Cannon Fodder

A top-down strategic shooter in which a team of soldiers complete missions of increasing difficulty, destroying all of their enemies in order to progress. The game was notable for having a huge number of levels and a very high skill requirement from the player.

Amiga

Genesis

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

3DO

Overview

Cannon Fodder, and its sequel Cannon Fodder 2, are top-down squad-based shooters. They both make use of reflex-based puzzle solving with some later levels requiring a high level of dexterity and good timing to complete. The games use a darkly-humorous anti-war theme, reflected in the theme song "War Has Never Been So Much Fun" (which had lyrics in the Amiga versions of the game) and in the pre-mission screen where a queue of recruits line up in front of a hill scattered with gravestones - one for each soldier lost during the course of the game. Each soldier is uniquely-named (some after the developers), standing in contrast to the "fodder" in the game's title.

The player is able to split the initial squad of soldiers into smaller groups and switch between the groups. Squads are armed with guns (primary fire) and with a limited number of grenades and rockets to destroy enemy buildings and vehicles. Missions are usually along the lines of "Destroy Enemy Buildings" or "Kill All Enemies". Some missions take place over a number of phases and different locales such as Jungle, Snow and Desert areas.

War Has Never Been So Much Fun

...the game's tagline and opening lyric for the game's theme tune. Released amidst controversy over the use of the poppy graphic both on the box and on the title screen, the Royal British Legion claimed that the game could mistakenly be bought by its supporters after seeing the poppy symbol. Sensible Software included the message "This game is not in any way endorsed by the Royal British Legion" on the opening screen and the UK publishers, Virgin, removed the poppy from the box art.