Conker's Pocket Tales

Conker's Pocket Tales is a Game Boy Color video game starring Conker. The cartridge is dual-format, and can therefore run on the original Game Boy, with some differences.

Conker's Pocket Tales is the first game in the Conker series, and the only game in the franchise made for a family-friendly audience. Twelve Tales: Conker 64 was meant to be the second but was cancelled and remade into the adult-oriented title, Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Plot
The game starts out with Conker and Berri at Conker's birthday party, but just as he is about to blow out the candles on his cake, his friend Berri is kidnapped by the Evil Acorn. The rest of the game is Conker solving puzzles and finding items to assist him on his journey.

The game ends when Conker rescues Berri from the Catacombs, getting his presents back along the way, and the Evil Acorn getting blasted out of the atmosphere by his own bomb, which was planted in said Catacombs. Conker, Berri, and all of the friends that Conker made throughout his quest gather together for a new birthday party for Conker, and Conker and Berri appear to live happily ever after, in direct contrast to Conker's Bad Fur Day.

History
Conker's Pocket Tales was created to serve as a precursor to the planned Nintendo 64 title Twelve Tales: Conker 64, however it ultimately ended up being massively re-tooled into Conker's Bad Fur Day, an "adult" title featuring profanity, violence and toilet humor. Conker's Pocket Tales can thus be seen as somewhat of an oddity in the Conker series, as it represents an intended direction for the series which has since been abandoned.

Locations

 * Willow Woods
 * Vulture Ville
 * Krow Keep
 * Mako Islands
 * Claw Swamp
 * Aztec Temple
 * Catacombs

Enemies

 * Bats
 * Blob
 * Buzzsaw
 * Cactus
 * Chair
 * Chasing Plant
 * Crab
 * Evil Crow
 * Fish
 * Flying Sword
 * Mushroom
 * Patrol Ant
 * Shark
 * Snake
 * Spider
 * Terrible Tulip
 * Tumbleweed
 * Wind-up Mouse
 * Wolf

Bosses

 * Hsstamean
 * Sol and Luxo
 * Waldorf
 * Honker the Skunk
 * Swamp Fiend
 * Siegfried

Cover


The cover of Conker's Pocket Tales shows Conker aiming with his Slingshot, while there are Evil Acorns, flowers and a Windmill seen around him. This image is derived from artwork from the cancelled Twelve Tales: Conker 64, that was in development at the time of this game's release. Of all things shown on the cover of Conker's Pocket Tales it is only Conker, the Slingshot and the Windmill (though with a different look) that actually makes appearances in the game. Many of these things would later make appearances in Conker's Bad Fur Day but the Evil Acorns were ultimately scrapped.

Differences between versions
There are a few differences if the game is played on a Game Boy compared to the Game Boy Color. With the exception of the loss or gain of color and slightly different graphics, here are the noticeable changes:
 * The control scheme is changed for some actions and abilities:
 * On the Game Boy version, pressing the Select button while in pause mode will toggle the inventory between presents/invitations and other items. On the Game Boy Color version, pressing the Select button while in pause mode brings up the game save screen.
 * On the Game Boy version, while in the water, the A button is used to dive and the B button is used to increase Conker's speed. On the Game Boy Color version, while in the water, the Select button is used to dive while the B button is used to increase Conker's swimming speed.
 * Saving on the Game Boy version is done via rotating S symbols that Conker will come across during his adventure, so called save points. However, games can only be saved on one of the two versions at a time.
 * The HUD (head-up display) on the Game Boy version has the energy bar and the ammunition at the bottom of the screen while it is at the top of the screen in the Game Boy Color version.
 * On the Game Boy version, the introduction sequence has a close-up of Conker's face while he is looking at a butterfly; a sequence that is not present in the Game Boy Color version.
 * The layout of the maps is also different between the two versions.

Reception
Conker's Pocket Tales has received mixed to average reviews from critics. On GameRankings the game has a 55% ranking based on four reviews. AllGame gave it a score of 3 out of 5 and compared the gameplay to The Legend of Zelda on NES, while GameBoy Station ranked it lower with a score of 4 out of 10. The critic at Game Informer was mostly negative in the published review, commenting that it was a "dreadful game starring an annoying little squirrel." While the design of the game was deemed "noble and interesting", the gameplay and plot was panned. Nintendo Power and IGN were more positive in their reviews of Conker's Pocket Tales, with the latter saying that while the game is fun it is not a masterpiece. The game was described as being targeted solely at kids and the gameplay was deemed to be simple and the music to be on the corny side. Despite this, the critic at IGN said that "Conker's Pocket Tales isn't complex, but it is amusing. Rare is constantly making games that have good gameplay, and this is not exempt despite its cliche tone and overdone premise."