Interface

The interface in Bad Fur Day is incredibly simple. Compared to the games of today, playing as Conker is an easy task.  The player doesn't have to be a very experienced gamer to pick up the controller and start playing.

Since Bad Fur Day was released on the Nintendo 64, a controller is used to control Conker.  This is a manual interface.  The buttons used to control Conker don't really change throughout the story mode, but there are a little variations when playing 

multiplayer.  During the story mode the buttons are 

as follows:

a: jump

a while in the air:  tail spin hover

b: hit with frying pan

bottom c:  changes the camera view to behind Conker

right and left c:  spins the camera to the right or left

top c: nothing

r: view from perspective of Conker

z: crouch

l: skip cut scene

start: pause the game

joystick: moving the character

note: While Conker has a weapon however, which is mainly in multiplayer games, b is used to take it out, z is used to use it, and r is used to aim.  

All of these buttons seem pretty straight forward to me, they seem like the typical buttons for a Nintendo game, just like Mario, a is jump, and b is attack.  I think if I were to hand a young kid a controller and asked them to try to jump and attack their instinct would be to press these buttons almost immediately.

The active and passive interfaces in the game are also incredibly simple.  During most of the story the only thing on the screen that isn't part of the game's world is your health bar, which is made up of six floating pieces of chocolate.  Also in the passive interface is a lightbulb which appears every time you are able to press b to initiate a context sensitive ability.  As for the active interface, when you press start, your health is shown, as well as the number of lives you have left, and the amount of money you have.  This is the screen also allows you to choose to continue the game or to quit, which automatically saves your progress up to a fairly close checkpoint you have passed through. 

note:  when Conker has a weapon, and during certain multiplayer games a radar is put in the top right of the screen, and the weapon that you

 have is shown on screen as well.

One of the things that makes this game so great is it's unexpected maturity level coming from a Nintendo game.  This game breaks the console specific rule because Microsoft and Sony are both companies that seem more likely to have a game with adult humor like Bad Fur Day does, but as far as the interface goes, this game could be on any console.

There are a couple more things about the interface that I would lik

e to mention.  One is that there are talk bubbles during cut scenes so that the gamer can read the things that s/he couldn't hear.   Another aspect is the active interface that appears when the console is started.  The gamer is in a center of a bar.  The joystic

k is used to rotate the camera to different areas of the bar to choose which saved game to continue, multiplayer, options, or which chapter of the game to skip to.

There you have it, the interface of Bad Fur Day.  It is successful because of its simplicity.  The gamer doesn't have to worry about a plethora of menus or items.  He or she just has to worry about money, number of lives left, and health.   There is no possible way for the gamer to be confused by any clutter on the screen because of how straightforward the game is. 

Rules

Rules govern the gameplay and story in Bad Fur Day just like in every other game.  From the beginning of the game the rules were made clear.  By pressing all sorts of buttons we figure out that Conker is hungover, and since he is hungover we have difficulty completing the most basic task of walking.  Soon after when we beat our hangover we learn the rules about opening doors when you have to complete a very simple challenge to get a key to the door.  

One of the most interesting features of the game is that you are given a very limited array of weapons to use throughout most of the game, except for when you find a 'context-sensitive' button.  This button allows you to magically do whatever you need to depending on the situation.  For example, when fighting the Giant Poo Monster you are able to throw rolls of giant toilet paper.  This rule of not being able to use special weapons all of the time makes it exciting to  wonder what kind of things you'll be able to do.  I replayed one of my favorite scenes the other day.  It was the scene that follows the cut scene imitating the lobby scene in the Matrix.  I remember watching the cut scene and wondering what kind of tricks i would be able to pull out of my hat.  What i was able to do was to do cartwheels in slow motion while shooting up the room.  The creators of the game managed to create a rule in which it would make sense to only be able to do shooting slow motion cartwheels consistently.

Throughout the game it is set that there will be cut scenes to fill in pieces of the story.  These cut scenes go in order, and are set so they play as certain actions are completed.  For the game to function properly the gamer will have to complete the tasks required in order, in a free roaming environment.  To do this in an environment like this, rules must be made so that the gamer does everything in order.  The game manages to do this and still give the character a bit of freedom by having major goals that have to be completed in order as well as having other challenges at a lesser level that don't have to be completed in order.  The game is also set up so that when completing larger challenges, there are clear cut steps to completing the tasks at hand.

Another fun examples of the way that the game playfully changes rules.  At the beginning of the game when you went in water, floaties appear on the arms of Conker.  Later in the game Conker finds 'Confidence Pills.'  These pills allow Conker to not wear floaties and swim underwater.  The ridiculousness of the cut scenes that depict Conker understanding the change in rules is one of the things that makes this game so enjoyable.

One of the other rules of the game is that Conker is made happy by finding money.  Each time Conker gains money he makes a smart comment or greedy joke about money.  The money comes in handy though later in the game when it is required to pay off different characters like talking barrel's or guards who don't realize that the red squirrel they're supposed to be watching out for walks right up to them without them realizing it.

The rules in Conker's Bad Fur Day are based upon the situation in most cases.  The main rules however are mainly in place to insure a set story is told to the gamer.  The rules also help keep the gamer immersed in the game.  This is done by switching up the gameplay to make the game more exciting just like in the Matrix scenario i explained earlier.  

Characters

Over the course of the story of Bad Fur Day, Conker has relations with a plethora of other characters.  Conker forms several character triangles as well as changing as a character himself

One of the main character triangles is between Conker, his girlfriend Berri, and the Panther King.  Throughout the story Conker is pitted against the Panther King who is after him, while trying to get home to his girlfriend.  During the story however the Panther King gets ahold of Berri, completing the triangle.  A triangle can also be formed between the Panther King, Conker, and the Panther King's mad scientist Professor Von Kriplespac.  The Panther king and Professor Von Kriplespac will do whatever it takes to get to Conker, who will do whatever it takes to thwart their plans.

Although in this replaying of the game Conker has not changed that much thus far, the cut scene at the beginning shows a Conker who is much different from the one that I am playing as right now.  At this point in the game, he is annoyed that he isn't at home, but he's still making jokes and not getting too upset about anything, but in the cut scene he is very, very angry and bitter about something.  From playing before I know it's because Berri dies in his arms at some point during the game.  It is safe to say that Conker becomes less and less of a happy character as his troubles grow, and his need to get to Berri, and later avenge Berri increase.  This growth as a character is key to making the player get hooked and more immersed in the game. 

The story

Conkers Bad Fur Day is an unusual tale of a squirrel who becomes king after having a really, really bad day.  The game starts with a lengthy cut scene narrated by Conker, beginning with him sitting in his throne with an angry look on his face, and then proceeding to the night before when he had too much alcohol and got lost.  Conker's only goal is to get back home to his girlfriend Berri, but to do so, he must run around many different environments to complete tasks for various characters who help him to get closer and closer to home.  The strong point of the story is the adult humor that goes along with it.  The game was created by Rare, but unlike other Rare games, it has an attitude.  Rare had received criticism because many people thought the game was just going to be another platformer with cute animals.  What the critics got was a game full of crude langauge, violence, and many sexual themes.   I always find it amusing when the characters say things like 'arse' and '@#$%^&', and when Birdy, the scarecrow who teaches you a couple basic buttons of the game sells you a manual for the game says something along the lines of 'love long time, you love manual long time.'  In my opinion, the story is one of the reasons I enjoy this game so much.  Conker is probably my favorite character from a video game because of his persistence, and the humorous way he deals with conflict.  It's definitely a nice change to play a game as an unlikely hero who is a smart***, instead of the stereotypical unlikely hero that has perfect morals.