The Evil Squirrel

Lore & Background

Conker is a red squirrel employed at a modest brewery, where his job involves hauling barrels and minding the vats. He is loud, impulsive, and prone to picking fights, which makes him a liability to his employer and a magnet for trouble. The franchise's humour leans heavily on this contrast: a creature the size of a fist who talks and acts like a pub-regular with a grudge, complete with a thick British accent and a vocabulary that would make a dockworker wince.

In the first campaign, Conker's carelessness at work spirals into a full-blown crisis when his friends are kidnapped by a rival. What begins as a minor workplace incident escalates into a multi-stage rescue journey through jungles, rivers, and industrial zones. Conker's motivation is never noble; he wants his mates back and his job intact, and he will smash, climb, and bellow his way through any obstacle in the process.

The sequel transplants Conker to a sun-soaked tropical island, where a new conflict threatens the local community and his chance to enjoy a well-earned holiday. The tone remains the same—slapstick, self-deprecating, and laced with dry wit—but the scope widens to include more elaborate set-pieces and a broader cast of supporting characters who orbit Conker's orbit of chaos.

In Their Own Story

The barrel was supposed to be in the cellar. It was not in the cellar. It was in the river, rolling downhill toward the town, and Conker was still on the dock, holding a half-eaten biscuit and muttering about his shift ending in twenty minutes. The water was cold. The barrel was heavy. The barrel was also, he now realised, the wrong barrel. He watched it crash through a fence, knock over a stack of crates, and come to rest against the leg of a very confused badger. Conker took a long sip of his drink, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said, "Right. That's it. I'm going on holiday."

He was, of course, not going on holiday. He was going to wade into the river, climb a three-storey factory, and probably start a fight with something that had twice his mass. But at that moment, in that narrow slice of time, the barrel was still rolling, the badger was still staring, and Conker was still pretending he had a choice.

Reader's Guide

Conker's Bad Fur Day opens with Conker working a shift at a brewery. A chain of blunders—starting with a mishandled barrel—leads to his friends being taken by a rival, and Conker must travel through a series of levels (jungle, river, industrial zones) to track them down. The campaign is structured as a linear progression of platforming and light combat sections, with Conker's personality carried through dialogue and environmental gags rather than cutscenes. The resolution sees the friends rescued and the immediate threat neutralised, though Conker's employment situation remains, characteristically, unresolved.

Conker: Live & Reloaded picks up with Conker on a tropical island, where a new antagonist is attempting to seize control of the local area. The campaign follows a similar structure—linear levels, platforming, and set-piece encounters—but expands the scope with more varied environments and a larger supporting cast. Conker's motivation is personal again: protect the island, keep his friends safe, and ideally get his holiday back. The two games are connected by character and tone rather than a hard narrative thread; the sequel references the brewery world and Conker's history but stands on its own as a self-contained adventure.

Across both entries, the story functions as a vehicle for the gameplay: each level introduces a new mechanical challenge (climbing, swimming, vehicle sequences) framed by a simple comedic premise. There is no overarching multi-game plot; instead, the "story" is Conker's recurring inability to leave well enough alone, which is, in the franchise's logic, the engine that drives every adventure.

Did You Know?

• Conker's Bad Fur Day was one of the last major titles developed by Rare before the studio was acquired by Microsoft in 2002.
• The sequel, Conker: Live & Reloaded, was developed by Yuke's in collaboration with Rare, marking a shift in development approach from the original.
• Conker is a red squirrel, a species choice that plays into the 'small creature, big attitude' comedy at the heart of the franchise.
• The games are known for their distinctly British comedic voice, with Conker's dialogue written to sound like a pub-regular rather than a typical video-game hero.