Conker's humble beginnings are, ultimately, not worth your time.
The story, if you could call it that, is the usual damsel in distress scenario. An evil acorn crashes Conker's birthday party, steals all of his presents, and then runs off with Conker's girlfriend, Berri. Throughout the game you will be finding presents that the sinister acorn dropped. These will eventually lead you to your final goal of rescuing Berri. Nothing really exciting in the plot, leaving it forgettable and lame by today's standards. After all, even considering Conker is a squirrel, having an acorn as the main villain is pretty ridiculous. Not to mention the friendly acorn NPCs. Okay Rare, we get it, he's a squirrel.
The game plays as an overhead adventure game that resembles the 2D games of the Legend of Zelda series. Conker's main attack is a slingshot that fires seeds at enemies. Running out of ammo rarely happens since there is plenty of it around the game, and it reappears after you leave an area. Conker can also preform a jump attack which is required to defeat certain enemies. Using it to defeat the required enemies however, is a very difficult task. Usually, the enemies you need to defeat with it are moving targets. Timing the jump to hit them is a very aggravating experience, especially when you cannot pass into the next area without killing them first.
Throughout the game, you will cross several themed areas hunting presents. Some of the areas include: a wild west showdown, a tropical island setting, and a medieval castle. At the end of each area is a boss fight. Although each boss is unique, each one is simply defeated by hitting the weak spot with your slingshot. How you get to the boss depends on the area. Some areas require you to complete a series of mini games, while others are simply make your way to the end. The mini games in some of the areas are poorly implemented and can be quite challenging and difficult to complete. Along the way you will also pick up tools to help you into new areas. If you want to, you can also collect hidden presents and party invitations that are scattered across each area. Collecting these will also raise your rank. The names of the ranks are often amusing such as "Woodland Weirdo" and "Maniac Mammal".
The graphics are very well done although frame rates tend to drop when too many enemies are on screen, causing the game to lag. The music is comparable to the beats heard in the Donkey Kong Country games. In fact, if you let Conker stand in one spot for a while, the actual music from Donkey Kong Country will play. Some of the tunes and sounds heard in the game can get repetitive and downright annoying after a while though.
If you happened to miss this game when it was released, there is nothing about it that makes it worth playing today. The story is razor thin and the game can be extremely frustrating in some areas. It was a decent Game Boy Color adventure game in 1999, even though it never really stood out among other games. Overall, Conker's past is best not visited since he is much more entertaining in his later games.