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Cannon Fodder

Game genre : Arcadey. shoot-em-up war adventure game
Publisher : Virgin
Released : 1993
Platform : Amiga/ST/PC
No of players - 1 player

"Don't wait until you see the whites of their eyes....Don't kid yourself it will be over by christmas.....Don't try to shut out the screams.....And don't forget to wash your hands afterwards....." - Cannon Fodder - War has never been so much fun.

I absolutely adore this game, and for a long time, it even surpassed the great Sensible Soccer as my favourite game of all time. Like all of Sensible's games, it has aged wonderfully, and is still one of the most enjoyable games around. As Amiga Power reviewer, Cam Winstanely said : "It's fast, it's thoughtul, it's addictive and it's the kind of game that I can see myself playing through the night like a real saddo.

In case you don't know, the game is made up of 23 missions which are spread over 72 different maps. There are five different terrains - Jungle, Desert, Arctic, Heathland and Underground Base. It's massively simple to get into. You start off the game with a squad of men, and at the end of every mission, you get a further 15 recruits, which initially seems a tad excessive. However by the time you get to Mission Six, and your boys are being slaughtered like cattle at ever twist and turn, you start to realise why you get so many troups. Every time a troup survives a mission, he gets promoted to a higher rank, and his shot accuracy also improves. This can lead to you becoming quite attached to anyone who survives more than a couple of levels, but since everyone in the game has an equally tenuous grip on life, there's inevitably a horrible rocket with his name on it comes whooshing and he gets his.

You control your boys with the mouse - click left to move, right to fire, and both to fire a grenade or bazooka. You can split the band up into sub-groups, which opens up all sorts of possibilities - such as providing cover for one troup on a Rambo style surge at the enemy.

The missions invlove lot's of killing, with the occasional hostage rescue throwin in, before yet more killing, there are four channels of sound, which immerse you in the action - including sound effects that fade away, as the distance between you and the source increases - the flop sweat fear of hearing a rumbling tank engine has to be heard to be fully understood!

As you progress through the levels, they become almost 'Lemmings' like, as you have to spend time carefully planning your moves, before sending your troups into action.

And then there's the vehicles - tanks, helicopters, jeeps, skidoos, and gun turrets all at your disposal, and all up against you too!!

A truly wonderfully crafted game which really proves that Sensible Soccer was no fluke.

And who could forget the ridiculous poppy fiasco which surrounded this game, at it's time of release. Sensible, and Virgin had originally decided to release the game with the picture of a poppy on the front, to remind gamers that war was no joke, However, the british legion thought such use of the poppy was "monstrous", and the Daily Star jumped on the bandwagon. branding the game as "shameful" and "a disgrace". Hence, the poppy was dropped from the games box, and replaced by soldier against a camouflaged background.