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Feature Articles > Preview > Preview: Conker Live & Reloaded
The Squirrel is back and he's as nasty as he wants to be! Rare's Conker's Bad Fur Day came at the end of the Nintendo 64's lifecycle and boy did it look strange alongside the wholesome Mario franchise. Why? Because Conker is a nasty, perverted, disgusting little game (in all the right ways) dressed in brightly colored kiddie-console clothing. Conker himself is a stogie smoking, enemy decapitating, huggable and loveable little squirrel who, in the soon-to-be released Conker: Live and Reloaded, is as nasty has he wants to be. Parents beware; it only looks like a kid's game. "Having that M rating lets me see a furry squirrel blast the heads clean off dismembered zombies in a pool of stinking blood," gloats lead artist Steve McFarlane. He goes on to explain that Conker is like any normal anthropomorphic squirrel suddenly thrust into difficult circumstances. He fights back hard, kicks back with a cigar, drinks a bit too much, he might do crude things like use the toilet and not flush it. And what a supporting cast. All animals, of course, and all twisted shadows of their normal kiddie console game selves. Seriously, it's easy to imagine this game without the M-rating until a character's foul mouth gets the better of them or the screen gets spattered with blood.
 But that's not the significance of the title. Working backwards, the game's single player is an enhanced port of the original Conker's Bad Fur Day. All the levels, characters, situations, only now they're working with Xbox level graphics. Yeah, now when Conker makes an obscene gesture or decapitates a zombie, you can see his fur. He's cuter than ever. Like a fuzzy and ultra-violent Howard Stern. New dialogue has been thrown in; Conker now cheekily makes fun of the designers and sometimes points out their (intentional?) mistakes. This kind of self-referential humor is refreshing in a genre that usually takes itself seriously. All the puzzles, cutscenes, dialogue, and everything that made Bad Fur Day a cult classic will be on Microsoft's console for anyone who loved it the first time, or just plain missed it. So we've got the original late nineties game, now looking and playing like its 2005, but that's not all. The exciting thing about Live and Reloaded isn't the Reloaded part. It's the Live. Xbox Live. Believe it or not, the new game plays online like Halo 2. Plenty of modes, team play, and other modes that really let the fur fly (pun intended). The furballs are fast and furious and it's a lot of fun to play violent deathmatch or team play against cute critters from the local zoo. The team play concept is as cute as it is dangerous. The animals are divided into factions. The Nazi like Tediz (teddys ﾖ get it?) do battle with the heroic Squirrels over 6 maps in a WWII-like setting. The other 6 maps will feature the same sides still fighting in the future. Think laser guns and missile launchers. There are six character classes too, ranging from Spies to Snipers. It's one half Battlefield 1942 and the other half Ratchet & Clank. Maps have specific goals, often imitating movies ﾖ yes, there's a DDay Beach scene if you can believe it and other modes like Capture the Flag and other variants, are available. Dumbots are available, these are AI controlled players you can hone your skills against before going on Xbox Live and that's helpful given the different stances characters can use (prone and crouch, for example) and the weapons, turrets, and even vehicles they can use in the game, but in the current build you can't fill out the ranks on Live with Dumbot players. Multiplayer is in 3rd person with a terrific control scheme and it'll be interesting to see what kind of community a game like this spawns.
 "Conker: Live & Reloaded is more of an indulgence into the world of gaming; taking elements of all gameplay and mixing them up with timing, comedy, crudity and a large dose of irony, which spits out something really different that just ain't out there," McFarlane told us. "It's like two games in one." And judging from the latest build they sent us, both of them are good games ﾖ personally we can't wait to see the community this foul-mouthed, obscene, gory, M-rated, kiddie, furry, extravaganza spawns on Xbox Live. It might just melt your hard drive. "Oh, you want to know the secret behind Conker's success? It's because he's so cute." Yeah, that's got to be it. Conker is for Xbox only and is due out in just about a week! Check your local store for details. And, obviously, this one is not for little kids folks.
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