Today let's continue our adventure into Halloween-ish gaming experiences by talking once again about Conker's Bad Fur Day. Oddly enough, this game does have some elements that would fit in great with Halloween, despite being very humorous.
The first time you die in the game Conker is sent to the afterlife, where a gigantic hooded shadow slowly approaches him, speaking in a booming voice and claiming that Conker is dead. However as this imposing figure steps into the light, we discover that he's a short little grim reaper speaking into a megaphone to produce the threatening voice. The megaphone breaks as soon as the reaper becomes visible to Conker, revealing that the little guy has a hilarious squeaky voice. And this is how we are introduced to Rare's version of Death: Gregg the Grim Reaper.
Death has never been this laughable.
Gregg's main purpose in the game is to explain how to collect extra lives, through the use of squirrel tails found throughout the levels. According to him, as long as Conker has some tails in his inventory, he'll be "dead, but not quite" whenever he gets killed somewhere.
Besides being short (which Conker points out, but is shut up real fast thanks to a snappy reply from Gregg), another standout feature of Gregg is that he hates cats. Multiple times he will go off on a tangent and start talking about why he can't stand them, and later on in the game Conker finds Gregg on a dock, attempting to kill (you guessed it) catfish.
Conker's conversations with Gregg are something that must be experienced, so for your enjoyment here are some videos of these encounters:
Gregg's introduction:
Gregg going fishing:
That wraps up our quick look at the non-scary grim reaper, Gregg!
I love Conker's Bad Fur Day. Say what you will about having a game filled with crude adult humor on a Nintendo system, but this is still the funniest game I've ever played. The stages, most of which parodied popular movies, were all memorable and enjoyable (as well as frustrating, I'm looking at you, dinosaur-themed world). We know from a previous posting about a certain sentient pile of dung that Conker has its fair share of weirdness, and today I want to talk about one of my favorite characters in the game: Birdy the Scarecrow.
He almost looks like a distant relative of Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas.
You are introduced to Birdy fairly early in the game, in a tutorial sequence that teaches Conker how to use context-sensitive platforms (which are just platforms you stand on in order to activate a special power-up specific to that area of the map). After you get over the shock of having a creepy-looking scarecrow come to life and talk to you, you immediately notice that this guy is totally wasted. What follows is a hilarious conversation between Conker and Birdy where Birdy tries to explain the concept of context-sensitive areas, while clearly not knowing the meaning of context-sensitivity.
But in the end, Conker finally uses a nearby context-sensitive (trust me, after watching this sequence of the game, you will never get tired of saying "context-sensitive") platform to give a beer to his new straw-filled buddy.
Sadly you only run into Birdy at one other point in the game, during another funny sequence where he rambles on about reading manuals and wanting Mepsi Pax (a play on Pepsi Max, a favorite drink of a member of the Conker development team who was nicknamed Beardy). Whether you love him or are annoyed with him, you have to agree that Birdy is one weird and unique character!
One very important factor that can make a game great is immersion. We want to feel like we are in the world created by the game developers, interacting with everything and everyone. Occasionally game devs throw in Easter eggs or other features that completely pull you out of that immersion. Sometimes it's a welcome change, sometimes not, and sometimes it's just plain weird. Previously I covered the strange and out of place giant heart in GTA IV, and today I'm going to talk about a couple other gaming oddities that seem out of place in the worlds they try to create.
Blitzball, from Final Fantasy X
When you hear the words Final Fantasy, what comes to your mind is most likely lengthy quests, epic boss battles, and......underwater soccer matches? Ok probably not so much with the soccer, but unfortunately those of us who played through Final Fantasy X had no choice but to add this awkward event to our list of experiences.
You're pretty much screwed every time this happens.
Mini-games are no stranger to Final Fantasy games, remember all the hours you spent in the Gold Saucer amusement park in Final Fantasy VII? In FFX, the team-based underwater sport known as Blitzball feels completely out of place with the monster-slaying, temple-exploring aspects of the game, but that could be forgiven if the mini-game was fun. It is fun right? Wrong. Blitzball is a sloppy mess, an attempt to mix together turn-based battle and a sporting event, with disastrous results. Your teammates are severely underpowered, the opponent AI is awful and unfair, usually ganging up on you and leaving you no choice but to fumble the ball. The very last thing that could redeem Square Enix for introducing Blitzball into the world of Final Fantasy would be if this mini-game was optional. But alas, nobody who plays through FFX can escape its clutches, seeing as you must complete at least one Blitzball match in order to advance in the game.
The Super Mario-style level in Star Trek Elite Force II
This is actually a pretty funny addition to Star Trek Elite Force II, even though it is in the form of a hidden Easter egg. When playing a Star Trek-themed first-person shooter, the last thing you'd expect to encounter would be a side scrolling level in the vein of Super Mario. However in this game it does happen. At one point you can find a hidden warp pipe, shaped just like the nice green ones we all know and love. Entering the warp pipe shifts the game to third-person view and takes you to a platforming level that clearly pokes fun at the mustached plumber. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
Honorable Mention: Everything in Conker's Bad Fur Day
This game is like one big episode of Monty Python, you never know what kind of level you'll end up in as you progress through. What starts off as a simple story about a drunken squirrel trying to find his way home soon evolves into a completely crazy adventure unlike anything you'll see even to this day. One moment you'll be inside a giant mountain of dung fighting a living (and singing!) piece of waste, the next moment you'll be battling dinosaurs in a prehistoric-themed level, or pulling off slo-mo moves in a world that pays homage to the Matrix. It's unexpected, and everything is pretty much out of place, so this deserves an honorable mention.
This post has barely scratched the surface of out of place elements in videogames, what kinds have you encountered during your years of gaming?
This installment of A Strange Moment in Gaming History is a piece of shit, literally. I'm talking about none other than The Great Mighty Poo from Conker's Bad Fur day for the Nintendo 64.
Who would have thought that something so strange as a sentient, steaming pile of crap could be among the best features of the Conker game?
The Great Mighty Poo is the ruler of Poo Mountain, which is essentially a pile of shit even bigger than the gigantic Poo himself, although it is not "alive" like he is. The residents of this mountain include dung beetles who happily tunnel through the mountain, rolling up balls of dung which they later feast on (along with swearing at Conker and attacking him if he gets too close).
The lovely sight of Poo Mountain
Eventually Conker reaches a point where he has to do battle with the Mighty Poo, and here is where we find that not only is the Mighty Poo a living pile of crap (with sweet corn kernels for teeth, ugh), he is a singing pile of crap, an opera singer no less! I kid you not!
In order to defeat this dangerous, opera singing shitbag, Conker must throw rolls of toilet paper into the Mighty Poo's mouth during opportune times of his song. When all is said and done, we find that the Poo has been sitting on top of a toilet bowl this whole time, and Conker merely has to flush him away, making us say goodbye to one of the strangest and most hilarious aspects of the game.
This concludes another installment of A Strange Moment in Gaming History, if you have a strange gaming moment that you would like to see featured, feel free to send it to strangegaming86@yahoo.com
