Conker

"It's true what they say. The grass is always greener, and you really don't know what it is you have, until it's gone... gone... gone."

- Conker The Squirrel

Conker The Squirrel, otherwise known by his first name Conker, is a and the main protagonist of the Conker franchise. His first appearance was in the Nintendo 64 racing title, Diddy Kong Racing. Conker has a girlfriend named Berri.

Since his debut, Conker started a family-friendly character. His series was the same, with the release of Conker's Pocket Tales and the planned release of Twelve Tales: Conker 64. The latter title was cancelled, then entirely reworked into the infamous Conker's Bad Fur Day, which was designed for mature audiences. Conker and his franchise were for mature audiences ever since (excluding Young Conker for Microsoft's HoloLens).

Conker's name is directly taken from "conker", which is a nickname given to horse chestnuts in the United Kingdom.

Appearance
Conker has always been portrayed with his trademarked orange-red fur, with tan-yellow patches of fur on his torso and bottom part of his face, and a blue hue in his eyes. He has big eyes and buck teeth. His appearance from Diddy Kong Racing and Conker's Bad Fur Day, while having recognizable differences in clothing and fur, is relatively similar.

Prior to Bad Fur Day, Conker had a shirt that was blue on the front and yellow on the back. He wore white gloves that appeared to blend in with his fur. His sneakers were blue and white. His mouth area was entirely white, as well as the tips of his ears. The tip of his tail was a more beige color. Conker was also larger in the hip area, which gave him a chubby appearance.

By Conker: Live & Reloaded, Conker wore a darker blue jacket and green pants. His gloves and chubby look were removed. His Bad Fur Day look was reinstated for Conker's Big Reunion.

While not related to physical appearance, Conker has cartoon-like facial exaggerations in Bad Fur Day and Live & Reloaded. Examples include when Conker's eyes enlarge out of shock from the Haybot or when Conker grabs himself Cash. Conker's entire face can stretch and widen based on his emotion.

Diddy Kong Racing
Conker's first appearance was in the Nintendo 64 title, Diddy Kong Racing. The game was revealed at E3 1997 along with his own starring adventure title, Conker's Quest (which was renamed to Twelve Tales: Conker 64 in 1998). Conker's inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing was part of Rareware's plan to familiarize gamers with him and therefore help popularize the then-upcoming Conker's Quest. This proved to be successful in Banjo's case, as his inclusion helped with promoting his own adventure title, .

Conker is of one of the playable characters. In the story, Conker helps Diddy Kong, Timber, Taj, and the other characters prevent Wizpig from taking over Timber's Island. Conker is a middleweight racer, but his vehicles have heavyweight attributes, with speed above average and acceleration and turning below average. Conker's top speed without Bananas is 56.5 mph, which is shared with Bumper and Timber.

Every character has their own "theme instrument" for the character selection menu's music. The music's instrumentation changes based on which character the player selects. Conker's theme instrument is a flute.

Despite being his first appearance, Diddy Kong Racing did little to establish Conker's personality or voice. Conker did not reappear in the Nintendo DS remake, Diddy Kong Racing DS, where he was replaced with Dixie Kong. His exclusion is a result of Microsoft's ownership of the Conker franchise since their acquisition of Rareware in 2002.

Twelve Tales: Conker 64
Conker was planned to have his first starring role in Twelve Tales: Conker 64. The game was planed for a release in late 1998 but was ultimately cancelled and drastically changed into Conker's Bad Fur Day, which was made for mature audiences. Conker's would have a second adventure on the Game Boy Color title, Conker's Pocket Tales, which was not cancelled and thus became Conker's actual first starring role.

The story involves Conker, whose Presents were stolen and scattered by a gang of animal hoodlums. Conker and Berri had to retrieve all 100, similar to how Mario would collect all 120 Stars in Super Mario 64.

Conker's Pocket Tales
In Conker's Pocket Tales, Berri throws a surprise party for Conker. However, the Evil Acorn hides in a cake and ruins Conker's party. He kidnaps Berri and steals all of Conker's Presents. Conker goes on an adventure to rescue her and retrieve his Presents.

Berri was held captive in the final area, the Catacombs. Conker eventually found her there. After he gets to her, the Evil Acorn plants a bomb in the area, with a 5-minute timer. Conker and Berri managed to escape, and the Evil Acorn was blasted into space. The game ended happily, with Berri and Conker at the sunset.

Conker's Bad Fur Day
Conker's best known role is in Conker's Bad Fur Day, which marked a turning point in the Conker series. Since this game's release, the series was shifted from a family-friendly audience and into a mature one. Conker's personality was drastically changed, but his appearance remained relatively similar. Conker became a young adult, with a greedy and alcoholic personality. His girlfriend, Berri, was also changed entirely.

At the start of Bad Fur Day, Conker sits on his throne, as the king of the Panther Kingdom. He introduces a story of how he became king yesterday, which he calls a "bad fur day". The whole game took place that day, and it all leads up to when Conker became king.

The story starts at The Cock and Plucker. Conker first seen leaving an automated phone message to Berri. He later gets drunk from consuming too much alcohol. Conker feels unwell and decides to go home. However, due to his hangover, Conker accidentally goes the wrong direction and ends up in the Panther Kingdom, starting with the chapter Hungover.

Meanwhile, the Panther King cannot place a glass of Milk on his table because it is missing a leg. He calls in his assistant, Professor Von Kriplespac, to fix his table. Kriplespac did a lot of math and scientific research, and he concluded to the Panther King that a red squirrel would precisely fill in for the missing table leg. The Panther King orders the Weasel Guards to search for a red squirrel. They specifically try to capture Conker, who happens to be one.

Conker gets caught in a series of misadventures throughout the chapters. This includes vampires, killer robots, dinosaurs, zombies, cavemen, and The Great Mighty Poo. In the final chapter Heist, Don Weaso orders Conker and Berri to rob the Feral Reserve Bank. When two reach the bank's vault, the Panther King reveals himself and that the entire event was a trap.

After the Panther King orders Don Weaso to shoot Berri, the Panther King gets indigestion. Kriplespac somehow placed an alien egg in his Milk, and the Panther King digested it. After a while, a giant Xenomorph hatches and then bursts out of the Panther King's stomach, which kills him. Kriplespac names the alien Heinrich and orders it to fight Conker as revenge for destroying all of the Tediz. Conker eventually pulls a lever that activates the air lock. This sucks most of the characters, including Kriplespac, into outer space. Conker is left alone to fight Heinrich.

The game locks near the end of the battle, except for Conker. He communicates to the Programmer and requests for help to kill Heinrich, who he cannot defeat from throwing out the airlock. He asks for a selection of weapons, and is offered a whole selection. Conker decides on using a Katana and requests the scenery to change to the Throne Room of the Panther King's Castle. Conker then slices off Heinrich's head and kills him. Afterward, Conker is greeted and congratulated by the residents of the Panther Kingdom, who crown him as the new king. However, Conker is unhappy with his position because the Programmer left, and he forgot to ask him to revive Berri.

The game ends with Conker in The Cock and Plucker. He later comes out drunk. He looks both directions, but this time he takes the correct path home. He was originally planned to commit suicide in the ending.

Conker is playable in the Multi mode if the player enters the code WELLYTOP, or EASTEREGGSRUS for him to wear his Heist outfit.

Conker: Live & Reloaded
Conker reappears in Conker: Live & Reloaded, a port of Bad Fur Day to the Xbox.

While the single player mode is a remake of Bad Fur Day, the multiplayer mode is its own little game. The plot of the multiplayer mode can somewhat be considered a sequel (as well as a prequel) to Conker's Bad Fur Day. The multiplayer involves Professor Von Kriplespac having survived being sucked into outer space and returning to Earth, creating a new species of Tediz known as the Machine Tediz. These new Tediz wreak havoc on the Panther Kingdom having King Conker send his troops out to go fight against them. It is unknown if this is an official sequel to Conker's Bad Fur Day or not. Conker Live & Reloaded also has updated graphics and the profanity is toned down.

Conker's Big Reunion
After 10 years without a new game, Conker appears in the digital add-on, Conker's Big Reunion for Project Spark. He wakes up in the same way he did in his Bad Fur Day, except this time, he is naked.

Other appearances
Conker was featured in a 2004 trailer promoting Rare and Xbox. His appearance is based on his look from Conker: Live & Uncut. Conker's main role in the trailer was when he used a Chainsaw on the Xbox logo to spell "Rare". He flirts with Kameo at the end of the trailer, but she puts him in her bag and flies off.

Personality
As a young boy, Conker was told by his parents never to drink alcohol, be materialistic or "urinate in a public place". In Diddy Kong Racing and Conker's Pocket Tales, Conker seemed to listen to his parents, as he was a stereotypically friendly, innocent, happy-go-lucky character. In Conker's Bad Fur Day however, Conker went through a dramatic change in personality. He had become a materialistic, alcoholic squirrel.

Conker obviously disobeyed his parents, who were described as "a bit disappointed". Conker is ignorant, ditzy and carefree, just like most of the other squirrels; one example is when he still did not notice he was going the wrong way from his home in the Hungover chapter.

Even in Bad Fur Day, Conker has a good-natured side. Even though he has adult traits of alcoholism and greed, Conker almost never uses profanity. The only swears he has uttered were "fellatio" (which he mistook as the password to Rock Solid), "bitch" and "ass", although the latter two were used in quotes taken from a movie verbatim. Conker is also shown to have a helpful personality—he helps almost every character, regardless of the task's difficulty or what the character wants.

Other names
In Conker's Bad Fur Day, Conker was given various nicknames by other characters, usually insults.

Trivia

 * Conker's full name is Conker The Squirrel, as he states to Gregg the Grim Reaper. This means that his real middle name is "The" and his last name is "Squirrel", as stated by many characters.
 * Professor Von Kriplespac states that a Red Squirrel's scientific name is Furrius squidgeterrius, however, in the real world it is Sciurus vulgaris. Humorously, the species name, vulgaris, contains the word, vulgar, which can easily describe Conker's personality.
 * Conker also makes a cameo in a newspaper in .
 * Conker can hover in the air for a few seconds if his tail spins like a propeller. This likely references Tails of the  series, whose signature move is propelling his tails.
 * Conker can sometimes be seen with playing with a yo-yo in one of his idle animations. This could be a possible reference to Crash Bandicoot, who would often play with a yo-yo when left idle in three of his first four games.