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 Acorn Archimedes version is technically great and very close to the original (Amiga) version in terms of graphics and sound quality. The graphics look very nice, with smoothly moving tiny sprites and detailed environments (jungles, snowy areas, fortresses and deserts) all taken directly from the Amiga version. Note that the game uses less colors compared to the Amiga version and the difference is found only outside the gameplay area (such as the left-hand side info panel). There are several nice animated scenes too i.e. when destroying buildings which easily explode into several pieces around the screen. The sound is perfect and identical to the Amiga version which is probably one of the most remembered sounds ever! It features an awesome "funky" style intro theme (with vocals) as well as a variety of sampled sound FX during gameplay (like soldiers screaming when shot, gunfire, ambient jungle sounds and more).