Cannon Fodder

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The premise behind this game is simple: You take control of a special ops team that's spawned in a large variety of hostile territories and landscapes, on a search and destroy mission against enemy patrols, military bases, buildings and vehicles. The game is displaying Sensible Software's special sense of humor and uncanny ability to make wickedly playable games, so Cannon Fodder is funny and smart at the same time. Note: In fact, Cannon Fodder is far too smart for the media of the time who were outraged by the game's over-the-top comic violence and seemingly casual attitude towards war combat, all being clearly sarcastic. The available weapons for your team include the standard machine gun, grenades and bazookas. But advancing through the game you'll have to locate and take more explosive and powerful weapons. You will also have to be alerted at all times to avoid booby traps and ground artillery! During the mid 90s, no game could match Cannon Fodder's ingenious level design and delightful attention to detail. The simplicity of its controls is the ingredient that really makes things work and turns this game into a very addictive formula (much like the Sensible Soccer games). In addition, we should never forget the real message of this game: beneath the whimsical cartoon graphics the developers send us a message about the cost of war that will start to weigh down on you as the Boot Hill title-menu screen fills with memorials dedicated to your fallen troops whilst other new recruits keep coming...for more!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The ST version is good, though inferior to the rest 16bit versions, especially in terms of sound. The graphics look nice, with tiny, smoothly moving sprites and detailed environments (jungles, snowy areas, fortresses and deserts) all taken from the original Amiga version. Note that the ST version uses less colors compared to the Amiga (as it was expected). The game's scrolling is a bit odd, since it looks sometimes like a flip screen. The introductory song's sampling could have been a lot better in quality and the sound effects on the Atari ST are well put but not sampled. Though I expected more from the ST version, Cannon Fodder is still one of the best games ever created on the ST machines. It's a game in which: "War never been so much fun!"