Conker

Conker the Squirrel is the protagonist of the Conker series of games made by Rare Ltd. He is a long-time friend of Diddy Kong, and he made his debut appearance in Diddy Kong Racing alongside Banjo. Just like Banjo, he would later appear in a series of his own games. While currently portrayed by Rare as a vulgar, adult-oriented figure (as seen in mature-classified games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day), Conker debuted as a cheery and playful character, as seen in his debut appearance and only crossover with the Donkey Kong franchise. Conker has also briefly appeared in the N-Gang comic "Freeze Frame".

In the storyline of Diddy Kong Racing, Diddy Kong, with help from Squawks the Parrot, manages to contact Conker, asking for help in defeating the evil Wizpig. Conker answers Diddy's plea and ventures to Timber's Island to help in the quest to drive Wizpig off the island. Conker is a middleweight racer, but his vehicles have heavyweight attributes, featuring above average speed, and below average acceleration and turning. His top speed without bananas, shared with Bumper and Timber, is 56.5 mph.

Conker's character is property of Rare Ltd., which was once a second-party developer for Nintendo. In 2002, Rare was sold to Microsoft, giving the rights of the Conker and Banjo-Kazooie series to the company. This caused Nintendo to lose the rights of the Banjo and Conker characters, while Rare lost the rights to Donkey Kong and related elements. As a result, when Diddy Kong Racing DS was released, Conker was replaced by Dixie Kong.

Originally exclusive to the and  versions of the game, Conker and a few other Microsoft-exclusive characters (including Banjo) appear as playable skins in the Wii U and Nintendo Switch versions of Minecraft through an update on January 30, 2018. Technically, this marks Conker's first game appearance alongside Diddy Kong since Diddy Kong Racing.

Trivia

 * Conker signs his name as "Conker T. Squirrel", indicating his middle name is literally "The" and his last name is "Squirrel".
 * In Diddy Kong Racing DS, due to the sale of Rare characters to Microsoft, Conker was replaced by Dixie Kong as a playable character. While Conker was not in the game, if the players listen to the selection screen theme, they can still hear his theme music play in the background.
 * Conker's theme instrument is a flute or piccolo.
 * The name Conker comes from the horse-chestnut which is known in Britain as a conker and is the typical food of squirrels.