When it was first unveiled at E3 1997, Conker's Quest: Twelve Tales was a platformer starring a wide-eyed squirrel and his forest buddies. It featured several multiplayer modes and great graphics. Most notably, it focused on detailed facial expressions and character animation. Ultimately, Conker went back into development, as it seemed too similar to Banjo Kazooie. Three years later, Conker resurfaced at E3 2000. The game was re-christened Conker's Bad Fur Day and the only thing that remained of the older game are the expressive facial animations. The new Conker is no longer cute. The new Conker is not rated "E". The new Conker is a beer swilling, shotgun totin', no BS takin' badass. Conker's Bad Fur Day is in the same vein as Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie, yet it is much more story-based and less focused on item collecting.

Conker's Bad Fur Day starts with an extended cut scene flashing back to the titular bad fur day.  Conker is at the local pub, trading rounds of brew with his buddies, and he calls his girlfriend to tell her he'll be home late. Next thing Conker knows, he's waking up with a monstrous hangover. 

Conker's Bad Fur Day once again affirms Rare's graphic mastery of the Nintendo 64 hardware. The combination of great animation, incredible textures and solid framerate (except for part of the intro) give Conker the best graphics on the N64, surpassing Rare's own Perfect Dark. As always with Rare, their textures are the best on the N64, striking a balance between a cartoony world and the realistic. Animation, the touted feature of the original Conker game, is great here too. The characters move and breathe with life and facial expressions and the lip-synching gives Conker the feel of a high quality cartoon. 

Completing the audio-visual one/two punch, is the game's audio. Conker's Bad Fur Day features more than 2 hours of excellent voice-overs. All of Conker's sound is presented in Dolby surround sound and greatly benefits from it. Clues, items and the like are all enhanced through the use of surround sound. The voice work is all top-notch and, in most cases, genuinely hilarious. The music also follows in the tradition of Banjo Kazooie, with modulation in real time and changing tunes. The music shows great range, from orchestral music to disco.

Like all Rare games, Conker's controls are spot on. Conker adds the notion of context sensitive controls-somewhat similar to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Throughout the game, there are pads with the letter "B" on them. When Conker stands on these pads a light bulb appears over his head. Whenever one of these bulbs appears, the "B" button is the context sensitive button. What the "B" button does is totally dependent on the context of the level. Sometimes it will turn Conker into an anvil, other times it will make Conker unzip his fly and cut loose with a stream of urine.  It all depends on the context of the situation. 

Perhaps the best part of Conker's Bad Fur Day is the way the game's story relates to the gameplay. The sense of immersion is enormous. Each action in the game feels worthwhile and part of the advancement of the game. Nothing feels forced or unnecessary. The sheer hilarity of the tasks you are asked to do -- coupled with the presentation of the action -- is something to been seen and experienced. 

Conker's Bad Fur Day is also noteworthy because of its comedy. Expressly comedic games are few-and-far-between and Conker's Bad Fur Day is perhaps the king of comedy. While the game certainly has it's share of potty humor and bawdiness, most of the humor is in a satirical vein. Conker's Bad Fur Day shares humor stylings with Monty Python, and has its share of dry humor. Nothing is safe from Conker's satirical sword; the entire game thumbs its nose at the platform genre. Several movies, from "Reservoir Dogs" to "Saving Private Ryan" to "Terminator 2" are all victims of British humor. It becomes commonplace to stop playing and laugh out loud at the antics on-screen. 

Following the Rare formula, Conker's Bad Fur Day includes seven great multiplayer modes. "Beach" can be played from two perspectives: that of the evil Tediz and the helpless Frenchies. The Tediz have to keep the Frenchies from escaping to gay Paris using heavy weapons. The Frenchies have to make it off the beach and past the entrenched Tediz. "Raptor" places cavemen against raptors. The cavemen have to steal the raptor eggs, and cavemen have to feed the cave men to their young. "War" pits the Tediz against the squirrel army in either a race to activate a chemical weapons blast or in a capture-the-flag mode, with each side armed to the teeth. "Heist" pits four heavily armed thugs against each other in a bank robbery. "Tank" is just what it says: tank battles.  A neat feature of "Tank" is the option to have one player drive the tank while another is the gunner. "Race" is for two players in a hoverboard race. "Deathmatch" is kill-or-be-killed. Conker's Bad Fur Day's multiplayer modes don't have the depth of Perfect Dark, but they are fun with a few friends or by yourself. 

Ultimately, Conker's Bad Fur Day won't be judged on its racy content, the boundaries it pushes, or the people it offends. Gameplay will be the ultimate cause of the game's longevity. Conker's Bad Fur Day is an unexpected winner, but it will be overlooked by many due to it being released so late in the N64's life. Don't overlook it though, because it is the total package: Great graphics, great sound, hilarious and over-the-top humor and, most importantly, incredible gameplay. Chances are this is the N64's last big game and it's going out with a bang.