Apart from Conker's brief appearance as a racer in Diddy Kong Racing and his Pocket Tales game on the GBC, we all know him as a debaucherous squirrel who loves booze and women. He's one of the N64's adult characters, which for a cute-looking squirrel is a massive surprise. But did you know that his N64 adventure was supposed to be a family-friendly title the likes of Banjo-Kazooie?
Thanks to footage shared by the Video Game History Foundation from E3 back in 1997, we can see a sample of what Twelve Tales: Conker 64 looked like, and it's a far cry from the N64 game we have today! A scarecrow calls Conker 'little one', Conker talks to a clockwork bird about saving presents, and there's a windmill in the background. It's all very cutesy with Conker wearing a straw hat in an image, not at all like the game I know and love.
NEW TWELVE TALES CONKER 64 FOOTAGE!! Thanks to the @GameHistoryOrg pic.twitter.com/A3FXdEfTrF
— STUMBLYN (@STUMBLYN1) July 22, 2026
The game was criticised for being too family-friendly and too much like Banjo and Kazooie's adventure. Rare went back to the drawing board and made a game aimed more towards adults, which they released in 2001. You might think of Rare as making more friendly platformers like DK64 and the Banjo games, but don't forget they're also the minds behind Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark too - they knew how to do games for grown-ups!
It would be cool to have a playthrough of Twelve Tales and then go straight onto Conker's Bad Fur Day so I can feel the difference between both games. Twelve Tales certainly wouldn't have all of the movie and pop-culture references in it that Bad Fur Day has, but I do love a chilled platformer, so I reckon I'd actually enjoy it. That being said, is a game without The Great Mighty Poo even worth playing?
