Conker's Bad Fur day is a very emblematic game of the era it came out in. Sometimes this is a good thing, many times it is a bad thing.
The main strong suit of the game (and the reason this game has a cult following to this day) is the writing. The game is a spoof of other "mascot platformers" of the time, and de-rails so far in the second half that it turns into a constant stream of movie references. Despite this being the main draw of the game, some of the jokes (mainly the elaborate film references) didn't amuse me very much. Since I don't fully jive with the humor, the only other thing Conker's Bad Fur Day had left to offer was it's gameplay, and in many regards, it fails pretty stupendously.
Conker's Bad Fur Day feels so close, yet so far from being fantastic in the gameplay department. The base for a fun platforming adventure is there; Conker controls without issue (aside from the cruel and unforgiving fall damage) and the game demonstrates creativity with the use of the "context-sensitive" mechanic.
Sadly, the game chooses to constantly introduce new gameplay styles instead of fleshing out the core gameplay in a vain similar to many other 90s platformers; it even goes as far as turning the last two chapters of the game into a third person shooter. In the first two hours of the game, most mechanics are introduced intuitively and unobtrusively; strangely, these explanations suddenly disappear part-way through the game making for many times where I had to look at a walkthrough to figure out what the hell I was doing. It also doesn't help that a lot of the "core" platforming gameplay is repetitive, obtuse, or downright frustrating due to the aforementioned fall damage problem.
Conker's Bad Fur Day is at its best when it combines it's immature, yet charismatic humor with simple platforming challenges and bosses. When it was at it's worst, however, I found myself getting VERY frustrated at some clunky controls to an alternative gameplay section (looking at you, hoverboard section!) or obtuse method of progression.
If Conker's Bad Fur Day seems right up your alley in the humor department, I do reccomend you play the game for yourself. If you're looking for a solid platformer with some humor on the side, give this one a skip and just watch a let's play of the game instead; you'll be saving yourself quite a bit of frustration.
The main strong suit of the game (and the reason this game has a cult following to this day) is the writing. The game is a spoof of other "mascot platformers" of the time, and de-rails so far in the second half that it turns into a constant stream of movie references. Despite this being the main draw of the game, some of the jokes (mainly the elaborate film references) didn't amuse me very much. Since I don't fully jive with the humor, the only other thing Conker's Bad Fur Day had left to offer was it's gameplay, and in many regards, it fails pretty stupendously.
Conker's Bad Fur Day feels so close, yet so far from being fantastic in the gameplay department. The base for a fun platforming adventure is there; Conker controls without issue (aside from the cruel and unforgiving fall damage) and the game demonstrates creativity with the use of the "context-sensitive" mechanic.
Sadly, the game chooses to constantly introduce new gameplay styles instead of fleshing out the core gameplay in a vain similar to many other 90s platformers; it even goes as far as turning the last two chapters of the game into a third person shooter. In the first two hours of the game, most mechanics are introduced intuitively and unobtrusively; strangely, these explanations suddenly disappear part-way through the game making for many times where I had to look at a walkthrough to figure out what the hell I was doing. It also doesn't help that a lot of the "core" platforming gameplay is repetitive, obtuse, or downright frustrating due to the aforementioned fall damage problem.
Conker's Bad Fur Day is at its best when it combines it's immature, yet charismatic humor with simple platforming challenges and bosses. When it was at it's worst, however, I found myself getting VERY frustrated at some clunky controls to an alternative gameplay section (looking at you, hoverboard section!) or obtuse method of progression.
If Conker's Bad Fur Day seems right up your alley in the humor department, I do reccomend you play the game for yourself. If you're looking for a solid platformer with some humor on the side, give this one a skip and just watch a let's play of the game instead; you'll be saving yourself quite a bit of frustration.