8 Amazing Video Games That SURVIVED Development Hell
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day
Few games have changed more throughout their development history than Conker's Bad Fur Day, which started out as an almost totally different game altogether.
Originally a cute, family-friendly game in the vein of Banjo-Kazooie called Twelve Tales: Conker 64, this version was ultimately scrapped after the developers felt that it was simply another in a long line of generically colourful N64 adventure games.
The team instead took a bold pivot to reinvent Conker as an edgier, more adult-skewing title packed with dark humour, profanity, and parodies of classic Hollywood films.
The game was effectively rebuilt from scratch with new level design and a darker visual style, while pushing the N64 to its absolute technical limit.
This all ensured that by the time Conker's Bad Fur Day finally released in 2001, the project had been in development for five years and the N64 was even nearing the end of its life.
As a result Conker wasn't a commercial success, but it was one hell of a swan song title for the N64 - hilarious, insanely fun to play, and like basically nothing else being made at the time.