Not as Good as the Original, But Still @#$% Good!
The premise behind the game is very simple. A red squirrel spends a night at his local pub getting drunk with some soldiers, and thus misses a date with his girlfriend, a dance-crazy valley-girl squirrel named Berri. His challenge is simply to return home to Berri, apologize for missing his date, and move on with his life, but after awakening from his drunken stooper, he gets sidetracked and becomes involved in solving a series of problems presented to him by various village-folk around, ranging from species to species, everything from bumble bees, to rats, to dung beetles, to farming equipment. Additionally, the "King of the Land", his mad scientist, and henchmen are looking for just such a red squirrel to replace the leg in the royal table, giving Conker an enemy to escape. These problems themselves are encountered in a multitude of environments as well, from a farmhouse barn, to a cow pasture with an angry bull, to a mountain made of poo, complete with cave, to the castle of Count Dracula himself.
These varied situations make for some incredible humor, unlike any I've encountered in a video game. Tons of re-enacted scenes from various movies which have reached the status of icon await the gamer. These include full blown scenes from "The Matrix", "The Terminator", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Untouchables", and and "Aliens", to more subtle references from "Jaws", "Deliverance", "The Exorcist", "The Godfather", and "The Wizard of Oz". Thematic humor isn't all there is to this game, though. If you think that potty humor had reached its zenith in the likes of Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, you are in for a pleasant surprise, with the opera-singing "Great Mighty Poo". There is also a good deal of humor involving sexual references, including size of various body parts, and the use of particular orifices. In other words, this game is definitely NOT for kids, but adults wil see the humor and laugh it off. In fact, there has probably never been a game so adult released on a platform before or since.
Graphically, the original release was much more than I bargained for on the N64, and the XBOX has made some MAJOR improvements even to that graphical presentation. There are a few minor drawbacks however. For instance, the "blood, goo, and guts" graphics which appear at various points that damage is done to one of the characters seems to be in the same consistency as for the N64 release. For the N64, these effects fit into the overall graphical presentation; however, for the XBOX they seem understated, or at times just plain unfitting. This has the effect of understating some of the more gory scenes of the game. Sound has also been improved in this XBOX version. The original N64 release was one of the best examples of music, sound-effects, and voice-work available on the N64, and though no notable content has been added to this XBOX remake, it does seem to resonate a bit more.
There are some problems with presentation that were not present in the original release but are in this one. One of them is the presence of loading times at points where it seems very inappropriate. This is partially due to the media-format of the XBOX. The loading times, however short, come at some very awkward occasions, interrupting gameplay and cut-scenes in ways that subtract from the storyline. This hurts the presentation much more than I had imagined it would, but not to the point of no return. Additionally, though sound has been clearly improved, there are some interruptions caused by technical issues in the XBOX at very inopportune times. One of these is in the third verse of the "Great Mighty Poo" song, which has a quick singing dialog between Conker and the Mighty Poo. This was very well done on the N64 version as it was timed perfectly for comic effect. The XBOX version seems to have a buffering pause for media reading at this point, which ruins the timing and makes it harder to see the intended comic effect. Worse, the video becomes out of sync with the audio, causing the scene to make little sense to those who haven't seen the N64 version's flawless delivery. This is only one example of how this problem permeates the entire game.
Gameplay is rich and varied. The context-sensitive buttons being so tied to the game, as a surreal parody of other platforming games, was a clever move, and adds significant fun to the gameplay, and a good amount of humor comes from their use. And because this game acts as a parody of platforming "cute little furry" games such as StarFox and Banjo-Tooie, it has a lot of various types of platforming content from such games, and even more from other games that don't technically fit into the genre. You will experience everything from traditional platforming running and jumping challenges, to simple platforming puzzles and brain teasers, to speed racing, to first-person shooting. This XBOX release has made some MAJOR improvements in the gameplay department, at least in terms of execution. It is now easier to control the camera (though not as easy as it should be), and thus easier to clear those annoying tight-rope-like walks. Still, not nearly enough has been done in this department. For instance, swimming is still a pain, if not more so than it was before.
Some other problems with gameplay are going to be completely unnoticed by those who are playing this game for the first time on the XBOX, but are incredibly annoying to those of us who played the N64 game and waited for this promised striaght port of the game. There are many scenes deleted from the original game For instance, the "electric eels" quest at the beginning of the "It's War" section is just gone. It was a part of the game to draw in several electric eels and make them connect to circuits to supply power, then pull a switch to restore power. This XBOX port reduces that to a single pull of a switch, and Conker can no longer even duck under water to swim around. I recognize that the "eels" quest was one of the most difficult and annoying parts of the game, but it WAS part of the game. Instead of cutting out parts of the game that actually presented some physical and intellectual challenge, the now Microsoft-owned Rare should have concentrated more heavily on cleaning up the controls.
So far I have dealt with the single-player game known as "Conker's Bad Fur Day", but there's still more to talk about in the multi-player department. The original release on the N64 had several multi-player games which took place in nearly all the available environments, from the pre-historic area to the war games. I think I had expected this to be the case with the XBOX Live presentation as well, only online capability and inclusion of multiple players; however, for XBOX Live, the game has been turned into a series of epic war environments for play among multiple-players playing different classes of soldiers, ranging from gunmen with rifles to gunmen with flamethrowers. I found the character control scheme to be particularly annoying. Additionally, it was very difficult to tell what was happening in certain situations. I wasn't quite sure at times if I had actually been hit, as there were few visual and/or sound effects to identify such points. Still, I found the game to be fun and engaging, despite the minor drawbacks. I think once gamers have worked out the controlling difficulties, this is likely to be an extremely popular XBOX Live title. The game does have a "bot" mode available for those who don't have XBOX Live, or wish to practice and become familiar with controls before engaging online with friends and foes.
I can't help but admit that with all the pluses and minuses added together, I still very much prefer the original N64 masterpiece. Still, I also can't describe the XBOX version as a disappointment. Most of the game is still there, and is presented in such a way that it adds a good bit of new depth. Some scenes are far more enjoyable with the sound and graphical improvements. This will always be one of my favorite games, regardless of which platform incarnation it appears again in. There was nothing like it at the time of its original release, and even after all these years, it stands up on its own as one of the most original gaming experiences available. Here's to hoping that now that Rare has the port done on the XBOX, we can anticipate a well-thought-out and worthy sequel in the (hopefully near) future.