As much as I loved playing this title, I have to admit that the game is far from perfect, beginning with Conker, a big–eyed, bushy–tailed squirrel sitting serenely on a throne sipping a glass of milk. Conker’s ascension to the throne is the foundation of the story, with the game centering on extricating Conker out of one mess after another. While this overreaching storyline provides the game with consistency, there’s no real purpose behind most of Conker’s actions. There are plenty of cutscenes that detail the events and situations outside of Conker’s immediate control. It’s not until you are well into the game that Conker actually gets involved with what you see right from the start (namely, a broken table next to a feline king while his gadget guru attempts to repair it by shoving a red squirrel underneath the broken leg).

Regardless, once the initial opening cinematic ends, it’s the players job to guide a heavily–hungover Conker around a corn field until he speaks to an equally drunk scarecrow and learns the first of many lessons — how to use context sensitive pads. This pretty much sums up most of the game — you wander around until something occurs, and then learn how to perform some new feat, which opens up a path to a new area.

That’s not to say the repetitive game play isn’t fun — quite frankly, it’s a total blast. Conker’s helicopter tail gets him over huge gaps. The fact that he can pull just about anything under the sun out of his pants pocket, to defeat a chosen enemy, makes the game incredibly flexible and filled with unending surprises.

But the game’s lack of direction makes players feel, at least initially, that there’s no real purpose to wandering around, making rats explode and tossing toilet paper into the mouth of a singing pile of crap. However, once you get past the aimless feeling, there’s some very challenging game play to be had (almost too challenging).

I’ll freely admit that several times, while playing the game, I nearly tossed my controller against the wall in frustration as Conker was, yet again, cut down mercilessly. In some cases, the demise of Conker is merely a nasty and vicious part of the game, but in other cases it’s due to some horrible game design — especially when it comes to certain tasks that require depth perception. The biggest offender is Conker’s shadow, which emulates a real shadow that is cast from a light shining from the side. Basically, when Conker jumps, his shadow jumps with him, springing off to the side. And there are many instances in which Conker must land precisely in order to advance. While in most games of this nature, you can use the character’s shadow to determine where the character will land, this is not the case with Conker. You must eyeball the shadow knowing that it’s nearly impossible to tell exactly where Conker is in relationship to the location he’s trying to land because of the way the platform jumping areas are laid out. The end result is usually to find Conker flattened and players having to start a task all over again.

These are the biggest problems found within the game, and the remainder of this review will concentrate on the positive aspects of the game, as there are many favorable elements. The humor, which is decidedly mature, really isn’t as bad as I initially thought it would be. Sure, there are scenes of immense gore and violence, not to mention a ton of fart and poo jokes, but the events that earned the title a Mature rating are really no worse than what you would find in an episode of South Park. Most of the foul language is bleeped out, and the amount of blood isn’t as bad as I expected (although you will find plenty). The humor of this game is what makes Conker really great, and some of the funniest bits are quite subtle. Players will definitely get a sense of Rare’s underlying irreverent humor, as the game makes just as much fun of itself as anything else.

The graphic splendor of the game is unsurpassed, except perhaps by Banjo–Tooie. The textures are rich and colorful, while the level design of most of the areas is usually a perfect fit.

The sound is phenomenal, especially if you hook your console up to a surround sound system. Dolby Surround positions the audio perfectly, and the sound effects Rare has included are fantastic. Even the slightest touches add to the game, like Conker trying to squelch the sucking sounds of footsteps in mud, or a host of bees combining their buzzing melody to the background music as Conker passes a bee–hive.

Conker is also a treasure–trove for multiplayer fans. Up to four players can compete in a vast variety of games — from a capture–the–flag type of ordeal, to racing to deathmatch to a sort of tag. Each of the mini–games has an intro, and solo players can compete against computer–controlled opponents. Just like in Perfect Dark, it appears as though Rare has gone the extra mile to make sure the multiplayer aspect of the game lives up to its expectations, and it certainly does.

I’m mystified and disappointed by the game’s negatives, which are substantial enough to warrant the game receiving a B rather than a B+ or A. But even with the problems, it’s an amazingly fun game for those who can see past the toilet humor and appreciate the irreverent attitude and challenging platform action the game offers. Conkers is not for everyone, and will certainly frustrate you at times, but it’s still worth picking up, and expect to spend about 15 hours playing Conkers.