At least not as interested as the most adamant fans are. To be fair, it’s certainly been strongly suggested that the company just wasn’t that interested in a sequel. Just as the “fall” of Rare is typically traced back to this moment, the downfall of Conker’s Bad Fur Day‘s sequel is usually blamed on the simple idea that Microsoft killed the concept. Shortly after Conker’s Bad Fur Day‘s release (September 2002, to be exact), Rare was acquired by Microsoft. In fact, the game was considered to be a colossal sales failure that’s shortcomings are widely attributed to Nintendo spending too much money trying to market it to ultimately smaller audiences, the game being released at the end of the N64’s run, and the fact that retailer blowback may have limited the title’s availability in some markets. So why did a seemingly beloved game like Conker’s Bad Fur Day never get a sequel? The answer to that question comes down to several factors that have kept the unhinged Conker in control after all these years.įirst off, you should know that Conker’s Bad Fur Day was not a huge sales success. Conker’s Bad Fur Day suffered from awful controls, a worse camera, and painfully linear design, but it went so far over the top at a time when absolutely nobody saw it coming that it’s hard not to look back fondly on the very idea of such a thing existing.
The game’s advertising campaign even included custom urinal mats, promotions with Playboy and Maxim, and targeted ads at major Spring Break parties!Īll these years later, that’s kind of what people remember most about the game. It’s not that Nintendo greenlit a “mature” game for the N64: it’s that the game they approved utilized the visual and design conventions of family-friendly titles and emphasized the kind of humor that was most popular among two distinct audiences: the kids who played Nintendo games and whispered fart jokes on the playground and frat boys. That’s the thing that remains so shocking about the title some 20 years later. Even in the year 2021, though, it’s hard to believe that Nintendo ever allowed one of their own publishing partners to release a game so absurdly vulgar, crude, and violent on one of their consoles. As an M-Rated game developed for the N64, 2001’s Conker’s Bad Fur Day was always going to stand out from the pack of that console’s largely family-friendly lineup of major titles.