The naughty little scamp known as Conker the Squirrel is returning in a play and create experience inside Microsoft's Project Spark on April 23.

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Developed by Project Spark creator Team Dakota with the Project Spark engine, ' Conker's Big Reunion ' will be an ongoing episodic series set ten years after after Conker’s 2001 adventure Bad Fur Day. Just like that last outing, Conker's Big Reunion will have a distinctively adult flavor, and focus on a washed-up Conker trying to get himself together to attend a reunion with his friends at the er, 'Cock and Plucker'."We currently don’t have our ESRB rating back so we’re not sure, but the focus was to be true to the Conker spirit" said Conker's Big Reunion Creative Director Henry Sterchi of the game's tone. "This meant self-deprecating humor, jokes referencing the original, game jokes and parodies, partying, some adult language, acting quite silly, a bit of violence, and a lot of poo of course. Conker has always had a wit to the humor and we focused a bit more on the layered joke approach this go around, but there’s definitely some shock value moments and a bunch of “I can’t believe he/they just said that” types of laughs."Conker fans will be happy to hear Chris Seavor is returning to voice Conker, and Team Dakota has worked closely with original Conker developer Rare throughout the development process."When the opportunity for Conker came up, we reached out [to Rare] and shared our general plan to make sure we were on the right track", said Sterchi."As we got near E3, we knew we needed the original Conker, so we reached out to Chris Seavor, who was no longer at Rare. When we shared the plan and showed him what Project Spark was, he was excited to bring in Conker. Rare gave us all the original assets we’ve needed, including the original music. Pretty much everything from tone, to scenarios, to music, etc. Rare has given feedback and help all along the way, it’s been tremendous. They really care immensely about the characters and giving them to the fans to create with."The Conker Creation Pack will give Project Spark players approximately 300 Conker assets - characters, props, terrain materials, effects - inspired by Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Remastered original music and audio files will also be available to play with.The inclusion of Conker in Project Spark was announced at Microsoft's E3 conference last year , and marks the first time an external IP has been made available inside the game making software."It all started with a Twitch stream and a tweet. Phil Spencer had just been on our Twitch channel playing Project Spark games people made and got a tweet earlier on asking to put Conker into Spark. Everyone thought it was a great idea and that started to get the ball rolling", said Sterchi."The team was really excited because there was a lot of love and nostalgia around Conker (funny enough, one of our designers was even a tester on the original way back). Conker broke so much new ground back in the day. From breaking the 4th wall, to the quality and richness of the characters and world they created, to the humor, and what was one of - if not the first real “reluctant hero"."Ultimately...it was the freedom of expression and unleashing the unexpected that made Conker a perfect fit for Spark because that is really what Spark means to our creators. Conker is that personified!"The Conker play and create experiences will be available individually and bundled as digital downloads via the Project Spark marketplace on April 23.

Lucy O'Brien is Entertainment Editor at IGN’s AU office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.