Conker: Live and Reloaded

Conker: Live and Reloaded is one of the best exclusive games that was released for the original Xbox. This was a remake of an awesome Nintendo 64 game and one of the first big time remakes of that era now that I think about it. You know, this game was a lot of fun and I am really surprised that Microsoft/Rare did not do more with this foul mothed trouble making, but heroic little squirrel! I recently played through this for the first time in many years and wanted to share my thoughts on it.

All Hail The King!

The story that is told in Conker: Live and Reloaded is a lot of fun. It is like a gross out comedy, but the game actually has a lot of depth to it. We play as Conker, a squirrel who is getting hammered at his local bar and ends up on one hell of a wild adventure as he tries to make his way home to his girlfriend, Berri. The story has a lot going on and one thing I have to say that surprised me when I played through this recently was the ending! The ending is rather bleak and really does make you think, something I do not remember picking up on when I played this originally.

An All Star Cast

While I like the plot of Conker: Live and Reloaded, it is the cast of characters that make this game so much fun. Conker is awesome, but the Queen Bee, Birdy, Count Batula, The Weasel Mafia, and The Great Mighty Poo and Death are some of the memorable characters that always spring to my mind when I think of this game. Now, as great as the story and the characters are in this remake, I do have a major issue and that is the fact that the game is censored!!! How in the blue hell did Nintendo allow Rare to make a foul mouthed version of this game for the Nintendo 64, but for the more “mature” Xbox console, it was decided to censor the game?

Look At That Fur!

I played Conker: Live and Reloaded on the original Xbox back in the day and I remember being blown away by how good the game looked. When I played through it again recently, I played it on my Xbox Series X and I have to say, this game holds up visually! The fur on Conker looks amazing and the whole game looks like some kind of twisted mature Disney/Warner Bros cartoon! It has a ton of imagination and I love how varied the different areas of the game are. The voice acting is fantastic too, really bringing these characters to life, but as I just said, I do wish that they did not censor the game.

Making You Work For It

Conker: Live and Reloaded is a game that is a product of its time. It is a 3D platform action game and the controls make it feel like a game from 2005. I am not saying that it is bad, but the controls are a little stuff compared to what AAA 3D platformers are like and that damn camera loves to drive you crazy! The game is fun to play and you have some platforming, puzzle solving, and even some 3rd person shooter style action too. While I think the game actually holds up pretty well. I do wonder if someone younger were to play this for the first time now if they would say that the game is a bit on the clunky side? I certainly would not disagree with them if they did.

Pros:

• Conker is a very likable character
• The game still looks visually impressive today!
• The voice acting is hilarious
• There is a lot of variety in this game

Cons:

• It sucks that they decided to censor this game!
• It is a little rough around the edges due to it being nearly 20 years old

A few years ago, a game for the N64 was released, that well, raised a few eyebrows and caused many parents to pay closer attention to the type of games their kids where playing. Conker's Bad Fur Day definitely left its mark and was also one of the few attempts at diversifying the type of games released on the N64. However, it had more then just shock value, it also put together a solid game with creative (and foul) humor, solid gameplay techniques, and great visuals for its day. So why re-release it on the Xbox?

Well, first Conker's Bad Fur Day has received a number of cosmetic changes along with a few more substantial changes. It's still the same basic game with the sometimes less then intuitive path forward. In others words, it's easy to get stuck. These days that's not much of a problem however, as you can pick up a game walkthrough numerous places online. It also still has raw humor with the piles of dung, the drinking to put out fires by natural means, and so on. The graphics did get the most noticeable upgrade however and they actually look phenomenal considering they started out on the N64.

So that's the 'Reloaded'? part, now for the 'Live'?. The multiplayer is a tad on the confusing side. Honestly, the best way to sum it up is that there are a ton of things happening with barely enough time to react. I more you play, the more adept you'll get but there is a hefty learning curve. Things like the interface being a tad busy, trying to get a quick weapon upgrade to be competitive out of the gates, in addition to game balancing issues that can make the experience frustrating.

Conker: Live and Reloaded isn't for everybody, but if off color humor gets you going it'll be money well spent. Although the multiplayer gameplay can be challenging, you will figure out how to make it enjoyable as long as nobody takes advantage of the obvious balancing issues. A new adventure with Conker would have been better, but still giving a classic an upgrade works too.