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By May be found at the following website: http://www.lukiegames.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8624904 |
There was a game on the Nintendo 64 that I remember vividly; not because I have ever played this game (until now), but because of the controversy this game would happen to generate at the time of its release. I am talking about Conker's Bad Fur Day, developed by Rare (formerly Rareware). Rare was probably one of the most highly-regarded video game studios of the 1990s and early 2000s, putting out highly influential and critically-acclaimed games such as the Donkey Kong Country series, GoldenEye 007, and Diddy Kong Racing. Diddy Kong Racing introduced two characters that would go on to have their own games: Banjo (Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie) and Conker, the cute red squirrel who will be the focus of this blog post.
Despite the Nintendo 64 having the reputation of being a console geared towards younger kids more than teenagers, there have been a handful of M-rated games on the console. I cannot think of an M-rated game on the N64 more controversial than Conker's Bad Fur Day. I have not played this game as a kid (probably for good reason) but I heard about things like this game having lots of violence, coarse language, and sexual/toilet humor. Now that I am an adult and I can readily find ways to play this game, I want to play Conker's Bad Fur Day for the first time and give my thoughts on one of the most talked-about games of the N64 lifecycle. I will only be talking about the single-player campaign, though I have heard that the multiplayer is quite good.
Conker's Bad Fur Day is unquestionably and unflinchingly crass, and I find it hilarious. There are many instances of cartoon gore, lewd humor, and a literal mountain of poop jokes stuffed into a video game. Hell, one of the major bosses of the game is a big piece of poo that sings like he is in an opera. Also, what video game would allow you to get drunk and piss on your enemies? The writing is still top-notch with classic British humor combined with the explicit themes of the game, and adding in some 'breaking the 4th wall' aspects as well. The voice-acting feels like something out of a late 90s/early 2000s video game but it is not without its own charm.
Conker's Bad Fur Day is, at its essence, a platformer, but there are also some first-person and third-person shooter sections as well. Even though this is an N64 game, the graphics and character models all look great by N64 standards. I particularly like Conker's movements and animations as they look and feel buttery smooth. This game is not without its flaws, and it is mostly due to the typical N64 jank at the time. The camera positioning can be awful at times when I am trying to position Conker to make a difficult jump. I would say that the camera system is worse than games like Super Mario 64. In the shooting sections, I found that the aiming was over-sensitive and difficult to hit enemies. Also, Conker's Bad Fur Day is not a very long game, as I managed to finish the entire game in about 10 hours. I would not call this a great return on value for a full-priced game if you were to buy this game in the early 2000s.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised playing Conker's Bad Fur Day, and I would recommend playing this game just to experience the story and explicit content alone. I also think you could put this game in a top-ten list of the best Nintendo 64 games; it is certainly one of the most (if not the most) controversial game on the system. This game proved that you can make a great game based on explicit humor, and laid the groundwork for later South Park games to be successful as well. If you want an essential list of N64 games to play, I would add this game just for its absurdity.
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