You may be wondering how a game about a talking squirrel could possibly be lewd? Well dear reader, before you start questioning the integrity of LewdGamer (or gods forbid, this author) please direct your eyes to these…

So now we have that out of the way…

Conker’s Bad Fur Day broke the mould back in the days of family friendly gaming. Coming from the developer Rare, this game at the time, pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in console gaming and gaming in general. Resplendent with bad language, Conker’s Bad Fur Day featured crude humour, suggestive language and as much titillating content as Rare could reasonably get away with. It may come as a bit of a surprise to some, that Conker originally stumbled drunkenly onto the gaming market via Nintendo’s N64 console as at the time, Nintendo maintained the appearance in public the public eye, of being a more family friendly or even “kid’s toy” console, compared to the PC or some other gaming systems.However, the appearance of Conker was once meant to be quite different. Originally our protagonist squirrel had a much cuter appearance and more family friendly approach to the humour and characters in his game. After a rather critical reception of the game in its design phase, Rare then decided to change the game, gearing it towards a more mature and adult audience.

This adult content was also not the only thing about Conker’s Bad Fur Day which pushed the established boundaries of console gaming at the time. The game itself is a mix of old school 3D platforming, mixed with puzzles and something which was a new thing for the time, context sensitive areas. In this, pressing a certain button in one of these areas would trigger an event to happen that may either aid Conker in his quest or just be a bit humours somewhere down the line. The game also featured other dynamics which were new for the time including; dynamic shadows, no draw distance, coloured lighting and other smaller, more mechanical tweaks in game technology that would be copied across many of Rare games, such as the popular Banjo-Kazooie series. Despite it being difficult to get a “game over,” the platforming itself is of that old school, unforgiving, get-it-right-or-not-at-all style that some may find off-putting or unpleasant. However to the more dedicated, hardcore or old school gamer, it can be quite rewarding to master the controls in pursuit of seeing things through to the end.

The central plot of Conker’s Bad Fur Day is itself lewd, crude and outlandishly silly, all of which adds to the humour. After a night of heavy drinking, Conker attempts to make his way back to Berri, his girlfriend, who is valley girl styled chipmunk. However, being quite intoxicated it is impossible for him to successfully find his way home and thus Conker ends up getting lost in the land of the Panther King. It is here, in this down-the-rabbit-hole aspect, where thing get silly, in the typical style of more British (and to your author, familiar) humour. The Panther King’s table is missing a leg, his quadriplegic lackey Professor Von Kriplespac (a name which is a clear parody of the words ‘Cripple’ and ‘Spac,’ a British term for “Spaz”) suggests that Conker would be the right size to replace the table leg and thus our antagonist is born into the narrative. Naturally not wishing to fill such a role, Conker sets out on his adventure, with antics galore then ensuing. As the game continues, the plot thickens to involve a weasel mafia, bank robberies, aliens and sentient excrement, all leading ultimately to Conker building an “empire of shit,” through which he is so exonerated from his predicament.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a humors game with a surprising and a rather melancholy ending, fitting in despite its otherwise slapstick and scatological comedy. Despite its age, Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a game everyone (of appropriate age, naturally) needs to play. Both humorous and engaging, it served in some respects, to set new standards in games, regarding adult humour, music, gameplay and even technologically in ways which helped catapult Rare into legendary status among game developers it enjoys today.