Platforming

Lore & Background

While debuting as a family-friendly series, starting with Conker's Pocket Tales, it has shifted focus to mature audiences with the development and release of Conker's Bad Fur Day; during development, the game was modified to incorporate graphic violence, strong language, offensive humor, and other mature content. These changes resulted in the title receiving a Mature rating from the ESRB, accompanied by a content advisory displayed on the packaging and the title screen when immediately powered on to caution unsuspecting viewers who might otherwise mistake it for a platformer intended for a younger audience.

A graphically improved remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day, along with new multiplayer modes, was released as Conker: Live & Reloaded on June 21, 2005 in North America for the original Xbox. Conker's Bad Fur Day was released on Rare Replay and Live & Reloaded has been made backward compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X.

Reader's Guide

Games: Conker's Pocket Tales (1999) - Game Boy Color; Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) - Nintendo 64; Conker: Live & Reloaded (2005) - Xbox, PC; Young Conker (2016) - Microsoft HoloLens. Related games: Diddy Kong Racing (1997) - Nintendo 64; Project Spark (Conker's Big Reunion) (2014) - Xbox One; Rare Replay (2015) - Xbox One. Development: Conker was introduced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1997. The game Conker's Quest was presented by Rare as a 3D platformer aimed at a young audience for the Nintendo 64.

Later the same year, Conker's inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64 was confirmed. In early 1998, Conker's Quest was renamed Twelve Tales: Conker 64. In 1999, Conker made his first solo debut in Conker's Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Color. During development, Rareware struggled to release Twelve Tales: Conker 64, citing issues with project management and oversaturation of Mario 64-style games.

Realizing that Conker 64 lacked uniqueness, they cancelled it and restarted the project. In 2000, Twelve Tales: Conker 64 was retooled into Conker's Bad Fur Day with scatological humour. After E3, Chris Seavor came on board as designer. The first level, the beehive, added machine guns shooting wasps which Rare found funny and kept going with this idea.

After two more years of development, the game emerged as Conker's Bad Fur Day. After its release, Rare began development of a new Conker game referred to as Conker's Other Bad Day (a fan term for a cancelled concept; the title was never officially confirmed by Rare). Designer Chris Seavor said it was to be a direct sequel dealing with Conker's unsuccessful tenure as king. It was never confirmed which console it was for.

In 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare, so instead of finishing that game, Rare remade Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Xbox in 2005 as Conker: Live & Reloaded. After Live & Reloaded, Rare started development on Conker: Gettin' Medieval, an online multiplayer third-person shooter, but it was cancelled. At E3 2014, Conker was announced as a character in Project Spark. In 2015, Conker returned in a new episodic campaign for Project Spark titled Conker's Big Reunion, set ten years after Bad Fur Day.

The first episode was released on 23 April 2015, but before more episodes could be made, Project Spark's online services shut down. In 2015, Conker's Bad Fur Day was included in Rare Replay.