Conker's Bad Fur Day

About

Conker's Bad Fur Day is an action-platform video game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was Rare's last game for that console, released on March 5, 2001 in North America, and on April 6, 2001 in Europe. The game stars Conker the Squirrel, a greedy, heavy-drinking red squirrel who is attempting to return home to his girlfriend. The gameplay is composed of various challenges like solving puzzles or racing vehicles, split across multiple levels.

History

In early 2000, Rare revealed that Conker was retooled into a controversial game with lots of scatological humor. Inspired by South Park, game producer Chris Seavor revamped the graphics and attitude, and the title was changed to Conker's Bad Fur Day. Seavor himself voiced Conker in this new version, along with all the male characters in the game except the Great Mighty Poo, who was voiced by Chris Marlow. Louise Ridgeway voiced the female characters, including Mrs. Queen Bee and the Sunflower. Rare changed several aspects in the game to attract an adult audience. The game also differs from other Nintendo 64 games by relying heavily on cutscenes and featuring a large number of film parodies.

Reception

Conker's Bad Fur Day received very positive reviews from video game critics. On Metacritic, the game has an average score of 92 out of 100, which is considered "universal acclaim". Many publications and websites declared the graphics were the best on the Nintendo 64. Critics noted that the game featured a number of technical effects that were uncommon at the time, especially for a Nintendo 64 game, such as dynamic shadowing, colored lighting, large areas with a long draw distance, no distance fog, detailed facial animations, lip syncing, and individually rendered fingers on some characters. Shane Satterfield of GameSpot went so far as to say that the game "makes other Nintendo 64 games look like 16-bit software." IGN's Matt Casamassina praised the detailed 3D worlds, "fantastic" texture work, and cute character designs. He remarked that "Conker himself is equipped with an in-game facial animation system that realistically portrays his different moods as he travels the lands. When he's scared, he looks it, and when he's pissed off players will actually be able to see his teeth showing in a frown." Reviewers noted occasional drops in the frame rate, but most agreed it did not interfere with the gameplay. Conker's Bad Fur Day was awarded the 2001 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for sound. Although the game fared well with critics in both the UK and US, it sold worse than expected (only about 55,000 copies as of April 2001), partly due to its prohibitively high cost, advertisements exclusive to the older audience, and release towards the end of the Nintendo 64's life cycle. Despite these factors, the game has enjoyed a cult following due to its unique styling.

Related Memes

Film Parody

The game also differs from other Nintendo 64 games by relying heavily on cutscenes and featuring a large number of film parodies like the Matrix, Full Metal Jacket, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Alien.

The Great Mighty Poo

The Great Mighty Poo is an incredibly disgusting but oddly musical monster and a boss it is quite literally a colossal living pile of feces that inhabits an equally disgusting mountain of poo. The Great Mighty Poo is become a Popular Music Meme in History.