 minutes of gameplay of the game, and it looks amazing...
The game even had a tie in for the Game Boy Color known as Conker's Pocket Tales, it wasn't well received. Despite fans waiting for Twelve Tales to come out, The Game received some flak from gaming publications, websites, and the higher ups of both Rare and the Big N for being yet another cutesy platformer, not unlike the hundreds of others on the N64 and PS1. In 1999 the game was scraped, and built again from the ground up with more raunchy humor, extreme violence, sexual situations, and featured a drunk squirrel who was the Conker that was in Diddy Kong Racing. Yeah, I wonder how that would turn out if Diddy Kong, Banjo, and the Others knew, but this was presented as a different universe than in Banjo, Donkey Kong, or even the Mario Expanded universe.
Conker's Bad Fur Day was released to the public on March of 2001, and what a bad time for release that was (more on that later). Conker gets hung over after a night of drinking with his friends, and goes into the land of the Panther King. he goes through many scenarios and areas, like a Farm, a Mounatin of Poo (really, Three guesses who the boss is), a Vampire Mansion, a War Zone, a Prehistoric Land, an Abandoned Tower, and a heist parodying The Matrix, and also Alien. Yeah that's one of the main draws of the game, It has pop culture references up the ass, It had gross out, perverted humor, and extreme violence. You also got a really great multiplayer mode, arguably one of the best the N64 had to offer, Deathmatch, Tanks, Raptors, Racing, and so much more... The critics loved the game, for it's raunchy and mean spirited humor (a la South Park), it's incredible multiplayer (whereas other platform games on the 64 had average at best multiplayer), excellent graphics, amazing voice acting (almost what you'd hear on a PS1 game), and varied styles of play. It wasn't all peaches and daisies, retailers refused to carry it for it's audience confusion, Nintendo Power didn't acknowledge it's existence until late in the magazine's life, advertising was only in places very few kids would be able to see without getting smacked upside the head (not that they should be playing this, but still), and it was unluckily released months before the Gamecube was released, all these factors caused the game to flop when it was initially released. this game does have a dedicated cult following, and the game has became some what of a collectors item.
A sequel was planned for the gamecube, hopefully with better timing, but as we all know, Micro$h*t, bought Rare, and was forced to make games for the XBOX. In 2005, Ideas for this sequel were used in the proposed remake of the Original, Live & Uncut, later retitled to Live & Reloaded for reasons we'll get to in a bit...
It was the same game as the original, but with tweaks to make sure it wasn't an enhanced port. Prettier graphics, aesthetic changes, less options, more censorship, wait, what? Yeah, in some areas it was enhanced, but it was watered down in others. the games still seen favorable reviews for its online, and better graphics, but a lot felt like it wasn't the same experience. The game had more words bleeped out, which is why the changed it from Uncut (which it was originally going to be), to Reloaded. I have a theory on the matter and it's just a theory, so don't get upset if i get my facts wrong. Conker BFD was borderline AO rated (Or Adults Only by the ESRB). and with games becoming more and more strict, Rare thought to censor out anything that was too extreme to b on the safe side. The game didn't sell well either, mainly due to the eventual release of the 360. That was pretty much the last we'll see of Conker for another decade.
At E3 2014, Conker was seen in a Project Spark trailer, He would later pop up in the Project Spark Add-on, Conker's Big Reunion. released in 2015, it had a simple plot that isn't worth mentioning, it didn't feel like a full game, because it wasn't, it was a episodic expansion pack for Project Spark. It is a better game for younger audiences, but it's just not a Conker Game. Yeah it's only a good game if you know what you're getting.
There is a possibility that we'll get a full on conker game if this DLC Pack sells well, but It's Microsoft Era Rare, So I don't really trust them right now, even after they tried to redeem themselves several times. That's all I got for now...
NEXT TIME:
Let's get a lil' more kid friendly with me talking about a lil' obscure series from the big N...
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