I hate how parents of the early 90's never looked at the rating of the game and just picked it up, expecting it to be kid stuff, then getting mad when its not.
I always wondered why the had a variety of british accents. Like cockney or northern and its evident with the use of words as well. It’s something american would never implement in voice acting
I’m American and was well into my 20s when I finally understood why JamJars’ “To bash Kazooie on her head, first press A and then press Z” didn’t rhyme.
It's actually pretty funny how Conker has this reputation of being foul mouthed when he never really swears at all in the game, it's more everyone around him. The closest he gets is saying "fellatio", which he immediately covers his mouth in embarrassment afterwards, and the Aliens references of "Get away from her, you bitch!" at the end. Great video, Matt! The history of Conker's Bad Fur Day has always fascinated me.
Yeah, now that you mention it... I wonder if that is a remnant of the inital pitch of a well meaning, innocent Conker accidentally making life worse for everyone, huh
There's another universe where Conker was a wholesome doofus with a colorful quirk or two, and where Banjo and Kazooie were basically Beavis and Butthead.
@@Oh-Ben i think the 6th generation ruined it and alot of games that came out that period played it either too safe or too boring, unoriginal at times and less replay value all the time.
@@MrDmoney156 Nah, there was a TON of experimentation going around in the 6th gen. There were a few problems that happened though. The first was that experimentation was shunned against by the public, as they wanted PS1/N64 games but with fancy new graphics. This is why games that went against what was established before (the biggest example being Zelda: Wind Waker) got such huge backlash. The second problem was that the game market was absolutely flooded with games, especially on the Playstation 2. You had licensed games everywhere around this time in addition to big new franchises like Ratchet & Clank and Devil May Cry, as well as old standbys like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy. Rental Services like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video were starting to get into trouble due to Netflix, and GameFly was still a relatively small venture around this time. The third was just getting the word out. Gaming as a hobby exploded thanks to the Playstation 2, and many, many gamers only wanted games that their friends thought was cool, or at least wouldn't get them labeled as kiddy, which is why we had that "everything must be colored brown or grey" era back in the day. The more experimental titles tended to only appeal to a very niche audience, so sales couldn't expand as much.
@@huntzxc Really? 7th generation was the wii, 360 and ps3. I feel like that generation was the last one that had developers being experimental with games. It's the 8th generation that ruined gaming. 7th generation was the most fun because there were a lot of games that were bad but still worth playing because they were memeable and charming because they were silly. Unlike the 8th and 9th generations because games were/are just simply buggy messes. 6th Generation: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube 7th Generation: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Conker is, to this day, probably my favorite N64 game. Me and my neighbours played it to death at arguably a far too young of an age and it forms not only a portion of my core memories, but is also directly responsible for helping "develop" my sense of humor around that time. It's basically the last time Rare really shone as a developer, but what a way to go out. We'll likely never get that follow up game, but somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, next to the filing cabinet that holds the entire Sloprano song is a dusty little hope that maybe, just maybe, we'll get one. One day..
I still remember the EGM news story on Conker's change in direction to a mature rated comedy. It happened to be in the April issue and I thought for sure it was that year's joke.
I remember being impressed by Conker's model in BFD way back when it came out. Articulated 3D mouth animations and individual digits on a character's hand (even if it's only one or two fingers) on a 64-bit platform?? It was genuine magic to me going into the next generation of consoles knowing that games could improve so much in five years for the same console.
It’s funny how Nintendo’s stance on M-rated games changed between the N64 and GameCube as an attempt to boost sales of the purple box. But, their past continued to haunt them, especially with how they treated Conker… Still, the Cube had some great M-rated games that were a staple of the console: Eternal Darkness, some Resident Evil games, and Killer 7.
I find kind of weird how Nintendo has struggled for almost three decades to distance themselves from a purely family-friendly image. Not completely though, their bread and butter still are games for everyone like Mario, Kirby, Pokémon and Animal Crossing, just to name a few, then you had others that have a certain edge like some Zeldas, Metroid, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, and also to encourage third-party developers to release more mature rated games It's pretty incredible that their reputation for censoring certain games during the NES and Super NES era, like Mortal Kombat, Final Fight and Final Fantasy, still haunts them. Specially considering that during the N64 era they tried to capture a more teenage and adult audience with FPS and sports games As you said, during the GameCube and also the Wii and WiiU eras Nintendo got plenty of games with mature themes, but even to these days people are surprised that games like Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein and Dead or Alive Extreme 3 got released on the Switch Heck, even people on the industry seem to believe that, a producer at Warner Bros. Games said they were unsure to release Mortal Kombat 11 on the Switch because of its violent content, despite the fact that almost all Nintendo consoles before the Switch got a Mortal Kombat games released on them, and ever since MKII on the SNES they kept the violence intact
I’m more amazed how Nintendo has managed to keep its family-friendly image mostly-intact despite now encouraging the presence of M-rated games like Bayonetta on their console.
This game is just beautiful. I remember booting it up back in the day, being hit in the face with a squirrel spoofing A Clockwork Orange, and thinking "Ok. I'm in." 🥰
Not gonna lie, the beginning of the Killer Instinct arcade intro, the one where the narrator belts out the "Nintendo Ultra 64" line, is still one of the best intro moments in any arcade game. Everything about that just hits.
Every 3D game ever made took some inspiration from Mario 64, but I can't even imagine what it must have been like for Miyamoto and his small team to develop Mario 64 "from scratch" with no other reference material to look at. It must have been a creative hell for months, specially figuring out how a camera in a 3D enviroment should work.
Even Kingdom Hearts was an attempt to cash in on the success of Mario 64, with the crossover aspect being the result of sheer coincidence, as Square and Disney shared a building at the time, and two of their employees met on the escalator. Interestingly, both Square and Disney felt that, to have any chance of success in the crowded realm of mascot platformers, they'd have to use an iconic Disney character. Square wanted to use Mickey, but EA had the video game rights to him and Disney wanted Donald Duck to be the protagonist. It was a character designer for Square who suggested an original character: a furry with a chainsaw. This of course got dialed back to be a kid with a giant key, but the character designer was put in charge of the project as a whole. Back to the original point, the Mario 64 inspiration still kinda shows in the scattered platforming segments in the first game and the idiosyncratic control scheme, combining Mario 64's combo system with the combat menu of Final Fantasy.
I still have a shirt packed away somewhere I got for pre-ordering Conker. It has Conker passed out with his face in a toilet and it says "Shh! Conker's taking a nap" below it
My mom wasn't rly paying attention and bought this game for me and my brother who were about 10 and 12 years old respectively. We had an absolute FIELD DAY playing this game start to finish ENRAPTURED by the adult humor and tbh I have nothing but fond memories of all the ridiculous shit (no pun intended) that happens in it. My favorite part was pissing on people in the nightclub HAHA
Ha my mom did the same thing (I think I was 11 or 12 when I first got it) but I stupidly played the game while she was in the living room with me and immediately after hearing the cursing and adult themes she took it from me and returned it back to the store. I had to wait about 1 year until my older cousin bought it and let me play it at his house to fully experience it. But I learned a valuable lesson to not play Mature rated games around my mom lol.
It's really interesting to see that for all the boons Microsoft gave Rare, such as Conker L&R, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves, they really did stifle them as a company constantly throughout their ownership of them. I don't think Microsoft would ever allow Rare to take chances on certain projects like Goldeneye or Jet Force Gemini ever again.
Always seemed like such a waste imo. They went to the trouble of buying out the company, presumably so they could make games like they had been making for Nintendo, but for the Xbox, only to basically shit-can almost any idea they presented them and then eventually reduce them to working on Kinect games. Obviously I'm not privy to the actual details of how things went down, but it just strikes me as odd. Why spend all that money only to more or less do nothing with it?
@@Kirabetas it's the main reason the game hasn't received a sequel yet. Phil Spencer is (supposedly based on interviews) still in search of a team that will do a sequel justice since the one thing Microsoft really doesn't have is an internal fighting game dev team.
Man I'm glad you did an episode on this. Conkers BFD, and to a lesser extent its remake on the Xbox are legendary and deserves another remake or finally a sequel. One of my favorite games of all time.
It’s surprising how people shunned the multiplayer not being like the N64 original, but ended up generating a cult following. It’s still played on XLink Kai and Insignia. The former which works on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.
It's funny how Conker has this big presence, but has only one sole game.. and a then got turned into one of the worst type of corporate mascots ever made. Poor bastard.
The Klan reference was in the part where you cut the pitchfork guy down from the noose. He says "That was just like one o' them there lynchings ya hear about!" Then Conker looks at the paint brush and paint can, and they're wearing white Klan hoods. Nintendo of America saw that and understandably had a fucking heart attack, so it was changed to the more generic "execution" joke in the final game.
Would absolutely love a "Wha Happun?" on the Nightmare Creatures series. You could talk about NC3, the scrapped 2000 movie and canceled 2017 remake of the original🤞✌️
Bought this game on release back in 2001 with my first wages from work, and loved it ever since. Still have my original cartridge, and boot it up from time to time. Great memories.
An interesting tidbit: despite the complete lack of promotion in Nintendo Power itself, Nintendo still put out an official Player's Guide for Conker's Bad Fur Day with the Nintendo and Nintendo Power branding prominently on the front cover. I actually still have this laying around!
Hey, I was one of those 55,000 that bought it in the first month! The hours my friends and I spent playing the multi player in high school will always be great memories for me.
Conkers' Multiplayer Suite is the most fun my friends, family and I ever had on the n64, and gaming in general. Got to love all those games release ahead of it's time. Shame that it's impossible to get a copy without selling a kidney nowadays.
16:30 "KB Toys refused to stock it." My father picked up Conkers Bad Furday and Body Harvest from the bargain bin at KB Toys for a combined total of $15. I remember being a NINTENDO POWER KID, and never having heard of the game I was completely blindsided. I remember he thought it was so funny he watched me play through the whole thing.
The fact I not only remember the game's troubled history but actually was there when Conker's Big Reunion came out, the game had some really cool setpieces. It was honestly looking extremely promising, and Project Spark had a lot of cool ideas that sadly were never able to be fulfilled. I still think Project Spark could've made it if they made it now. Hell I think Conker would've been finally done justice. Sadly, 2015 through it's ups and downs brought a lot of weird into the mix. I still enjoy 2015, and think 2015 was an absolute fantastic year otherwise. Gaming was just one of it's weaker aspects for me.
Fun fact: The Xbox release was supposed to be called "Conker: Live & Uncut", featuring uncensored voice dialogs, which would fit the more "mature" Xbox audience. It ended up being even more censored than the original N64 release, hence they dropped the "Uncut" part and changed it into "Reloaded"
Damn, I didn't realize Conker got shafted so bad. I loved it as a kid. And like most people who played it as a kid, my parents had no idea what the hell they were purchasing.
Okay but what a Rareware what happun cause I know it’s easy to say Microsoft but I know there’s another reason why they became the biggest afterthought of the gaming industry in the early 2000s
I remember buying Conker's Bad Fur Day on day one on the N64, I loved it. Still sing the great mighty poo song. So sad a proper sequel will never happen in todays world. :(
Conker's Bad Fur Day is when that legit funny guy at the office gets to go ham on a video game script. It's also refreshing to see a game that's ALMOST as dirty as we all are but is able to avoid becoming degenerate through that classic wry smile, wink and a nod that only the Brits can pull off.
I grew up in Brazil and our official Nintendo magazine talked plenty about Conker back in the day. How odd that its American publication counterpart ignored it.
People don't realize that Rare isn't the same Rare anymore. The core talent that worked on those N64 classics are long gone. So why would you even want another Conker game? Rare is just another cold, soulless company owned and operated by business executives at Microsoft, and the people who program for them are just one of hundreds of easily replaceable laborers who have no creative input on anything and whose job is to follow the market research when it comes to game design. Core, intimate game studios are a thing of the past now, that's why Rare hasn't made anything good as of late and started to fall apart once they were bought by Microsoft
Also, the core team that made those games reformed and made a spiritual sequel to Banjo Kazooie. I forgot the name of the game tho. Oh yea, Yooka-Laylee.
Stampers upon hearing the new direction for conker: "That's the new direction? It was crude! It was inappropriate! It was offensive! It was tasteless......... *I LOVED IT* "
It's interesting to note that it was only Nintendo Power in the US that didn't mention Conker's Bad Fur Day. The UK equivalent (Nintendo Official Magazine) actually did cover it, and gave it a really high review score. So I guess Nintendo branches outside the US were less squeamish about marketing this game.
Pour yet another one out for Conker. It sucks he never got any more games, but I'm grateful that both games are available digitally at fair prices at least.
When my cousin first showed me Conker (a game he was also probably too young to be playing) it blew my mind. Sometimes the Great Mighty Poo song still gets stuck in my head.
This game wasn’t even released in Europe. Only in the British isles. I spent years when I was young trying to procure a copy. A few years ago my bf got me a boxed copy as a Christmas gift. I LITERALLY cried…
There was an INSANE amount of variety in this game. The Zombie stuff didn't even appear in this episode's B-Roll! And that's to say nothing of the fantastic Beach Assault multiplayer mode. I loved the hell out of this game at launch, and I kick myself for ever losing my copy.
This game taught me the word "bastard" at the age of 13. Definitely check out the Director's Commentary that Matt linked in the description. They offer so much insight.
Ah, yes, Conker's Bad Fur Day. Never played it, but it is responsible for my friends back in first grade being amazed that my parents allowed me to own Conker for the Gameboy.
While I would've wanted to check out Conker in its original format as a cutesy platformer, I'll gladly state that Conker's Bad Fur Day is a certifiable masterpiece...one of the last great Nintendo 64 games alongside Paper Mario and Mario Party 3, and a neat swan song for Rare's N64 glory days to go out on. I didn't get to play it until a couple of years after it came out (I was only 16 at the time of its release), but when I did, I found the game to be clever and wild. It had so many great features: brilliant movie parodies and references, graphics that made it look like one of the best-looking games on the N64, tons of solid voice acting (all done by just three people!), catchy tunes, and the overall sense that Rare wanted to end their time working on N64 games with a bang (which they did)! It's a shame that CBFD didn't sell very well, and that Conker himself has-with a couple of exceptions-been handled poorly in the post-Microsoft acquisition era, but the game itself was a true gem...one that ended a fantastic era of Rare making some of the very best N64 games and which had me (and others) hopeful for more amazing Rare-developed games for the Gamecube, though as we all know, that hope would wind up being largely extinguished. ☹ At any rate, I'm glad to see that you, Matt, are still brightening everyone's weekends with What Happened and all of your other UA-cam series. I've been subscribed to your channel for just over a year, and I am still enjoying the ride. You can bet that I will continue to come back for more for a long time to come...you have my promise! 😁
You should consider doing a "What happened?" about Quake. It would be interesting to see how the game began and what happened with John Romero leaving id.
Since “Wha Happun?” is a series about games with problematic developments, and not necessarily bad ones, I’d love to see a wha happun of Dead Island 2 when it comes out. Regardless of the quality of the destination, I feel the path there must’ve been interesting.
Tbh I feel Conker has a similar issue to Sonic CD where no one played it but everyone hyped it up. Because the back half of Conker is uh, it hasn't aged well. Not from a content standpoint but the controls can be agonizing especially in Spooky, It's War, and the final boss even. I like the game and its world but it is a hard recommendation today.
I hold this game very very dear to my heart. The story was so good and it was so much fun to play. I would love even just another remaster of bad fur day
I remember finding out about this game back in 2009 and I was depressed as hell when I found out it didn't get a sequel. Even though conker may get a sequel someday but its best to just accept the fact that it didn't get a sequel for a reason
Ah fuck. Now you got that Conker first area theme tune stuck in my head for the first time in decades now! And thanks for reminding us Rareware hermits why we can't trust Microsoft still to this day lol.
The sad thing is that MS won regardless. Kinect Sports and Sea of Thieves are the best selling games of the studio by a landslide. The studio changed for worst but they are actually making them money.
@@RioluJH That is indeed the essence of what Microsoft does! Though let's not forget the sheer weight of Microsoft's money when it comes to how much marketing makes a difference in most games' sales performances.
@@overzealouseuthanasiast9731 MS has always sucked historically on marketing tactics. And this is not only exclusive to their gaming division. Remember Zune? Or Mixer? Or have you seen any ad promoting the awesome ChatGPT? Of course you don't. It is like they took all of their employees to make a single trailer for their next Windows OS and they vanish immediately after.
Playing Conker's bad Fur Day on the Nintendo 64 when I was younger with some of the best memories I had with my friends. You should check out the multiplayer Beach for those who don't know from Conker's bad Fur. Also thanks for the content Matt, and I appreciate the shout-out to Uncle Derek and stop skeletons from fighting. Both of your channels have been my go-to for game content and preferred formats.
I remember very clearly going to Electronics Boutique when I was about 12 years old to buy this game, and the guy behind the counter knew he shouldn't be selling it to someone so young but he let it slide, and then I repaid this favour by giving him £45 in loose change to count up. That man was a hero.
I still vividly remember the whole Saga of Conker. At least how it was perceived here in Europe. How it started in Diddy Kong Racing and the previews of the original Conker 3D platformer before Rare completely pulled back, get fucking shitfaced and then decided to redo the game all over again but more interesting & edgy. When i saw the first news about what the game now became, i was surprised, bewildered and curious. And THEN i saw the first videos of the gameplay, that you had to download from a website. That was when i knew i HAD to play this game. This was an absolute wild time back then and it showed once again that Rare really was the most capable and interesting Developer in Nintendo's reign of power. The fact that they were stupid enough to allow Micro$oft to completely tear apart this once great developer is still one of the BIGGEST Fuckups Nintendo ever allowed to happen. This was the end of Rare and prematurely ended one of the greatest oddball developers ever way before their prime.
I was a big Rare fan back then, I ended up buying most of their games on N64 but even for me Conker’s BFD flew under my radar. I did notice the incredibly high review scores (99 on IGN!) and shortly after read how badly the game had bombed then forgot about the game. That is until one day a few months later I walked into a Best Buy and saw a wall of brand new CBFD games being cleared for $19.99 and I couldn’t say no. It was Rare and I knew it was good and I’m so happy that I took the gamble because my very last N64 game purchase ever turned out to be Rare’s best game yet.
In a weird way, I kind of view Conker in the same way I view Bubsy the Bobcat, in that they're both mid to mediocre characters probably better left to die, and yet each time they're dug up, I'm kind of hoping the next time is their time to shine and sweep gaming by being fun and getting high sales and being better than anyone would have previously ever expected them to be.
This game was my entire childhood rebellion arc. My oldest brothers got this game and the three youngest kids. Me and my two older brothers who were in turn the 3 youngest brothers were told constantly to not play it or even watch it under penalty of punishment but we would sneak downstairs and watch our brothers and their friends play it and when everyone else was asleep we would waste countless hours in the multiplayer which to this day is one of the best in my book. When my older brothers moved out they left the game behind and my Mom tried to keep us from playing it by hiding it, locking it up, grounding us, taking the N64, everything except throw it out which now that i think about it was probably just because she didn't think about doing that. But that didn't stop us. We would break into drawers, tear our parent's room apart, hide it, etc until after a year or 2 of this they just gave up and it became one of the foundational games of my childhood. I still have the catrige to this day and if my N64 hadn't crapped out last year I would still be playing it now.
Imagine ushering in the legendary 5th generation with a hit fighting game, and setting out to cook up Rare's answer to Super Mario freaking 64 with unmatched graphical fidelity including facial expressions, only to be leapfrogged by a googly-eyed, woefully unexpressive bear & bird iterating off your development pipeline by taking every shortcut possible to meet a timely deadline, until finally launching to little fanfare after everyone had long moved on, and just like that the 5th generation came and went. I'd be pissed too
Great vid! I wish we could appreciate games like Conker's Bad Fur Day without also defaulting to the idea that a follow-up should be made. If we want new ideas and new IPs, that's gotta come at the cost of not making a sequel to an old franchise. Can only make so many games. Conker's potty-humor is very of its time. There should be a legal way to obtain the N64 and Xbox versions, but unless somebody comes up with an interesting new twist on Conker, I think we can let the poor guy be. He's taken a lotta shit over the years, after all.
I hate how parents of the early 90's never looked at the rating of the game and just picked it up, expecting it to be kid stuff, then getting mad when its not.
I often forget that Rare is a British developer but then I hear someone say “bugger me” without a shred of irony and I am properly reminded.
bug--
Oh.
I always wondered why the had a variety of british accents. Like cockney or northern and its evident with the use of words as well. It’s something american would never implement in voice acting
Yo same
@@deGoomyan5538 it’s very much is like what the uk is like. 30 mins and you’ll get a new accent
I’m American and was well into my 20s when I finally understood why JamJars’ “To bash Kazooie on her head, first press A and then press Z” didn’t rhyme.
It's actually pretty funny how Conker has this reputation of being foul mouthed when he never really swears at all in the game, it's more everyone around him. The closest he gets is saying "fellatio", which he immediately covers his mouth in embarrassment afterwards, and the Aliens references of "Get away from her, you bitch!" at the end. Great video, Matt! The history of Conker's Bad Fur Day has always fascinated me.
Honestly now that you mention it he's actually a pretty nice guy. He's pretty polite especially compared to those around him.
Yeah, now that you mention it... I wonder if that is a remnant of the inital pitch of a well meaning, innocent Conker accidentally making life worse for everyone, huh
The game is a foul M-rated dirty jokes fest with Conker the main star
Conker is ultrabritish. It's all about the innuendos. Or should I say in YOUR endos! 😁
@@AidenAliasyeah, when King Bee called him a bastard, Conker told him that there's no need to get offensive.
Honestly, Conker deserves a second chance. On today's landscape i am pretty sure he has a good chance to succeed.
Either that or be shunned out for being "too juvenile" and "A 12yo's idea of what Mature works are really like" or worse "edgelord game"
Or a good chance to be controversial knowing Twitter.
Yeah I totally agree especially with shows as popular as South Park and family guy
Would probably be received in a similar way to "High On Life", which reminds me a bit of Conker in its content and delivery.
If he's written properly with plenty of satire then absolutely.
There's another universe where Conker was a wholesome doofus with a colorful quirk or two, and where Banjo and Kazooie were basically Beavis and Butthead.
Technically that's what he was, before he had a very bad fur day. :V
Man, the fifth generation was a wild time for videogames, with so many big name developers actually willing to experiment.
Was the last time we'd see it. Things got too expensive
@@Oh-Ben i think the 6th generation ruined it and alot of games that came out that period played it either too safe or too boring, unoriginal at times and less replay value all the time.
for me the 7th generation ruins it
@@MrDmoney156 Nah, there was a TON of experimentation going around in the 6th gen. There were a few problems that happened though.
The first was that experimentation was shunned against by the public, as they wanted PS1/N64 games but with fancy new graphics. This is why games that went against what was established before (the biggest example being Zelda: Wind Waker) got such huge backlash.
The second problem was that the game market was absolutely flooded with games, especially on the Playstation 2. You had licensed games everywhere around this time in addition to big new franchises like Ratchet & Clank and Devil May Cry, as well as old standbys like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy. Rental Services like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video were starting to get into trouble due to Netflix, and GameFly was still a relatively small venture around this time.
The third was just getting the word out. Gaming as a hobby exploded thanks to the Playstation 2, and many, many gamers only wanted games that their friends thought was cool, or at least wouldn't get them labeled as kiddy, which is why we had that "everything must be colored brown or grey" era back in the day. The more experimental titles tended to only appeal to a very niche audience, so sales couldn't expand as much.
@@huntzxc Really? 7th generation was the wii, 360 and ps3. I feel like that generation was the last one that had developers being experimental with games. It's the 8th generation that ruined gaming. 7th generation was the most fun because there were a lot of games that were bad but still worth playing because they were memeable and charming because they were silly. Unlike the 8th and 9th generations because games were/are just simply buggy messes.
6th Generation: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube
7th Generation: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Shout out to Diddy Kong Racing for making me interested in Conker to begin with. Best gateway drug ever.
Conker is, to this day, probably my favorite N64 game. Me and my neighbours played it to death at arguably a far too young of an age and it forms not only a portion of my core memories, but is also directly responsible for helping "develop" my sense of humor around that time. It's basically the last time Rare really shone as a developer, but what a way to go out. We'll likely never get that follow up game, but somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, next to the filing cabinet that holds the entire Sloprano song is a dusty little hope that maybe, just maybe, we'll get one. One day..
Seriously, sitting around playing Heist or gassing the map in Total War was a blast.
Same here, I was to young along with others playing this game but we did it👍
I remember us spending a good 10 minutes every time inputing cheat codes to unlock the characters in multiplayer. I always played Greg.
@@frack2909
Yup. Still remember the code "Billymillsroundabout."
My friends and I loved Beach, Raptor, War, and occasionally Race!
@@feathero3 War and Raptor were our go to modes. I liked raptor the best because I thought feeding the cavemen to the baby dino was funny as hell.
For this episode the "wha happen" feels more like an intervention for conker in where did his life get so incredibly fucked up lmao.
I still remember the EGM news story on Conker's change in direction to a mature rated comedy. It happened to be in the April issue and I thought for sure it was that year's joke.
Yup, I still have all my old EGM mags from that era and thinking the same thing when I first read it.
Berri went from Minnie Mouse to Jessica Rabbit levels of furry when it comes to the games changes!
She more specifically went from Minnie Mouse to Lola Bunny levels of furry in this case.
And we salute her for that
Jessica Rabbit isn't a furry though. Well She's into animals but not one herself.
Yeah, I was gonna say...
Except she fuckin died.....
Honestly, a proper follow-up to Conker would be amazing, but it'll need a miracle for it to get made.
And a second miracle if it's going to be good.
The License & Copyright is the biggest Problem here..... Which makes this an absolutely impossible endeavor.
They made a shenmue 3 so anything is possible
Even if they do crowd funding it would likely surpass its target
In today's cancel culture/ politics?
Would rather Noone from this era to get their hands on conker.
You actually have to go back in time to do that
In cancel culture nowadays the best thing Conker can do is just making fun of twitter
I remember being impressed by Conker's model in BFD way back when it came out. Articulated 3D mouth animations and individual digits on a character's hand (even if it's only one or two fingers) on a 64-bit platform?? It was genuine magic to me going into the next generation of consoles knowing that games could improve so much in five years for the same console.
@@protocetid I guess they were successful, because I Mandela Effect remember the remake as a 360 game.
I've probably heard this story a dozen times, but I wanna hear Matt tell it.
I feel this way with his videos all the time and I'm always here for it.
Same
It’s funny how Nintendo’s stance on M-rated games changed between the N64 and GameCube as an attempt to boost sales of the purple box.
But, their past continued to haunt them, especially with how they treated Conker…
Still, the Cube had some great M-rated games that were a staple of the console: Eternal Darkness, some Resident Evil games, and Killer 7.
I find kind of weird how Nintendo has struggled for almost three decades to distance themselves from a purely family-friendly image. Not completely though, their bread and butter still are games for everyone like Mario, Kirby, Pokémon and Animal Crossing, just to name a few, then you had others that have a certain edge like some Zeldas, Metroid, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, and also to encourage third-party developers to release more mature rated games
It's pretty incredible that their reputation for censoring certain games during the NES and Super NES era, like Mortal Kombat, Final Fight and Final Fantasy, still haunts them. Specially considering that during the N64 era they tried to capture a more teenage and adult audience with FPS and sports games
As you said, during the GameCube and also the Wii and WiiU eras Nintendo got plenty of games with mature themes, but even to these days people are surprised that games like Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein and Dead or Alive Extreme 3 got released on the Switch
Heck, even people on the industry seem to believe that, a producer at Warner Bros. Games said they were unsure to release Mortal Kombat 11 on the Switch because of its violent content, despite the fact that almost all Nintendo consoles before the Switch got a Mortal Kombat games released on them, and ever since MKII on the SNES they kept the violence intact
I’m more amazed how Nintendo has managed to keep its family-friendly image mostly-intact despite now encouraging the presence of M-rated games like Bayonetta on their console.
This game is just beautiful. I remember booting it up back in the day, being hit in the face with a squirrel spoofing A Clockwork Orange, and thinking "Ok. I'm in." 🥰
Not gonna lie, the beginning of the Killer Instinct arcade intro, the one where the narrator belts out the "Nintendo Ultra 64" line, is still one of the best intro moments in any arcade game. Everything about that just hits.
Every 3D game ever made took some inspiration from Mario 64, but I can't even imagine what it must have been like for Miyamoto and his small team to develop Mario 64 "from scratch" with no other reference material to look at. It must have been a creative hell for months, specially figuring out how a camera in a 3D enviroment should work.
Even Kingdom Hearts was an attempt to cash in on the success of Mario 64, with the crossover aspect being the result of sheer coincidence, as Square and Disney shared a building at the time, and two of their employees met on the escalator.
Interestingly, both Square and Disney felt that, to have any chance of success in the crowded realm of mascot platformers, they'd have to use an iconic Disney character. Square wanted to use Mickey, but EA had the video game rights to him and Disney wanted Donald Duck to be the protagonist. It was a character designer for Square who suggested an original character: a furry with a chainsaw. This of course got dialed back to be a kid with a giant key, but the character designer was put in charge of the project as a whole.
Back to the original point, the Mario 64 inspiration still kinda shows in the scattered platforming segments in the first game and the idiosyncratic control scheme, combining Mario 64's combo system with the combat menu of Final Fantasy.
I still have a shirt packed away somewhere I got for pre-ordering Conker. It has Conker passed out with his face in a toilet and it says "Shh! Conker's taking a nap" below it
My mom wasn't rly paying attention and bought this game for me and my brother who were about 10 and 12 years old respectively. We had an absolute FIELD DAY playing this game start to finish ENRAPTURED by the adult humor and tbh I have nothing but fond memories of all the ridiculous shit (no pun intended) that happens in it. My favorite part was pissing on people in the nightclub HAHA
Ha my mom did the same thing (I think I was 11 or 12 when I first got it) but I stupidly played the game while she was in the living room with me and immediately after hearing the cursing and adult themes she took it from me and returned it back to the store. I had to wait about 1 year until my older cousin bought it and let me play it at his house to fully experience it. But I learned a valuable lesson to not play Mature rated games around my mom lol.
It's really interesting to see that for all the boons Microsoft gave Rare, such as Conker L&R, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves, they really did stifle them as a company constantly throughout their ownership of them. I don't think Microsoft would ever allow Rare to take chances on certain projects like Goldeneye or Jet Force Gemini ever again.
New KI (as in the 2013 XBone game) has nothing to do with Rare. It was developed by three different studios, none of which were Rare.
@@chrismdb5686 Neat, did not know that.
Always seemed like such a waste imo. They went to the trouble of buying out the company, presumably so they could make games like they had been making for Nintendo, but for the Xbox, only to basically shit-can almost any idea they presented them and then eventually reduce them to working on Kinect games. Obviously I'm not privy to the actual details of how things went down, but it just strikes me as odd. Why spend all that money only to more or less do nothing with it?
@@Kirabetas it's the main reason the game hasn't received a sequel yet. Phil Spencer is (supposedly based on interviews) still in search of a team that will do a sequel justice since the one thing Microsoft really doesn't have is an internal fighting game dev team.
Ah man, what i would give for a new viva pinata. One of my absolute favorite x360 games back in the day
The Great Mighty Poo is still one of the best singers to ever grace video game soundtracks
Man I'm glad you did an episode on this. Conkers BFD, and to a lesser extent its remake on the Xbox are legendary and deserves another remake or finally a sequel. One of my favorite games of all time.
It’s surprising how people shunned the multiplayer not being like the N64 original, but ended up generating a cult following. It’s still played on XLink Kai and Insignia. The former which works on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.
Conker Live and reloaded MP was so goddamn awesome
The MP for live and reloaded was definitely awesome. Nothing quite like it now a days.
@@CarbyGuuGuu I think the issue was that the online mode completely replaced the original local/couch multiplayer mode. Those game modes were fun lol
My main issue with the remake is that (1) many of the finer animations are outright removed and (2) it's for some weird reason censored.
It's funny how Conker has this big presence, but has only one sole game.. and a then got turned into one of the worst type of corporate mascots ever made. Poor bastard.
The Klan reference was in the part where you cut the pitchfork guy down from the noose.
He says "That was just like one o' them there lynchings ya hear about!" Then Conker looks at the paint brush and paint can, and they're wearing white Klan hoods.
Nintendo of America saw that and understandably had a fucking heart attack, so it was changed to the more generic "execution" joke in the final game.
I'd like to see a video on Kirby's Return to Dream Land. It came out really, REALLY great, but it had quite a troubled production from what I've seen.
Would absolutely love a "Wha Happun?" on the Nightmare Creatures series. You could talk about NC3, the scrapped 2000 movie and canceled 2017 remake of the original🤞✌️
Bought this game on release back in 2001 with my first wages from work, and loved it ever since. Still have my original cartridge, and boot it up from time to time. Great memories.
An interesting tidbit: despite the complete lack of promotion in Nintendo Power itself, Nintendo still put out an official Player's Guide for Conker's Bad Fur Day with the Nintendo and Nintendo Power branding prominently on the front cover. I actually still have this laying around!
Hey, I was one of those 55,000 that bought it in the first month! The hours my friends and I spent playing the multi player in high school will always be great memories for me.
Still got my N64 copy and still love this game. So fun and original
I like to imagine that Diddy Kong Racing was all just a crazy mushroom trip that Conker went on at some point
Conkers' Multiplayer Suite is the most fun my friends, family and I ever had on the n64, and gaming in general. Got to love all those games release ahead of it's time. Shame that it's impossible to get a copy without selling a kidney nowadays.
16:30 "KB Toys refused to stock it." My father picked up Conkers Bad Furday and Body Harvest from the bargain bin at KB Toys for a combined total of $15. I remember being a NINTENDO POWER KID, and never having heard of the game I was completely blindsided. I remember he thought it was so funny he watched me play through the whole thing.
You’re a big inspiration to me as a writer. Thanks for the excellent work!
The fact I not only remember the game's troubled history but actually was there when Conker's Big Reunion came out, the game had some really cool setpieces.
It was honestly looking extremely promising, and Project Spark had a lot of cool ideas that sadly were never able to be fulfilled. I still think Project Spark could've made it if they made it now. Hell I think Conker would've been finally done justice.
Sadly, 2015 through it's ups and downs brought a lot of weird into the mix. I still enjoy 2015, and think 2015 was an absolute fantastic year otherwise. Gaming was just one of it's weaker aspects for me.
This was one of my favorite games growing up.
Damn what a story. Makes all the time I spent playing Conker's Bad Fur Day at age 12 all the more memorable :D
Fun fact: The Xbox release was supposed to be called "Conker: Live & Uncut", featuring uncensored voice dialogs, which would fit the more "mature" Xbox audience. It ended up being even more censored than the original N64 release, hence they dropped the "Uncut" part and changed it into "Reloaded"
Damn, I didn't realize Conker got shafted so bad. I loved it as a kid. And like most people who played it as a kid, my parents had no idea what the hell they were purchasing.
@@stevethepocketalright I still remember being a kid my parents getting Grand Theft Auto Vice City for me no questions asked😂
Conker's BFD has to be RARE's best original and most funniest game of their catalog.
Thank you for covering Conker, McMuscles. :)
Eh, i still feel Banjo Kazooie is better in those aspects, but damn Conker is very close.
@@miserirken Banjo didn't have a talking turd as a boss.
We LOVED this game and the remaster. The multi player was a blast.
Was searching for a comment about the multiplayer, the multiplayer was so so good and varied. Literally years ahead of our current time xD
Don't forget when they tricked us for a second into believing that the next Concker was coming with Lucky's Tale.
As someone who finally just got an offical copy of this game with the manual this feels like an extra treat
Okay but what a Rareware what happun cause I know it’s easy to say Microsoft but I know there’s another reason why they became the biggest afterthought of the gaming industry in the early 2000s
I remember buying Conker's Bad Fur Day on day one on the N64, I loved it. Still sing the great mighty poo song. So sad a proper sequel will never happen in todays world. :(
Conker's Bad Fur Day is when that legit funny guy at the office gets to go ham on a video game script. It's also refreshing to see a game that's ALMOST as dirty as we all are but is able to avoid becoming degenerate through that classic wry smile, wink and a nod that only the Brits can pull off.
LOVE all the references like Diddy Kong Racing. Never realized the lineage and has brought closer to my child. For that I thank you.
I grew up in Brazil and our official Nintendo magazine talked plenty about Conker back in the day. How odd that its American publication counterpart ignored it.
Wait a minute, this isn’t Forspoken.
People don't realize that Rare isn't the same Rare anymore. The core talent that worked on those N64 classics are long gone. So why would you even want another Conker game? Rare is just another cold, soulless company owned and operated by business executives at Microsoft, and the people who program for them are just one of hundreds of easily replaceable laborers who have no creative input on anything and whose job is to follow the market research when it comes to game design. Core, intimate game studios are a thing of the past now, that's why Rare hasn't made anything good as of late and started to fall apart once they were bought by Microsoft
Also, the core team that made those games reformed and made a spiritual sequel to Banjo Kazooie. I forgot the name of the game tho.
Oh yea, Yooka-Laylee.
One of my favorite games! I'm glad it exists. Here's hoping that a proper sequel will materialize! Cheers, Conker!
Stampers upon hearing the new direction for conker: "That's the new direction?
It was crude!
It was inappropriate!
It was offensive!
It was tasteless.........
*I LOVED IT* "
It's interesting to note that it was only Nintendo Power in the US that didn't mention Conker's Bad Fur Day. The UK equivalent (Nintendo Official Magazine) actually did cover it, and gave it a really high review score. So I guess Nintendo branches outside the US were less squeamish about marketing this game.
Pour yet another one out for Conker. It sucks he never got any more games, but I'm grateful that both games are available digitally at fair prices at least.
When my cousin first showed me Conker (a game he was also probably too young to be playing) it blew my mind. Sometimes the Great Mighty Poo song still gets stuck in my head.
This game wasn’t even released in Europe. Only in the British isles. I spent years when I was young trying to procure a copy. A few years ago my bf got me a boxed copy as a Christmas gift. I LITERALLY cried…
I was really waiting for this! I loved Conker. It really deserved a sequel or at least a few games because it was GREAT!
There was an INSANE amount of variety in this game. The Zombie stuff didn't even appear in this episode's B-Roll! And that's to say nothing of the fantastic Beach Assault multiplayer mode. I loved the hell out of this game at launch, and I kick myself for ever losing my copy.
This game taught me the word "bastard" at the age of 13.
Definitely check out the Director's Commentary that Matt linked in the description. They offer so much insight.
Shame they never finished it though.
Crash of The Titans and Mind over Mutant: What Happened
The game was never sold in the area that I live in.
Censorship is the biggest killer of any entertainment IP.
Ah, yes, Conker's Bad Fur Day. Never played it, but it is responsible for my friends back in first grade being amazed that my parents allowed me to own Conker for the Gameboy.
While I would've wanted to check out Conker in its original format as a cutesy platformer, I'll gladly state that Conker's Bad Fur Day is a certifiable masterpiece...one of the last great Nintendo 64 games alongside Paper Mario and Mario Party 3, and a neat swan song for Rare's N64 glory days to go out on. I didn't get to play it until a couple of years after it came out (I was only 16 at the time of its release), but when I did, I found the game to be clever and wild. It had so many great features: brilliant movie parodies and references, graphics that made it look like one of the best-looking games on the N64, tons of solid voice acting (all done by just three people!), catchy tunes, and the overall sense that Rare wanted to end their time working on N64 games with a bang (which they did)!
It's a shame that CBFD didn't sell very well, and that Conker himself has-with a couple of exceptions-been handled poorly in the post-Microsoft acquisition era, but the game itself was a true gem...one that ended a fantastic era of Rare making some of the very best N64 games and which had me (and others) hopeful for more amazing Rare-developed games for the Gamecube, though as we all know, that hope would wind up being largely extinguished. ☹
At any rate, I'm glad to see that you, Matt, are still brightening everyone's weekends with What Happened and all of your other UA-cam series. I've been subscribed to your channel for just over a year, and I am still enjoying the ride. You can bet that I will continue to come back for more for a long time to come...you have my promise! 😁
Microsoft is seemingly learning from prior mistakes nowadays. Very curious about Rare's project, "Everwild".
This Games multiplayer stole an entire year of my life... I always used one of the squirrel civilian skins, and I was called "the Frenchman."
The first mature game I ever played. Love me some Conker
And speaking of Rare, you must do an Battletoads episode. For the entire franchise. Like really, the whole convoy is wild.
That's a great idea 💡! Also I want a Battletoads Reboot X Double Dragoon Neon!
You should consider doing a "What happened?" about Quake. It would be interesting to see how the game began and what happened with John Romero leaving id.
What happened:
- Nickelodeon All Star Brawl
- Fear Effect
- Leisure Suit Larry 4
Nick all stars, over ambitious devs, dirt cheap publisher, poor gameplay choices/ poor planning.
I wish that Microsoft just re-release "Rare Replay" on other platforms like steam. Would be much appreciated by many.
Almost 20 years without a new game. Guess we’ll have to make our own!
With blackjack and hookers?
15:50 God, I remember being 12 and absolutely psyched for every single issue. I just git a major happiness flashback.
This game was so good. My friends and I had so much fun playing the multiplayer and the single player was great. It needs a remaster!
For a company that grows so rapidly as Microsoft, they sure don't take enough risks with Conker
Man, gotta pour one out for Glover every time he's mentioned.
Conker had so many bad fur days. I can imagine a new game produced by Toys For Bob, when the aquisition is complete.
This game is a masterpiece.
.
.
Seeing footage of Banjo and Kazooie almost falling in the engine room of Rusty Bucket Bay relived my PTSD.
Since “Wha Happun?” is a series about games with problematic developments, and not necessarily bad ones, I’d love to see a wha happun of Dead Island 2 when it comes out. Regardless of the quality of the destination, I feel the path there must’ve been interesting.
Truly, there's nothing the machine hates more than a new idea.
Tbh I feel Conker has a similar issue to Sonic CD where no one played it but everyone hyped it up. Because the back half of Conker is uh, it hasn't aged well. Not from a content standpoint but the controls can be agonizing especially in Spooky, It's War, and the final boss even. I like the game and its world but it is a hard recommendation today.
Here's a suggestion for the next episode Matt:
"What happened, jak and daxter the lost frontier"
I play this game probably once a year, I absolutely love it
I hold this game very very dear to my heart. The story was so good and it was so much fun to play. I would love even just another remaster of bad fur day
I remember finding out about this game back in 2009 and I was depressed as hell when I found out it didn't get a sequel. Even though conker may get a sequel someday but its best to just accept the fact that it didn't get a sequel for a reason
I think the squirrel photo used was the grey invasive ones not native to the UK. Conker is a red squirrel, the ones they're trying to protect.
CBFD was (funny enough) the first game I have ever played. I still have my N64 & copy to this day.
I'll never forget the cheeky cog who preffered a felatio over poking it in the back door. A true game of class!
Ah fuck. Now you got that Conker first area theme tune stuck in my head for the first time in decades now! And thanks for reminding us Rareware hermits why we can't trust Microsoft still to this day lol.
The sad thing is that MS won regardless. Kinect Sports and Sea of Thieves are the best selling games of the studio by a landslide. The studio changed for worst but they are actually making them money.
@@RioluJH That is indeed the essence of what Microsoft does! Though let's not forget the sheer weight of Microsoft's money when it comes to how much marketing makes a difference in most games' sales performances.
@@overzealouseuthanasiast9731 MS has always sucked historically on marketing tactics. And this is not only exclusive to their gaming division. Remember Zune? Or Mixer? Or have you seen any ad promoting the awesome ChatGPT? Of course you don't. It is like they took all of their employees to make a single trailer for their next Windows OS and they vanish immediately after.
Playing Conker's bad Fur Day on the Nintendo 64 when I was younger with some of the best memories I had with my friends. You should check out the multiplayer Beach for those who don't know from Conker's bad Fur. Also thanks for the content Matt, and I appreciate the shout-out to Uncle Derek and stop skeletons from fighting. Both of your channels have been my go-to for game content and preferred formats.
With Diablo IV on the horizon, I'd love a Wha Happun for the Diablo series.
I remember very clearly going to Electronics Boutique when I was about 12 years old to buy this game, and the guy behind the counter knew he shouldn't be selling it to someone so young but he let it slide, and then I repaid this favour by giving him £45 in loose change to count up. That man was a hero.
I still vividly remember the whole Saga of Conker. At least how it was perceived here in Europe. How it started in Diddy Kong Racing and the previews of the original Conker 3D platformer before Rare completely pulled back, get fucking shitfaced and then decided to redo the game all over again but more interesting & edgy. When i saw the first news about what the game now became, i was surprised, bewildered and curious. And THEN i saw the first videos of the gameplay, that you had to download from a website. That was when i knew i HAD to play this game. This was an absolute wild time back then and it showed once again that Rare really was the most capable and interesting Developer in Nintendo's reign of power. The fact that they were stupid enough to allow Micro$oft to completely tear apart this once great developer is still one of the BIGGEST Fuckups Nintendo ever allowed to happen. This was the end of Rare and prematurely ended one of the greatest oddball developers ever way before their prime.
I have vivid memories of my mall's KB toys carrying Bad Fur Day. Seeing that part about them not selling it is making me question my memories
I was a big Rare fan back then, I ended up buying most of their games on N64 but even for me Conker’s BFD flew under my radar. I did notice the incredibly high review scores (99 on IGN!) and shortly after read how badly the game had bombed then forgot about the game.
That is until one day a few months later I walked into a Best Buy and saw a wall of brand new CBFD games being cleared for $19.99 and I couldn’t say no. It was Rare and I knew it was good and I’m so happy that I took the gamble because my very last N64 game purchase ever turned out to be Rare’s best game yet.
In a weird way, I kind of view Conker in the same way I view Bubsy the Bobcat, in that they're both mid to mediocre characters probably better left to die, and yet each time they're dug up, I'm kind of hoping the next time is their time to shine and sweep gaming by being fun and getting high sales and being better than anyone would have previously ever expected them to be.
This game was my entire childhood rebellion arc. My oldest brothers got this game and the three youngest kids. Me and my two older brothers who were in turn the 3 youngest brothers were told constantly to not play it or even watch it under penalty of punishment but we would sneak downstairs and watch our brothers and their friends play it and when everyone else was asleep we would waste countless hours in the multiplayer which to this day is one of the best in my book. When my older brothers moved out they left the game behind and my Mom tried to keep us from playing it by hiding it, locking it up, grounding us, taking the N64, everything except throw it out which now that i think about it was probably just because she didn't think about doing that. But that didn't stop us. We would break into drawers, tear our parent's room apart, hide it, etc until after a year or 2 of this they just gave up and it became one of the foundational games of my childhood. I still have the catrige to this day and if my N64 hadn't crapped out last year I would still be playing it now.
well then, I'd do myself a favor and buy an N64 for old time's sake then if that were me.
Imagine ushering in the legendary 5th generation with a hit fighting game, and setting out to cook up Rare's answer to Super Mario freaking 64 with unmatched graphical fidelity including facial expressions, only to be leapfrogged by a googly-eyed, woefully unexpressive bear & bird iterating off your development pipeline by taking every shortcut possible to meet a timely deadline, until finally launching to little fanfare after everyone had long moved on, and just like that the 5th generation came and went. I'd be pissed too
Great vid! I wish we could appreciate games like Conker's Bad Fur Day without also defaulting to the idea that a follow-up should be made. If we want new ideas and new IPs, that's gotta come at the cost of not making a sequel to an old franchise. Can only make so many games. Conker's potty-humor is very of its time. There should be a legal way to obtain the N64 and Xbox versions, but unless somebody comes up with an interesting new twist on Conker, I think we can let the poor guy be. He's taken a lotta shit over the years, after all.