Conker

"Well, here I am! Conker the King... king of all the land! Who'd a thought that? But how did I come to this?--I hear you say. And who are those strange fellows that surround my throne? That you also say! Well. It's a long story. Come closer and I'll tell you. It all started... yesterday. And what a day that was! It's what I call... a bad fur day!"

- Conker

Conker the Squirrel is a and the main protagonist of the Conker series. His first appearance was in the Nintendo 64 title game, Diddy Kong Racing, where he was one of the main playable characters.

Conker was originally a family-friendly character, and was even slated to have his own Nintendo 64 title, Twelve Tales: Conker 64. However, he eventually became a character for older audiences when it was reworked into Conker's Bad Fur Day, which received a Mature rating from the ESRB.

Conker's name is taken from horse chestnut, known as a "conker" in Britain. It is the typical food for squirrels in that area.

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, started wearing green pants, and he lost his gloves and chubby look. In Conker's Big Reunion, his Bad Fur Day look was reinstated.

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 original Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64. He is one of the playable characters, and he also helps Diddy, Timber, and the other character stop Wizpig from invading the island. Conker is a middleweight racer, but his vehicles have heavyweight attributes, featuring above average speed, and below average acceleration and turning. His top speed without Bananas, shared with Bumper and Timber, is 56.5 mph. Each character has a "theme instrument" in the title, and Conker's is a flute.

Conker's inclusion was in hopes of promoting the then-upcoming Twelve Tales: Conker 64, similar with Banjo to promote Banjo-Kazooie. Even though Twelve Tales was cancelled, Conker's debut did him somewhat of a foothold in the public eye.

Despite being his first appearance, Diddy Kong Racing did little to establish the character's personality or voice, as his short amount of dialogue offered zero insight as such. Conker did not reappear in Diddy Kong Racing DS, where he was replaced with Dixie Kong. This is because Microsoft owned the rights to the Conker franchise since 2002, after their acquisition of Rareware.

Conker's Pocket Tales
With the ongoing delay of Twelve Tales: Conker 64 which later became Conker's Bad Fur Day, Nintendo allowed Rare to release a Conker game on the Game Boy Color. Rare thought of another Conker game targeted towards the children's market. The game of Conker's Pocket Tales involved Conker's girlfriend Berri who was first introduced in this game planning a surprise party for him, but she is kidnapped by the Evil Acorn. Conker then goes out to save her. This game also had Conker acting differently from how he does in Conker's Bad Fur Day. This was the last Conker game targeted towards children, and was simply just a holdover game for Conker's Bad Fur Day leading this game to not having very positive reviews.

Conker's Bad Fur Day
Conker's Bad Fur Day was originally going to be Twelve Tales: Conker 64, an E-rated game like the last two games, but was eventually turned into a mature video game. This led to so much controversy that Nintendo placed a label on the game saying it is not for anyone under 17. This game features an older, greedier, meaner, and alcoholic Conker becoming king of the Panther Kingdom and having to tell the players about his past few days which led to his leadership. It starts with Conker going to a pub one night and getting drunk and walking into the Panther Kingdom accidentally. The Panther King however can't keep his milk on the table because a leg is missing. His assistant Professor Von Kriplespac concludes that a red squirrel will make the perfect leg. Conker then has to fight his way through a horde of the Panther King's creatures, and through a war against Kriplespac's Tediz, in order to get home to his girlfriend Berri. On his way Conker winds up meeting a lot of helpers who in particular he thinks are very annoying. Eventually towards the end of the game Don Weaso tells Conker and Berri to break into the Fereral Reserve Bank but it is just a trap set up by the Panther King so he can kill Conker. The Panther King tells Don Weaso to shoot Berri to death, but Kriplespac appears and reveals to the Panther King he betrayed him as he implanted a Xenomorph egg inside the Panther King, which hatches into a Xenomorph, named Heinrich, and bursts from the Panther King's stomach, killing him. However, the air lock activates and then Kriplespac, Weaso, and remains of the Panther King and Berri get sucked into space. Conker is then left fighting Heinrich in a Mech Suit, but the game locks and Conker uses the opportunity to talk to the Programmer to help him kill Heinrich. He asks the programmer to take them to the Panther King's Castle, and asks for some weapons to select from. Although it seems like he is going to choose a Rocket Launcher, he chooses a Katana instead, and uses it to slice off Heinrich's head. A bunch of Panther Kingdom residents then appear and crown Conker king, but he isn't happy, because he forgot to ask the programmer to revive Berri. He's left surrounded by everyone who annoyed him to death throughout his quest.

Conker is playable in the Multi mode of Conker's Bad Fur Day. By entering the code WELLYTOP, Conker becomes available to play as, and by entering the code EASTEREGGSRUS, Neo Conker (Conker in his Heist outfit.) can be playable.

Rare Xbox trailer
Conker was featured in the 2004 trailer featuring Rare and Xbox. His appearance resembled his one from Live & Reloaded was similar to his appearance in Conker: Live & Reloaded. Conker's main role in the trailer was when he chainsawed the Xbox logo to spell "Rare".

Conker: Live & Reloaded
Conker reappears a in Conker: Live & Reloaded, once again as the starring character.

While the single player mode of Conker: Live & Reloaded is a carbon copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day, with 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 many years without a 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.

Personality
As a young boy, Conker was told by his parents never to drink alcohol, be greedy or swear. In Diddy Kong Racing and Conker's Pocket Tales, Conker appears to be a nice and kind person who obeys rules and always seems to be happy-go-lucky. In Conker's Bad Fur Day however, Conker went through a dramatic change in personality. He had become a slightly greedy, alcoholic squirrel. His relationship with Berri is not as good as it was, and drinking alcoholic beverages is a regular part of Conker's life. As the game implies, Conker disobeyed the rules his parents told him as a kid. These personality traits are also noticed in Conker: Live & Reloaded. Like most of the other squirrels in the Conker franchise, Conker is ignorant, ditzy and carefree. He helps almost every person in the game, not caring what they want or how dangerous the tasks are. And ever since he became alcoholic, he became a bit kooky like most of the other squirrels in the franchise. This was shown when even after he was cured of his dizziness, he still didn't notice he was going the wrong way.

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.
 * The ending of Conker's Bad Fur Day was originally supposed to have Conker committing suicide by shooting himself in the head.
 * Conker also makes a cameo in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts in a newspaper.
 * Conker can hover for a short time by making his tail spin like a propeller, which could be a reference to Miles "Tails" Prower, of Sonic the Hedgehog fame, who is known for performing the same action.
 * 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.