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 MS-DOS version is technically flawless and almost resembling the original (Amiga) version in terms of graphics and sound quality. The graphics look sharp and run only on VGA hardware, with smoothly moving tiny sprites and detailed environments (jungles, snowy lands, fortresses, deserted areas etc) all taken directly from the Amiga original version. Note that the game here uses more colors on screen when compared to the Amiga/Archimedes versions but no particular differences are found on the gameplay screens rather than on the main menu screens (such as the Boot Hill title menu). There are also several nice animated scenes i.e. when destroying buildings which easily explode into several pieces around the screen. Sonically, the game supports AdLib, Soundblaster and Roland sound cards. The PC sound is great although the introductory tune is composed with AdLib synthesis and does not offer the vocals found on the Amiga version. Fortunately, most of the original sampled sound effects are present on the PC version and are of similar Amiga quality. Overall, Cannon Fodder is among the best PC MS-DOS games out there!