Conker (series)

Conker
Genres Platform
Developer(s) Rare
Publisher(s) Nintendo (1999-2001)
THQ (2001)
Microsoft Studios (2005-)
Creator(s) Chris Seavor
Platforms Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One
First release Conker's Pocket Tales
8 June 1999
Latest release Conker: Live & Reloaded
21 June 2005

Conker is a series of platform video games created by Rare. It chronicles the events of Conker the Squirrel, a fictional red squirrel that made his debut as a playable character in Diddy Kong Racing. Although the first game in the series was family friendly and geared towards children, the series is noted for its later games which includes strong bloody graphic violence, sexual innuendos, swearing, toilet humor, and several film parodies.

Games

Conker games

Development

Conker was introduced to the world for the first time at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1997. His game Conker's Quest was presented by Rare as another 3D platformer aimed at a young audience for the Nintendo 64.[1] Later the same year, this fact was confirmed with Conker's inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64, thus promoting his future games.[2] In the spring of 1998, Conker's Quest was renamed Twelve Tales: Conker 64.[3] In 1999, Conker made his first solo debut in Conker's Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Color.

Before its release, the Nintendo 64 game was deemed too similar to Banjo-Kazooie, another platformer from Rare, and its release date was pushed back almost a year while it underwent a complete transformation, eventually being released in 2001 as Conker's Bad Fur Day.[3][4] The redesigned game was geared towards a mature audience and featured sexual content, foul language, drug and alcohol usage, and excessive violence.[5] According to Rare co-founder Chris Stamper, "When people grow up on games, they don't stop playing. There aren't games for people who grew up on the early systems", explaining the change.[6] The game suffered from relatively poor sales,[7] but received a cult following with its unique brand of humor.

After the release of Conker's Bad Fur Day, Rare began development of a new Conker game referred to as Conker's Other Bad Day.[8][9] Designer Chris Seavor said that it was to be a direct sequel dealing with "Conker's somewhat unsuccessful tenure as King. He spends all the treasury money on beer, parties and hookers. Thrown into prison, Conker is faced with the prospect of execution and the game starts with his escape, ball and chain attached, from the Castles highest tower." It was never confirmed which console Conker's Other Bad Day was for, though, it was most likely meant for the Nintendo Gamecube as with Donkey Kong Racing and Banjo Threeie.[8] In 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare from Nintendo, so instead of finishing and releasing the game, Rare remade Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Xbox in 2005, renaming it Conker: Live & Reloaded. It features improved graphics and minor alterations to gameplay. Also included was a new multiplayer adaptation that was available for use over Xbox Live.[10] After Live & Reloaded, Rare started development on Conker: Gettin' Medieval, an online multiplayer third-person shooter game, but it was ultimately cancelled.[11]

At E3 2014, Conker was announced as a character in Project Spark.[12] In 2015, it was announced that Conker will return in a new episodic campaign for Project Spark. The campaign, titled Conker's Big Reunion, is set ten years after the events of Bad Fur Day and Seavor reprises his voice role.[13] The first episode was released on 23 April 2015 for Project Spark; however, before any more additional episodes could be made, Project Spark's online services were shut down and the game was abandoned. In 2015, Conker's Bad Fur Day was included in the Rare Replay video game compilation for Xbox One.[14]

Despite receiving many fan requests for it,[15] director Chris Seavor stated in 2015 that a sequel to Bad Fur Day was very unlikely to happen if he and the old team were the only ones to make it; the reason being his embarrassment with the game's shock value.

"I probably would change some of the stuff now. The obvious one is the sunflower. That whole sequence is like, nope. I couldn’t do that again. If it was made now and if it was the same team it wouldn’t… I don’t think we’d do a game that people would want because they’d want the original Conker. But we’re not the people to make that game, ironically, because we’ve changed. My tastes have changed and I’ve moved on. You’d have a hard time getting it made now so the only way for anyone to play it is to play the original because I don’t think there’s going to be anything like it again." - Chris Seavor[16]

In 2016, Microsoft announced Young Conker as the next installment into the series, released exclusively for the Microsoft HoloLens. The trailer was released in February. The trailer received extremely negative reviews from the public, with many complaining that it lacked the humour and overall style of its predecessors. The trailer received over 30,000 dislikes against just over 1,000 likes. A petition was created to cancel the game's release. Some video game critics and general YouTube commentators have opted to boycotting the game.[17]

The game has since been released and was made available on the Microsoft Store.

References

  1. ↑ IGN Staff (21 June 1997). "E3: First Impressions of Conker's Quest". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  2. ↑ IGN Staff (27 August 1997). "Diddy Kong Racing Unveiled". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  3. 1 2 IGN Staff (13 January 2000). "Conker Has a Bad Day". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  4. ↑ IGN Staff (21 January 1997). "More Proof that Conker is Insane". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  5. ↑ IGN Staff (2 January 2001). "Happy New Year, Love Conker". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  6. ↑ IGN Staff (5 June 2000). "Against the Big N's M". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Rus McLaughlin (28 July 2008). "IGN Presents the History of Rare (Page 6)". IGN. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
  8. 1 2 Iker Pérez (16 August 2008). "Conker Commands and Conquers". MundoRare. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  9. ↑ Ryan Firchau. "Further Information". Ryan Firchau website. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
  10. ↑ Hilary Goldstein (12 May 2004). "E3 2004: Conker Live and Reloaded Hands-On". IGN. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
  11. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (29 September 2015). "Rare reflects on its lost Conker game, Gettin' Medieval". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Sliva, Marty (9 June 2014). "Conker coming to Project Spark". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  13. ↑ Lucy O'Brien (19 March 2015). "New Conker Game Coming to Project Spark April 23". IGN. Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  14. ↑ Michael McWhertor (15 June 2015). "Rare Replay for Xbox One includes 30 Rare games for $30 (update)". Polygon. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  15. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley. "The man who made Conker - Rare's most adult game". EuroGamer.net. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  16. ↑ Pring, Joe. "Don't Expect A Sequel To Conker's Bad Fur Day Any Time Soon". We Got This Covered. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  17. ↑ Julian Benson (2016-02-29). "HoloLens Conker Game Looks Awful, Just Awful". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
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