Although Nintendo systems are notorious for censoring and toning down adult or vulgar content, there have been various mature games released on its consoles. A recent example, to name just one, is Madworld on Wii, which had enough violence and bad language to keep any mature gaming fan happy.
If you want to go back to retro times, however, few are as popular and infamous as Conker's Bad Fur Day. No joke or reference seemed to be too vulgar or out of line for this title, and even the hero is a hungover squirrel; yet this was a game from Rare, one of Nintendo's go-to developers at that time. Rare had earned the right to do almost anything it wanted, mainly due to the fact it had produced titles such as Donkey Kong Country on Super NES and Goldeneye 007 on Nintendo 64.
Former Rare employee Donnchadh Murphy spoke to notenoughshaders.com about his career with the developer, and interestingly about the beginnings of Conker's Bad Fur Day, its evolution from the family-friendly Conker’s Quest/Twelve Tales and the freedom afforded to Rare by Nintendo.
I don’t remember much being cut. Most of those ideas came from Chris Seavor, he was the twisted genius who came up with them. I do remember us joking about the mighty poo, saying it would be hilarious if we had a giant pile of poo that sang classical music. Like a lot of the gags they started out as a joke, and then Chris would announce that it was going in the game, so I’d draw up some concepts and model up the characters and the rest is history.
...Back in those days Rare was the golden child, so when they announced that we were changing direction there was no objections, none that I knew about anyway. I’m so glad it did change, because “Twelve Tales”, to put it politely, was not a good game. Chris Seavor took the reins in BFD and took it a direction nobody expected.
Did you play Conker's Bad Fur Day back in the days of Nintendo 64? Did you love the humour and concept, or was it the gaming equivalent of an immovable furball?
[source notenoughshaders.com]
Comments 66
I need to go back and play this someday. I don't know if it was actually a good game or if I liked it just because I was 12 when I played it.
I think I only liked it when I was younger because of the lewd sex references, cursing and poop jokes. If I recall correctly, I never got very far in it when I rented it.
Come back to Nintendo, Rare!!!
This is the only game worth playing on the N64.
If there was one game you needed to play, this one is it.
I would kill to see a 3DS remake.
It hurts me to remember when RARE as this good and what they are nowadays...
Conkers BFD and Starfox Adventures are gems. I'll never sell those games.
I'd like to see a 3DS remake, kinda like how OOT was done. ^_^
this is still a great game. my kids loved it, in that snickering way kids do. the game play was actually good. my now 27 yr old son was playing it a couple weeks ago and we had a good time remembering when he didn't quite 'get' the jokes but still enjoyed the game.
RARE was, indeed, amazing back in the day.
Never played the main story of the game. This is a game Ive been wanting to play.
I just remember the awesome multiplayer this game has.
I had such a great time with this game. The matrix spoof, the alien spoof, and the multiplayer on it were great! It was definitely good for laughs and had replay.
Truly an original, fun game. The multiplayer in this game was awesome as well, especially the Saving Private Ryan spoof level. My roommates and I played it for months and months. Even though it's unlikely at this point, I'd love for this game to come to Virtual Console. Hopefully Rare will get out from under Microsoft at some point.
Don't remember much about this. I was around 10 or so I think when this came out but my parents probably weren't real big on me having it, though they did let me rent it once.
Honestly though I don't think I'd let my kids (when I have some) play it either though, looking back at it .
Yeah Josh I would never let my kids play this. As rude and crud as this game was it was very funny and copied a lot of movie themes from the 90s. Good little gem that if you young I would not let your parents hear Anything from this game.
My favourite game from N64, no doubt.
dat kameo 2 render.
Rare is working on two next-gen games so maybe it has a chance.
Nintendo needs to get Rare back!
What a classic game. And the Microsoft came and did a horrendous remake on the X box. This game was boss and I dare any developer to do a game like this again. My money is yours.
I would like to take this moment to insert quotation marks around "mature" as it is used in the second sentence of this article. "violence and bad language" aren't mature. They're just not kid-friendly. There's a difference.
We all loved that game
I always had the impression that Nintendo didn't completely approve, as it was published by THQ (in the UK at least).
At the time the graphics, animation and amount of voice acting (a lot of it by Chris Seavor himself I think) were beyond anything I thought possible on the N64, truly making the most of the console, just like Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and Resident Evil 4 on the 'Cube. The level design and gameplay weren't really Banjo Kazooie quality though, and I guess it was mainly funny because you couldn't believe what you were seeing in a videogame...on the so-called 'kiddy' N64 of all things.Gotta love Gregg the Grim Reaper though (I hate cats too), and I always thought the multiplayer was seriously underrated; I spent about as much time on this with my cousin as Super Smash Bros.!
The game was great, the multiplayer mode was lots of fun, It's a great game to play by yourself and also with others.
...And I still need to play this game.
I really loved this game for the multiplayer. It had so many fun modes to play. My favorite multiplayer mode had to be Heist.
This is my favorite N64 game!!!
this was an awesome game, i was sad to see nintendo dropped rare but they had their reasons for it. the single player was fantastic as is and the multi player was great as well.
It's definitely one of my favorite games, though I am a bit more fond of the re-released Conker Live & Reloaded.
god that game gives me great memories of my youth by the loveable characters, the multiplayer experience, the cheat code names, the great mighty poo, and now of days when i saw the cartridge in a Microplay it was $50, One of the best N64 games i ever played and its from my favorite company of the Snes and N64 era Rareware.
I'm pretty sure I can still remember every word of The Great Mighty Poo song...
The scene in the barn with the pitchfork, and Gregg the Grim Reaper are classic. His reaction to finding catfish exist is hilarious.
Rare now makes avatars for Live...Microsoft, what the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!?
@Superconsole So can I, if only it was from playing the game itself rather than seeing it on youtube. I would love to play this game, if only a vc release was possible. It would be awesome if it was remead on 3DS (which could happen as Rare made two DS games) as long as it wasn't like the Xbox version.
Nintendo needs to make a Mario game like this.
From what I understand the Xbox version was the same only with better graphics and online.
I still need to play this gem.
Love that game (along with the other RARE greats from the day, I'm looking at you Perfect Dark, Blast Corps and 007). If you've got an old N64, try and find this title and play the poo out of it.
MS and Nintendo, please do the world a favor and work out something so we can get these titles on the VC someday. Seriously, they would print money.
I'm sorry....
adult = vulgar?
mature gaming = violence and bad language?
uh no...and certainly the two games you mentioned are not examples of "mature" games.
Violence/blood/gore doesn't give me a boner, and bad language and poo jokes don't tittilate my brainwaves.
But I do have fond memories of other RARE games...good times.
@Tech101 And censorship! IRONY!!!!
with all of those coins made in nsmb2, nintendo could buy microsoft gaming!
I've played it...well, the Xbox version anyway...and frankly, the game SUCKS. I am aware that the Xbox version had some unnecessary censorship, but that's not what I'm talking about; the gameplay itself is bad. You wander around pretty much aimlessly, being drug along from one random, out-of-nowhere experience to the next. The plot makes less than no sense and the level design isn't even very fun. Why Conker's Bad Fur Day is so popular is entirely beyond my comprehension.
Never Owned it but I would like to play it.
@ThreadShadow It's not really a mature/hardcore game like what people call Call of Duty. Conker is just adults only. I've never played it though, but from what I've seen it looks okay.
No. The Xbox version ruined the multiplayer. :/
Oh I remember NintendoCapriSun when he fought The Great Might Poo. Good times. Good times my friends.
I played this game a few years after release. I have mixed feelings since the humour was unique for a game and the experience was surreal, but the game was too hard so it lost some of its appeal. I remember doing things three times in a row, so the third time it was just a chore. I don't think most players made it to the end, so a lot of jokes were lost.
And Rare is now a shell of their former self, why would Nintendo want them back?
@Tech101 Its got far more censoring than the original, they changed the appearance of some of the characters, the multi-player isn't as good and they messed with the story.
man i love conkour bad fur day one of the best games i have ever played
Was a big fan of this back in the day, though it didn't have the gameplay polish of Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie, the humour more than made up for it.
"Ha! He can't even hang himself properly! He doesn't have an esophagus!"
that test your fear on starfox adventures is so hard we wish we could get past it. it is an awesome dinosaur game!
CBFD was a fantastic game and definitely an unexpected gem given that it was on a Nintendo system, featured a character who only previously featured in family-friendly titles, and was made by RARE. I laughed all the way through the game, and enjoyed the tight, refined gameplay as much as the endless gags and irreverant pop-culture references. Obviously the game was not made for children and shouldn't be allowed into the hands of one, but for the rest of us it was one of the best games released for the N64.
Really wanna try this game someday.
holy friggin' crap!!! I bought this game in the first week that came out and ALMOST didn't beat it because it was hard for me and I got stuck in certain places. Then I decided to keep trying and beat it a few weeks later. I'm glad it turned into the mature themed game it is now known for because Rare did it in an all out gross but humorous way that not only looked good but played decent not just in the single player mode but in the multi player modes too. A classic N64 game in my humble opinion.
This game's design was about as unique as it's premise. Definitely an unlikely spin on the classic 3D platformer! Anyone who can appreciate tongue-in-cheek humor would be entertained by this game.
Probably the best game on the entire system when it comes to cinematic presentation, graphics, animations, voice acting, humour, and ridiculousness.
The against-all-rules policy is what sold it for me. Made me respecting Rare even more, since no one else had the courage to produce such an over the top game. I'm still amazed about how they got through Nintendo's testers with some of the content, but I'm happy they did!
I remembered when this game came out, my parents got it for me and had no idea what it was about. Oh good times.
I´ve been trying to find this for a long time. It´s so rare and expensive though. I remember seeing it in a local game store back in 2001 for 100 €.
It's such a shame Rare did HD ports for XBLA of both Banjo games and Perfect Dark, but then stopped and never did this one. Especially since I wanted one of this most of all.
@dustin_g use cardboard to cover everything on the tv but that fear bar, and mute the game. you will pass with flying colors
@MrWalkieTalkie If I can remember right, Rare is barely alive. They have like 2 staff that were from the old Rare, the good Rare. And besides, as much as I hate to say this but, I think Nintendo should not want Rare back. Aren't they like with another company?
@Ulala #59
Microsoft bought Rare and threw it down the toilet. My guess is that they wanted to get rid of some competition.
Damm i was always WAITING for Rare to release Goldeneye for the 360 and the rest of their N64 stuff on the Wii VC i would of bought the lot as i guess many other also.
I was just as shocked as I was amazed and in love with this game. We already had Banjo Kazooie as a platformer, then DKC64 came, so honestly, another nice guy platformer would've been unnecessary anyway. I'm so glad it was something totally different. It's just too bad for the people that remember Conker from GB and DKR how nice he was and how he turned out in CBFD.
I want a sequel....lol
BFD was the first game I bought through the internet. It was in the beginnings of modern online game stores.
This is one of my all time favorite games. It is one of the saddest things about the dissolution of the old rare staff, that we will likely never see a sequel on any system (and if we do, it will be a very pale imitation of the original). I mean all modern day Rare could muster was a graphical make over of the original with online play. It is also a shame that Nintendo don't own conker.
I am the great mighty poo, and I'm going to throw my [something] at you!
I know every word to that song, I love the game.
one of the best multiplayers in N64 !!! Hundreds of hours played with 4 players, didn´t matter the framerate occasional drop with all the madness going on the screen. Great IA, good maps & modes, cool weapons, great learning curve (becoming master was no easy task, but hell it was fun), tons of strategies, it even has cheats to add more flavor to the mix (like the matrix effect when killing using melee weapons).
And the single player... it´s a monument to film and pop culture, hilarious from start to end. This game sits among Mario, the 64 Zeldas, Banjo, Starfox and Donkey inside my heart. It´s an icon of my adolescence =D
@Ulala I know, but I just wish times could get back to the way it used to. I wish we lived in a world where Rare was never bought by Microsoft and to this day are making incredible games for Nintendo only. Its impossible now, especially since there are practically no original members of Rare working there anymore and Microsoft changing their company to a team that only works on Kinect games. But I believe if Nintendo were to buy back Rare, maybe some of the original members would be interested in returning. Its just a wild dream of mine!
Easily one of the best games on the N64. The multiplayer easily beats out other classics like Goldeneye.
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