Conker's Pocket Tales

Conker's Pocket Tales
Developer(s)	Rare
Publisher(s)	Rare
Designer(s)	Gary Richards Gareth Jones
Programmer(s)	Richard Brough
Artist(s)	Keri Gunn
Composer(s)	Eveline Fischer Robin Beanland
Series	Conker
Platform(s)	Game Boy Color
Release	NA: 8 June 1999 EU: August 1999
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Conker's Pocket Tales is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Rare. The game was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999. It is the first game in the Conker series and follows the story of Conker the Squirrel as he retrieves his stolen birthday presents and rescues his girlfriend Berri, who has been kidnapped by the Evil Acorn. The cartridge is dual-format, allowing it to also run on the original Game Boy with some gameplay differences.

Gameplay

Conker's Pocket Tales follows the story of Conker the Squirrel as he retrieves his birthday presents and rescues his girlfriend Berri after they were stolen and she was kidnaped by the Evil Acorn. The game is played from a top-down perspective, with Conker exploring large environments in an attempt to find all his stolen presents. By collecting a certain number of presents in each area and defeating a boss, players unlock access to the next one. In addition to standard running and jumping, Conker can perform a mid-air ground-pounding attack that can hit buttons to solve puzzles. Conker also has the ability to dig up patches of soft dirt, emerging at another predetermined patch to reach inaccessible areas, and uses a slingshot to defeat enemies or hit distant switches. Puzzles are also solved by pushing blocks into grooves in the floor.

The game can be played on both Game Boy and Game Boy Color. However, the layout and some events in the game are different depending on the console it is played on. The game can be paused and saved anywhere when played on a Game Boy Color or later model, but can only be saved at specific save points when played on a non-color Game Boy.

Development and release

Conker's Pocket Tales is the first Game Boy Color game that was developed by Rare. The game was released in 1999 for North America on June 8 and for Europe in August. Development began after the release of Donkey Kong Land III in 1997. Rare sought to make an action-adventure game in the vein of The Legend Of Zelda, with a more darker tone in the vein of gothic films. After seeing early versions of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, they decided to remove the gothic theme and replace it with a fantasy theme, with Conker as its main character. The score was composed by Eveline Fischer and Robin Beanland.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	55%

Review scores

Publication	Score
AllGame
Game Informer	4.5/10
IGN	6/10
N64 Magazine
Nintendo Power	7.5/10
Planet Game Boy

Conker's Pocket Tales received generally mixed reviews from critics. In a very positive review, Planet Game Boy magazine praised the game's size and included minigames, stating that Pocket Tales is "a real grower" and that its lengthy lifespan of 20 hours "will fly by". Similarly, N64 Magazine wrote that the game is "far more engrossing than you'd expect it to be after [its] dismal start", highlighting its length, puzzles and exploration aspect. Although the magazine concluded that the game is nowhere near as good as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, it still considered it as one of the best Game Boy Color games at the time of its release.

External links

• Conker's Pocket Tales at MobyGames