Twelve Tales: Conker 64

Twelve Tales: Conker 64
Developer(s)	Rare Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Rare Ltd. (publication) Nintendo (publication and distribution)
Composer(s)	Robin Beanland
Release date	Cancelled (planned: October 26, 1998)
Genre	Platformer
Content ratings	Unknown
System	Nintendo 64

Twelve Tales: Conker 64 (known in the PAL regions as Twelve Tales Conker) is a cancelled Nintendo 64 game that would have starred Conker the Squirrel, and was planned for a release in late 1998. It was eventually re-developed into Conker's Bad Fur Day, a game created for mature audiences. Similar to its handheld counterpart, Conker's Pocket Tales, Twelve Tales was designed for a family-friendly audience.

History

Twelve Tales was first announced and revealed as Conker's Quest at E3 1997.

Before the game was finished, Rare had already made similar games that had already achieved general acclaim, notably Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. The developers began to receive criticism for creating another innocent platformer starring cute and friendly animals. Rare attempted another direction to make it more competitive with other 3D platformers of the time. In 1999, Rareware revealed that they were going to entirely redesign the game to appeal to an older audience.

While it was first believed to be an April Fools joke, the game went unreleased and replaced with Conker's Bad Fur Day in 2001. The game released in its stead was rated "M" and gave Conker's world a more adult tone, with perverted characters, a more mature Berri (both in personality and appearance), and a lead squirrel who is now an alcoholic. Some assets were kept from the original version such as the flowers in the Hungover chapter, the scarecrow and the Windmill, but for the most part the game was completely different. Most of the music appears to be scrapped except some tracks in Conker's Pocket Tales (such as the mini-game track, which was then reused for the Fire Imps before The Big Big Guy), and the theme for a Roman-themed world was used as the theme song for Jet Force Gemini.

In March 2023 Rare's co-founder Tim Stamper confirmed in a tweet that he owns a surviving flash cartridge containing the version of the game dated to 26 May 1998.

Plot

During the game, the main characters are working to recollect more than 100 Presents stolen by a gang of animal hoodlums and scattered throughout four worlds. While questing through the worlds collecting presents, Conker and Berri must save their friends who were kidnapped and free the universe of the hoodlums.

Conker and Berri would swing from branch to branch in Cuckoo Village, dodge falling boulders in the Popcorn Mines, travel through time in Windmill Pasture and slide through twisting lava tubes in an active volcano. They would have had help in the form of a wise mentor, Knowit, and would also obtain exotic tools and equipment, like unicycles, umbrellas and a nut-hurling catapult. The game also had time traveling.

Simultaneous two player support was planned for the main game and a four-person battle mode.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Twelve Tales: Conker 64.

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  Title screen

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  Logo

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  Conker and Berri

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  Knowit talks to Conker