10 Ways In Which Rare’s Conker’s Bad Fur Day Has Aged Poorly

Conker’s Bad Fur Day generated a ton of controversy for its mature subject matter, but it was also quite popular. It didn’t age too well, though.

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Conker’s Bad Fur Day was quite a popular video game at the time of release. It served as a wonderful and fresh subversion of the popular tropes of the time (platforming, cute furry animals as protagonists), and it generated acclaim for its sharp writing and pop culture references. Of course, it also generated a ton of controversy for its mature subject matter, which included drinking, swearing, sexual content, and graphic violence.

However, the game is now twenty years old, and modern video game players will face an enormous barrier to entry should they wish to play it today. To say it has dated is a massive understatement.

10 The Graphics

Of course, the first thing modern players will notice are the graphics. Any Nintendo 64 game is bound to look horrible today – even the ones that were highly acclaimed in their time. Conker’s Bad Fur Day is certainly no exception. The game looks borderline horrible today, and its poor visual quality will certainly throw off many modern players.

Yes, there is still a good game buried beneath the poor graphics (graphics aren’t everything, after all). But there’s no denying that they serve as a major barrier for entry.

9 The Controls

Another thing that should stay behind in the early 2000s is the controls. The PlayStation pretty much perfected the controller layout, and companies (including Sony) have been copying its design for the last twenty years.

Absolutely no one is asking for the return of the dreaded N64 controller. Not only was the controller physically ugly, but it resulted in some truly nasty and unresponsive controls. Playing on an N64 controller today is like learning Latin.

8 The Genre

Platforming games were certainly a product of their time. Platforming video games were huge in the late ’90s and early 2000s, largely due to the novelty of 3D technology.

As 3D became a common mainstay and companies perfected the tech with their own unique genres and games, platformers slowly waned and eventually disappeared from the mainstream. Conker is a good platforming game, but a platforming game nonetheless, and it remains very much a product of its technological time.

7 Fuzzy Protagonist

Conker’s physical design was intentionally created to subvert his fellow fuzzy protagonists of the time. For some reason, platforming games were typically accompanied by a cute animal protagonist of some sort. And most of these characters were specifically designed to appeal to children.

In came Conker, who looked the part of a traditional platforming protagonist but who drank, swore, was crude and made numerous sexual references. By now, the novelty of Conker as a character has long worn off. Speaking of which…

6 The Novelty

Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a fun game, but three-quarters of its success came from its novelty. At the time, the Nintendo 64 (and the gaming landscape in general) was geared mostly to children.

As such, it was filled with cute characters, digestible stories, simple gameplay, and loud colors. Conker’s Bad Fur Day was the antithesis to the gaming landscape of the time, offering up a crude, mature, and challenging experience for adults. Today, it may seem like just another platformer.

5 The Pop Culture References

Conker’s Bad Fur Day was released in 2001. Like any comedy movie or game that relies on parody, it mostly parodied the popular things of its time. Some references remain timeless owing to being “old” at the time, like Aliens and Exorcist references.

However, many parodies that may have seemed fresh at the time – including ones of Saving Private Ryan, The Blair Witch Project, and The Matrix – may now seem dated and played out.

4 The Multiplayer

One of the most surprising aspects of Conker’s Bad Fur Day was its multiplayer component. Not only did the game provide a relatively long and challenging campaign, but it also included a surprisingly deep and incredibly fun multiplayer component that stood proudly alongside games like GoldenEye and Mario Kart.

Of course, what seemed fun and fresh back in 2001 will seem borderline unplayable today owing to the always-changing multiplayer landscape.

3 Compressed Voices

Technology has come a long way since 2001, and it shows through Conker’s compressed and fuzzy-sounding vocals. At the time, full vocals were actually quite the novelty, as many games were still employing the “scrolling text along the bottom of the screen” thing.

But “novelty” in 2001 equals “dated tech” today. There’s no getting around it – Conker’s Bad Fur Day both looks and sounds horrible, and the voice acting may seem more headache-inducing than enjoyable.

2 The Vulgar Humor

Much like the pop culture references and explicit language, the vulgar humor of Conker’s Bad Fur Day was virtually unheard of in the 2001 gaming landscape. This was certainly not a game for children, and the giant disclaimer on the box said as much.

In many ways, it borrowed the style employed by South Park, which at the time was enormously popular and controversial. However, video games (and TV in general) have become far more vulgar than this over the years, and Conker may seem very tame by today’s standards.

1 Xbox Remake

But perhaps the biggest thing preventing modern players from Conker’s Bad Fur Day is the Xbox remake. In 2005, Rare released a remake for the Xbox titled Conker: Live & Reloaded which completely updated the graphics and added a new multiplayer mode.

It was a far “cleaner” product, complete with smoother gameplay mechanics and much better production values. It made the 2001 original near obsolete – even though the censorship proved controversial within the game’s fanbase.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/conkers-bad-fur-day-aged-poorly/