Food for thought: if one were the world’s best Conker’s Bad Fur Day player, it is possible that one might never, ever meet Gregg the Grim Reaper in his “home,” as it were.

Given that I am not the best, let alone a sufficiently-okay player of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Gregg’s is a face I know all too well. And it’s quite a spoopy face, at that.

To start my celebration of Spooptober, I figured I might as well start at the end…of life! Versions of the grim reaper are common in games, but Gregg, well…he’s a bit uncommon. Players of Conker’s Bad Fur Day meet up with him upon Conker’s first death. When fully knocked out, Conker wakes up in a dark and foreboding place with but a single, deep voice permeating the ether.

Conker? it says, somewhat curiously.

Conker?! it says again, somewhat more annoyed.

Just as a large, formidable shadow makes its way into frame, we get…Gregg, who seems to be having a bit of trouble with his, er, megaphone. Hm, seems he’s not quite so grim at all. In fact, after speaking with him, Conker learn that he has quite the wry attitude, is apparently middle management within the office (of death?), and he dislikes squirrels. (And cats, which is just too bad for him!)  But, Gregg is not without a smidge of care, for he shows Conker how he might obtain more lives than just his single one by gathering squirrel tails (a bit macabre on its own) that are strewn through his world. I’m sure that Gregg would consider himself far from cute, but his general spoopiness lies somewhere between his boldness and stature, because honestly, he is a little short to be a grim reaper. That won’t prevent him from doing his job, however.

Later on in the game, Conker meets up with Gregg again, who happens to be “battling” some catfish. Gregg takes a moment out of his very busy cat-hating scheduled to assist Conker. He doesn’t know it at the moment, but he’s about to take on the undead (“the un-bloody dead!” says Gregg), and his trusty frying pan just won’t do. It’s Gregg to the rescue with some needed weaponry, and then he back to swatting at the catfish ad infinitum, I would suppose.

Gregg the Grim Reaper is quite the spoopy character, indeed. But, perhaps we should just keep that between us.

In-line images taken by author from Conker’s Bad Fur Day on Rare Replay (© Rare, Microsoft Studios).