Conker's Bad Fur Day is a Pioneer of Comedic Storytelling in Games

Conker’s Bad Fur Day - Commentary and Critique by MikeTheCavemann.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day: released March 5th, 2001, developed by Rareware, early stages of its development showed signs of the game being nothing more than a child friendly platformer at the time known as Twelve Tales: Conker 64. Nearing the end of its development, was deemed too similar to many of the other platforming adventure games being released. There after it laid dormant. That is, until Chris Seavor brought forward the idea of re-working the game into the alcohol infused, foul mouthed debauchery we received instead. Due to the game being barely marketed, and releasing towards the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifecycle, Conker’s Bad Fur Day underperformed in sales and was considered a commercial failure.
But poor sales doesn’t necessarily mean a game is bad. Conker’s Bad Fur Day is considered by many to be an absolute classic, and a staple of the Nintendo 64. So, let’s take an in depth look at the story, gameplay mechanics, and the humor of it all to and see for ourselves.
I'm playing the Rare Replay, Xbox One version of the game. In my experience it’s essentially no different from the 64 version other than having a cleaner resolution, faster load times, and a smoother frame rate. The only downside is that the game is missing the iconic intro of Conker chain sawing the N64 logo in half. I also won’t really be mentioning the remake, 2005’s Conker’s Live and Reloaded as in my opinion it is the inferior version and really not worth bringing up. Instead I’m focusing solely on the original release.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a game that you can play over and over and still have a fun time with. And a lot of that is attributed to the hilarious characters we met along the way. As well as the funny cutscenes, witty dialogue, excellent voice acting, and the constantly changing game mechanics. Throughout the story, the game is never afraid to try something new and then discard it once it’s served its purpose. Sure there’s sections of repetition, but the game makes up for it with its stronger moments. It manages to do so much in such a short time. We rode pitchforks, we rode bulls, we pissed on imps, we pissed on rock men. We rode hover boards, we rode dinosaurs. We shot at zombies, we shot at Tediz. We robbed scarecrows, and we robbed weasels. A few times actually. The variety of gameplay really is amazing, and it’s what keeps me coming back to this game again and again. And aside from a couple of jokes, most of the humor has aged really well.
The creator of Conker, Chris Seavor has stated he’s no longer interested in making a Conker sequel and has moved onto other things. Which is understandable. But man do I still hunger for another adventure with our favorite red squirrel. Maybe some day. Maybe some day.
So what do you think? Is Conker’s Bad Fur Day a masterpiece? Is it overrated? Or something in between? Let me know down on the comments. This is my first video I've done like this on this channel, but there’s gonna be more long form game critiques coming shortly. So if that’s your thing feel free to subscribe! Thanks for watching, and I’ll see ya!
Time Stamps:
0:00 Introduction - History of Conker
2:13 Beginning and Hungover
6:30 Windy I
8:39 Barnboys
15:00 Windy II
18:56 Bats Tower
26:54 Sloprano
30:27 Blades and Death
32:24 Uga Buga
40:31 Windy III
41:54 Spooky
47:00 It's War
59:25 The Heist
1:03:40 The End

[@cyberen]

Honestly anyone interested in the game should play it first, the ridiculous setpieces and cinematics are the reward for what you do in the game.

[@juliac1146]

It was a great game and you didn't even get the chance to touch on the multiplayer. We played lots of 4-player Heist, War, and Deathmatch multiplayer...very fun.

[@MikeTheCavemann]

Thank you. I was thinking about making another video talking about the multiplayer. Lots of good memories.

[@laserdollars2018]

​@MikeTheCavemann my biggest disappointment in the re-make was changing up multilayer.

[@kevlarburnswell7060]

The game was great. Played single player with friends watching cause it was just entertaining. Multi-player was 4 player smoke show of a good time.

[@shyhoshark]

lol 556 6

[@penguiin12]

funny review, i loved this game so so so much as a kid especially the multiplayer