Game Debate #85: Conker's Bad Fur Day

[Reed Rothchild | 9,586]

[JamesRobot | 5,834]

Never played it. 

[DarkTone | 988]

9. Game is incredible. 

[DefaultGen | 5,434]

I was too scared to attempt to buy this as a kid because of the disclaimer on the box so I ended up with Forsaken 64 like an idiot.

[Hammerfestus | 3,884]

My brother had a copy of this when we were teenagers.  I used to make him play the death match with me for hours.  I Very enjoyable.  I don’t really even remember the story mode.  8.

[AstralSoul | 503]

The single funniest game I've ever played. Conker is one of, if not my favorite characters of all time. I love the creativity that went into it and though the controls arent the best, it's one of those games I replay annually because I love it so much. An absolute 10/10.

[peg | 372]

I have to say this is one of the very, very fucking few n64 games I'd consider playing.

[OptOut | 8,892]

4 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I was too scared to attempt to buy this as a kid because of the disclaimer on the box so I ended up with Forsaken 64 like an idiot.

I prefer Forsaken...

 

Probably gonna get destroyed for this comment, but I DON'T rate Conker too highly, tbh. I appreciate the ideas in the game, the heart and the effort. But it's really a hogde-podge, gameplay-wise. The core platforming is average, certainly not anywhere near DK64 or the Banjo games, and it doesn't really last that long before the game devolves into a variety of gameplay styles that you never QUITE have enough time with to truly get the hang of.

As for the writing, I find it abrasive and offensive, but not in the good way. It's tired and juvenile. 

7/10

[Tanooki | 4,952]

This one I give a high mark of 9, the game here is short of a 10 as it's not perfect, but wow did Rare ever go out with a bang on the N64 with Conker.  Rare for me was a little taboo, outside of their FPS efforts on the system for one simple reason -- overkill collectathon style platforming which got worse by the release into the utterly asinine culmination of DK64.  DK64 a game where you had to re-run the same courses 5x over(per kong) to really clear it going through many depths of overkill accumulation to then up and do it again, and again, and again per stage.  Nothing new for them it's what for me dragged down Banjo.  But watching Conker develop over time, it strangely seemed while earlier focused on that, when they went with a unique shift toward edgy it dropped.  And boy did it ever on both counts.

Rare proved they could make an utterly insane platforming adventure game with real true personality with layers of fun, humor, utter depravity all at the same time.  And they did it while not having to make a shorter game that felt big because you got stuck with an ever increasing amount of crap to collect per stage to open another door to wash rinse and repeat.  The game has years of development starts and restarts behind it, but largely also years of learning from non-failed projects too and it paid off.  The mechanics of the gameplay, the controls, the camera, stage design are just so fun, welcoming, and well designed it's a joy to play ...and without collecting a migraine from being a re-run.  A nice fluid game that moved from stage to stage, challenge to challenge, coupled with one of the most unique character game personalities ever... a warped mind of a squirrel who seems to be a mix of disney meets future schitzo Underwood from House of Cards, and a heavy touch of some WTF Ren & Stimpy type moments rolled into one...and it works, well, even when clearly aping prime movies of the era (Matrix, Private Ryan, etc.)

There's little bad about the game, nothing I can honestly call out at large to make a point.  A few little rough areas, as those styles of games can always have a few little hang ups, it's unavoidable, but it really is just that good.  The game even had these amazing tech moments of the era where people would make claims n64 couldn't do this or that, it's too much for it, yet it did... moving fur, independent eyes from the head, and other little fine touches that make the character really come to life.  It's a horrible shame the game never got a good sequel and then got lost to time, even the 360 era remake ended up as crap too.

[Gloves | 11,839]

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

I prefer Forsaken...

 

Probably gonna get destroyed for this comment, but I DON'T rate Conker too highly, tbh. I appreciate the ideas in the game, the heart and the effort. But it's really a hogde-podge, gameplay-wise. The core platforming is average, certainly not anywhere near DK64 or the Banjo games, and it doesn't really last that long before the game devolves into a variety of gameplay styles that you never QUITE have enough time with to truly get the hang of.

As for the writing, I find it abrasive and offensive, but not in the good way. It's tired and juvenile. 

7/10

Tired and juvenile today, to be sure, but at the time of release it was a different story. 

I found the most enjoyment out of the game in the multiplayer. It has easily the most varied and engaging MP of any game on the console. 

That said, I too really like Forsaken (and especially, again, the multiplayer).

[Brickman | 4,014]

Currently playing it for the N64 challenge. It’s not too bad so far but hasn’t excited me compared to other N64 games.

I actually owned it on release but funnily enough only ever played the multiplayer, which was a lot of fun.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

I could play the Multi-player for days on end. There's something about hacking up Nazi Teddy Bears up with a giant sword that never gets old. The story mode had that Earthbound effect. The gameplay wasn't anything special, but the storyline and presentation was just so interesting and out there you needed to play on just to see what happened next.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Never played it, but I'd be interested. However, since I really didn't enjoy SM64... how does the camera and platforming hold up in 2022?

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

Never played it, but I'd be interested. However, since I really didn't enjoy SM64... how does the camera and platforming hold up in 2022?

Not great like you would expect. There's a part where you weild a shotgun that I remember the camera being the worst enemy. That being said, there isn't a whole lot of extreme platforming and it's more story driven than anything. I would say it holds up better than most 3d platformers of the day.

[a3quit4s | 4,126]

I should really play more of my N64 games

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

9/10 didn’t even know this game existed until I started collecting N64 in 2012. Instantly fell in love with it. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Never played it, but I'd give it a shot.

[MegaMan52 | 2,461]

I've played (and have) the majority of N64 games from Rare, but Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of the few I haven't played yet. I was a bit too young to play it when it was released, but I was aware of it. I played a lot of Diddy Kong Racing, so I knew who Conker was. I remember the commercial for the game only played at night. Yes, I stayed up long enough to watch it. I remember the drunk squirrel shown near the end of the commercial.

I found the game at a video store. I saw the M rating and knew I couldn't rent it, but that didn't prevent me from looking at the front and back of the box. I instantly thought "Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, but with a drunk squirrel and lots of blood and swearing. I'll play it someday."

Over twenty years later, I still haven't played it. I probably should've bought it about ten or so years ago. but there were way too many other games I wanted to buy in the last decade. I haven't forgotten about it, though, and will buy it eventually.

Edited January 26, 2022 by MegaMan52

[MrPeaPod | 121]

It's one of my favorite single player N64 games. The game genuinely made me laugh and the multiplayer is a great time

[Brickman | 4,014]

I know this is well past now but I finished it off today and I have to say I ended up loving this game.

I think Tanooki really summed up the game well but I’ll add a few thoughts.

Initially I found the game to be meh. Fun but nothing that really grabbed me and I found the poo humour to be very uninspired. I know it was going for that juvenile humour but it’s never been my thing.

I pushed on through and once I hit the dinosaur world it really started to hit its stride. I hated the night club scene and lava surfing though.

But from there on it never let up with its fantastic adventure and the writing became really solid and enjoyable.

The ending was absolutely amazing to me and something I didn’t see coming at all.

Spoiler

Killing off Conker’s girlfriend and the panther king being infected by an Alien was amazing. Then breaking the fourth wall with the programmer interacting with Conker blew my mind. That was some really brave writing especially on a Nintendo console.

I went with a 9 because it does have a few short comings for me.

The money brick wall sucked but thankfully I had collected it all. Some areas were just unnecessarily a battle with the camera like the blades area and the lasers in the bunkers. The first half really dragged for me. And as mentioned the night club scene really frustrated me.

Very minor things overall and some may not find as faults, but it killed some momentum for me.

And of course the multi player is still very well done, even after all these years.

[CMR | 522]

Great game.  It starts out kind of slow and tedious, but ultimately sucks you in.  I just wish it had a better frame rate.

[Webhead123 | 687]

Still haven't played it but it was on my backlog challenge from last year and eluded me, so I'm putting it near the top this time. In fact, I might end up starting it this evening, if all goes well.

[Sumez | 2,994]

I'm scared of replaying this today - As is well established, I don't subscribe to the idea that games "age" well or poorly, it's only your own perception that does. But Conker's Bad Fur Day is definitely a major contender for a game that might have blinded me in its context.

It's a game that tries to do everything, while doing none of them particularly well. It starts out reminiscent of a colorful 3D platformer, but almost every single setpiece throws in completely different approaches, often veering off into different genres entirely. And overall, the game's biggest draw is clearly the raunchy humor which at the time felt like quite a heel turn for Nintendo, and cemented the game as a solid counter-argument to the misconception that Nintendo's platforms are all about baby games.

Now, that humor of course is veering very heavily into cringeworthy "edgy teenager" territory, and I was barely 20 myself when the game first came out, so I was of course right in the core audience.
But as I recall it - and full disclaimer, I haven't played the game in nearly 15 years - Rare's uniquely british humor is generally a tad above simply being "edgy", and generally tends to be self aware enough that they can get away with some pretty stupid slapstick. So my impression is that it probably holds up better than it "should", but I really do need to replay it.

Overall, it's a game that's a mish mash of all sorts of things, and relies on probably being more than the sum of its part, simply due to how out there most of it is. At the time I loved how strange it was for a video game to be like this, and even though it's been a while, I've actually replayed it multiple times, and played through the remake which I personally enjoyed just as much.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Not a bad commentary to be fair.  I think the game was out in 2000 right?  I was done with college by that point and even then it had cringe moments like the great and mighty poo or the tiddies/bees puns.  What got it for me though, behavior aside for a moment, was the fact it had that same rare magic their other previous platforming adventure games did.  Large worlds, great control, very nice audio, all around solid mechanics -- while lacking one grating pain in the ass thing... overkill collect-a-thon mechanics.  The big problem they had, making you collect 10 of these 1000 of those to open a door to wash rinse repeat...that sucks, false garbage to make a game longer than it should be overstaying it's welcome.  Conker instead relied on a consistent narrative and solid mechanics the other games had without making you linger forever in each place, so the pace was faster, more fun, and kept you motivated.