Conker Live and Reloaded Xbox Review

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June 29th, 2005 Jason Rybka Leave a comment Go to comments

Conker Live and Reloaded Review Sit back and let me tell you a little story, go on just sit back and relax a bit. In 2001 Rare brought out one of the very last games for the Nintendo N64 system. At the time Rare was the golden boys for Nintendo, so they had a reputation for making hits and were known for their quality games. Then they released Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Nintendo was about to have a bad day themselves and they did not even see it coming. While the game had a cute wide-eyed character, â€œConkerâ€, it was the first M (Mature) rated game ever released by Nintendo. The cute little squirrel turned out to be a drunken fouled mouth guy who poked fun at every hit movie at the time, even the television ads were too racy and needed to be edited. It also caused Nintendo to lose some of its sugar-coated reputation, quite possibly a good thing to some.

While the game was something that no one ever expected to see released on a Nintendo system, it turned out to be one of the biggest selling games. It also was certainly the most controversial game ever for Nintendo. We all know the rest of the story; Rare left Nintendo’s family and found a new home on the Xbox. Now almost 5 years to the date of this game’s original release, we have a remake version. Not a sequel, a remake of the game. Having enjoyed the first game I was anxious to revisit the old gang and yes looked forward to singing along to the Poo song once again. The question that remains is this: Is Conker Live & Reloaded worth the Time and Money?

Gameplay

Conker Live & Reloaded is really three games rolled up into one package. Of course, first there is the remake of Bad Fur Day and while the game has been polished up and a few things added, its the same game throughout. For those who may not have ever played the game or may not have been old enough, Conker is a fouled mouth partier and loves to drink. He also has a knack for finding trouble, or does trouble find him? He stumbles out of his favorite bar one night and since he has one too many, he gets lost on his way to his girlfriend’s place. What follows is a great adventure with some very strange twists. He soon finds himself meeting some strange characters that all are parodies of well-known movie and childhood storybook characters.

The adventure begins and while the game offers plenty of interesting twists and challenges, Conker also has some great parodies which includes a take on Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix. Rare also took a few jabs at Microsoft and the Xbox system during the single player game. If you have ever placed a game in and was greeted by that friendly message â€œthe disc may be damaged or dirty please clean or replace the disc and reinsert it,â€ you have experienced what we call the dreaded â€œDDE,â€ short for dirty disc error. One of the games best new gags is where the game freezes and Conker starts to swear up and down asking if this game even went through the testing phase or did they just release it. It’s this humor that makes the single player game interesting, and pretty insane. While it has some great gags and humor you can’t help but think the game was a bit funnier back in 2001, if you played it back then.

The next game, the multi-player mode has been totally revamped. If you played the original, the fun was the fact you could grab any weapon laying around and use it. Well, they changed it by taking another parody of T-2 and making an online mode out of the basic concept, more on this in the Xbox Live section of the review. It was a decent idea and plays great with the right people but can become very annoying. The third game is really just more of the online features except you play against bots and need to beat several missions on three different settings.

While enjoyable the joke is really on the gamer playing it since you think there is a chance to hear everything unedited and uncensored. You will earn the right to hear more swearing but the game is still bleeped and has that South Park formula. To be honest, it is funnier hearing it edited. The last game mode is an extension of the online mode where you play against bots or AI characters in several chapters and have to beat all of them. The twist here is to unlock everything you have to beat them all on each the three difficulty levels. Of course this is only if you want to unlock everything and not everyone will want to take the time or care about unlocking everything.

Control / Playability

The controls are smooth and set-up well, although you will need to learn two basic control schemes; one for the single player game and one for the online mode which is a FPS (first person shooter) style. The learning curve is about 30 minutes and while the single player controls are great and everything is where it should be the online controls seem a bit loose and will take a little longer to get used to. It almost seems that they may have missed a few tweaks, nothing major, you just need to get used to the way they work.

The one major complaint is that you always have to adjust the view in both modes of play. This can really get a gamer frustrated, but then again it may have been done purposely since the game has a theme of messing with the gamer anyhow. After a while it becomes less bothersome and more enjoyable and there is no delay, which is good since the game does require a lot of jumping or tail flying, and you need to hit the right mark.

Xbox Live

You won’t even need to play the single player mode to play the online part of the game. They made it separate and the basic concept is the Tediz verses the â€œSHCâ€ another parody of course on the Machines verses the Humans. Each level is different and offers some unique weapons and vehicles that make the game fun to play and really shows that time was spent on making every map as detailed as possible. You can set the game up several ways and even change characters during the game.

Most of the online modes are made up of Death matches and capture the flag. You can send text or voice messages to your friends and they made it easy to create or join a match. The lobby is well done and shows again time was spent on the online mode. Lag is not an issue even with 16 players battling it out with planes, four wheelers and massive gun turrets. Rare made the game so that every map is a brand new game in one way or the other and that was impressive.

What is not so great and can be annoying is the spawn system of the online mode. There are only certain places on each map where you can re spawn after dying. Once players learn where these points are it can be a bad day for players who hate spawn killers. I expected a better design from Rare and for them to leave the game the way it is online really surprised me. It just shows that somehow they really left in something that takes away from the whole mode they worked so hard to create. I just can’t excuse this from a company so well-known for their FPS games in the past.

Gamers will find a way to enjoy the online mode despite this design flaw and have fun. However, you may want to play it with people you often play online with. If you join a public game the best advice is look at each spawn point before entering that area and use your skills and be careful. The problem can be outsmarted so to speak but it should never have been an issue. The rest of the online game features the same great gags and opening animations with humor thrown in. Each character or class has their own crazy comments while you are playing and you can’t help but laugh out load while in game. There is a lot of blood as well, at times this is funny due to the cute cartoon look of the game, but for younger gamers it may be a bit much to handle – seeing as this is rated M though the kiddies really shouldn’t be playing.

Graphics / Presentation

The graphics are very good both online and in the single-player story mode. Conker looks great! The landscapes and creatures come to life almost like a movie itself. Every character and object has something unique added to them. While some of the major characters do look very familiar and some liberties were taken, it was meant as a compliment. Every stage or level is very detailed and the game has a look that fits. It’s almost worth playing the game just to see the graphics and the animation. The spoofs and parodies of the movies are remarkably good and dead on.

Conker Live and Reloaded Screenshot

Conker: Live and Reloaded Xbox Screenshot

View all Conker: Live and Reloaded Screenshots in the XBS Gallery

Audio

The game shines in this area and fans of the original will hear the same voice talents they are familiar with from the past. The voiceover artists did a great job and each one seemed to really be into the role and not just reading from the script. You will also hear some very realistic sound effects of natural body functions. Although it’s funny at first, it can and does get old. Even though most of the audio is bleeped, this is not the sort of game for the younger gamers. Nothing is off limits and its not just fart jokes, there are plenty of sexual jokes and puns.

Replay Value

The single player game is pretty much done once you beat it. You can go back and replay the game, but its made to be beaten one way only, there are no different patterns unfortunately. Its fun while it lasts, then its just nice to go back to one of the better gags or chapters and replay it. The ending and whole storyline does have a very interesting twist and really makes you think after the laughing is done. Now the online mode has some issue but is still fun and well-made, if you have friends that own the game, then this of course will raise the replay value.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 8.0/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

Conker Live & Reloaded showcases some great graphics and a decent story. While it is a remake and not a sequel it was nice to revisit the fouled mouthed squirrel. The humor and gags still hold up for the most part and the few added gags made it a bit different for fans of the original version. In some ways the game almost hints at the fact this won’t be the last time we see Conker on the Xbox, or should I say the Xbox 360? It would have been a better game if Rare would have taken time to see that the spawning system was flawed in the online mode.

Overall the game still shows off some great elements. For those who are die-hard fans purchasing this one will certainly bring back great memories. For those who never played the game you may want to rent it first and see if it’s worth the money for you. The single player mode is challenging and fun but can be a little short depending on your skills at this type of game. The real appeal was supposed to be the chance to play online and again while it is a bit frustrating it can be enjoyable to play as long as you know about the issues and can find away to still enjoy it.

XBox Solution