Cannon Fodder

1001 Video Games

Cannon Fodder appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cover controversy

The Royal British Legion (who have always been known for their 'poppy' logo), complained that this game was 'sick and degenerate' before its release, making several tabloid headlines trying to ban the game (before anyone had played it). The poppy was reluctantly removed from the cover before release but it still appears in the game itself.

Extras/Demo versions

Amiga users received two "extras" concerning the original game:

• Cannon Fodder Plus was a very unique addition included to the Amiga Power 31 magazine. There are four new missions and the quiz related to the Sensible Software company.
• Cannon Soccer also a very unique addition included to the Amiga Format 54 magazine which is a Cannon Fodder on the pitch field from Sensible Soccer<moby>. This small game is also known as Cannon Fodder - Amiga Format Christmas Special*.

German index

On 30 July 1994, the PC version of Cannon Fodder was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS / BPjM indexed games.

The Game Boy version did not share the same fate, however.

Music

The conversion of this title from the Amiga to the PC is nearly identical except for the music, which is FM synthesis (Adlib) instead of the original Amiga 4-channel digital ("mods"). This was a normal practice for most conversions, except by this time several free modplayers with source code had been released, so there was no reason to not have the original mod music.

Version differences

• The Amiga CD32 version contains special MPEG track where the video clip is stored (length = 3 min). In this clip, members of Sensible Software (developer of game) are wearing army uniforms and they're doing funny things - dancing, riding army vehicles, throwing darts on the poster of actor Christian Slater etc. From this movie was taken a few photos and used in Amiga intro. This real intro is only played if you have the FMV expansion module. Cannon Fodder is the only CD32 game to support the FMV module, which was the last piece of hardware produced by Commodore before its bankruptcy.
• The Game Boy Color version was cut down due to technical limitations. The player can only control a maximum of two soldiers for any mission, and the levels have been tweaked making the game a lot easier.

Awards

• Amiga Joker
  • Issue 02/1995 – Readers' Special Award for 1994
• Electronic Gaming Monthly
  • March 1997 (Issue 92) - 3DO Game of the Year runner-up
• Power Play
  • Issue 02/1994 – Most Morally Questionable But Fun Game in 1993
• Retro Gamer
  • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #61 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by B.L. Stryker, Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, phlux and robotriot.