Cannon Fodder

The Good
The Genesis/Mega Drive version of Cannon Fodder was an oddity. A game that was designed for control with a mouse that works with a joypad.

Released in 1994, it had a lot to live up to. The Amiga & PC releases had gone down very well, but the skeptics said it couldn't be done on the consoles. They were wrong. Although it was missing the legendary theme song 'War has never been so much fun' it was still a blast. The digitised version of the song was good enough anyway.

The game is a 2/3 top down shooter where you control a squadron of Grunts to shoot & blast your way through each mission, split into several phases. each with different objectives and parameters. It was a game that required good vision, quick reflexes and a quicker brain.

With the enemy innumerable, the terrain hostile & the natives in the line of fire it made for a game that was testing to say the least. Thankfully though there is a password system, without which the game would be nigh on impossible.

The graphics were typical fare from Renegade & the Sensible team. Miniature sprites that hold great detail. The terrain between on each level looking great too.

The game itself, although of a violent nature, had elements of dark humour which is all part of the fun. You can't help but be amused & bemused at some of the things on show.

The sound was superb & greatly complimented to the gameplay. Although there is no in level music there are subtle sound effects which really add to the tension. But the gunfire sound effects can soon shatter that.

A superb game that was a little on the tough side but excellent to play.

The Bad
The difficulty curve was a tad steep.

The Bottom Line
This is what war games should be like, a blast that doesn't let up.

The Good
Colorful graphics, humorous style, lots of nice, tiny, cute animation and sound. Tons of character, lotsa weapons and gadgets and puzzle-like level design.

Maps are great, Jungle and VCs, Arctic and Desert etc. They start a bit small and expand to vast areas of beautiful surroundings. Mouse plays well, saves are OK.

Great soundtrack, solid design.

The Bad
It was a bit too tough at times. Unforgiving even.

Still... it was balanced out by the relatively small duration of the game.

The Bottom Line
Amazingly enough, no review for this great classic was written. That was reason enough for me to register- this is actually my first review here.... i just HAD to throw in my 2 cents....

This is indeed a solid game. Objectives and gameplay structure is simple: you are in control of a small band of soldiers which are controled either as a whole, or individually. Left click moves, right shoots with rifles, both activate special weapon (grenade / bazooka). Simply enough, the soldiers have plain objectives: destroy all buildings or more commonly go to place A from B, or kill all soldiers in the map. Simple and fast action. The correct resources must be used in the right place & time. Graphics are somehow small but detailed and kinda...er...cute! As in Sensible Soccer or SensibleGolf, lots of clever animation and sprites that win you over, make up for the low-res graphs.

The Good
This game is a classic...

The most striking thing about this game is it's originality and it's gameplay. The intro is very cool and fun too. In the amiga version the now famous song with the lyrics "War never been so much fun!" made by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph played. The song was however not included in the PC version...a disgrace!!! Instead the PC version has a secondary cartoonish intro which although very cute isn't as cool as the original.

Cannon Fodder is hard to explain...you have to experience it, but I'll try anyway. You are in command of a squadron of 1 up to 8 men. Your objective is to guide these men through a variety of missions where reaction time and tactic is crucial if you want to accomblish them. For example a typical objective would be: "Kill all enemies, Destroy all enemy structures". As you progress in game the objectives increase and get more complex. You often get to man various veicles such as tanks, scooters etc. The game is very extensive and there are tons of missions to complete. You often spend hours trying to complete a mission and loose countless of men doing so...let me tell you, Cannon Fodder isn't a game which can be completed over night. You sometimes have to think very creative in order to complete a mission, and in the last missions you are often faced with a countdown. Your missions extend in different envirorments such as, jungle, artic, urban, desert etc. The graphics are nice and clean, and you can clearly see it was originally developed for the amiga. The sound is average, but the sound when you kill a enemy gets very annoying after a while.

The Bad
The fact that the theme song wasn't the original one...once again...a disgrace!!! Another thing I should mention is the annoying bugs that sometimes occur in the maps, or when you KNOW you hit a enemy, but he blows you to oblivion anyway. Small, but annoying glitches...

The Bottom Line
A challenging and original game which has become a true classic...