Cannon Fodder
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| Cannon Fodder {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sensible Software {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | 1993, 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy, Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single player {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Atari ST, Game Boy Color, PC, Sega Genesis, Super NES, {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
- For the literary use of the expression "cannon fodder", see cannon fodder.
Cannon Fodder was a short series of war computer and video games developed by Sensible Software, a mix of both real-time strategy and action games. The first version of the game was released for the Commodore Amiga but it was later converted for many other formats; however the gameplay is improved when a player uses a mouse instead of a gamepad (as with Megadrive conversion). Only two games in the series were released but spawned through most active systems at the time of the release. The series have a clear humourous line, and soldiers are seen as mere cannon fodder. The pre-mission screen shows a hill with a grave for each dead soldier, with recruits lining up in front of it. On top of the screen, a sports-like score appears. The tag line for the first game was "War has never been so much fun", and for the second (with a more sci-fi background, which included some alien missions) "War has only been this fun once before". The first Cannon Fodder game is widely regarded as a video game classic while many complained that the second game, Cannon Fodder 2, was too difficult, hampering its gameplay. Conversely, others regarded the challenging difficulty level as positively lengthening and a strength of the game.
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Overview
Image:CANFOD-1 020.png In both games the player is in charge of a commando team of between one and eight elements that can be broken up to three groups. All units have a machine gun with unlimited ammo, but grenades and rockets can be found on the map. The players' machine guns do not harm its units, but grenades and rockets do, and are the only weapons capable of destroying a building (they may be shot while in the crate). Player units can also die if hit by debris caused by building explosions, hit man-traps, quicksand, and obviously, enemy fire. Units usually walk on foot, but several vehicles are available in some missions. The games are split into several missions, which are usually sub-divided into phases. Dead soldiers are replaced by "fresh meat" at the start of each phase. Each soldier that survives a mission is promoted, and receives a small increase in the rate of fire, accuracy, and range. The player is only able to save the game upon completion of a mission, which may consist of several difficult phases.
Each phase is structured around mission objectives which range from "Kill all enemy" or "Destroy enemy buildings" to "Rescue all hostages". Some phases are devilishly constructed and require the player to use quick reflexes, stamina and sometimes planning to complete. For example players may sometimes have to split their team of commandos into two or more groups and leave one group to defend an area or route (being controlled by the game's Artificial Intelligence) whilst taking control of another group.
Such careful thinking is required in phases structured around a central element or vehicle. For example, one phase (which consists of a large number of enemies) requires the soldiers to take control of a turret surrounded by water. Soon the turret is being swarmed from all sides by enemies and the player's only hope is to fire just behind them or risk being caught in the blast of their own shells.
The theme tune for the game was written and sung by the lead game designer, Jon Hare.
Corn Poppy controversy
Image:Cannon fodder MD 1.png The corn poppy, used as a symbol by World War I veterans, was also used as the game logo. The Royal British Legion reacted strongly against the usage of the Remembrance Day poppy, since it could induce buyers in error, believing the game was endorsed by them. Britain's Daily Star newspaper wrote an outraged article about this, urging its readers to "Make sure you do not buy this shameful game". Virgin removed the poppy from the box, but it remained on the title screen. The Amiga version, and later versions of other formats of the game, had a tongue-in-cheek opening screen that read "This game is not affiliated with the Royal British Legion".
Pacifism vs. Warmongering
The game was also criticised by the media for what was then considered excessive violence and glorification of war - in Germany, the game was banned for sale to minors. While the violence, quite tame by modern standards but still rather gratuitous (it is possible to wound a soldier so that he bleeds to death while screaming in agony, until he is shot again or finally dies of blood loss), is clear, the claims that the game glorifies war are ironic. The game itself is a satire on war and those that revel in it, and makes numerous statements to this effect, including in the title song (with phrases such as War has never been so much fun), the poppy, and the queue of recruits signing up to enlist next to the hill full of gravestones of deceased soldiers. Each soldier has a name, and when one dies, the player is reminded of the casualties by name at the end of the level. The PC version manual ended with "As Cannon Fodder demonstrates in its own quirky little way, war is a senseless waste of lives and resources. We hope you never find out the hard way."
Music video
A little seen music video was put together to promote the original release. It may also have been an attempt to get the song "War has never been so much fun" into the singles charts, though no music deal was ever made. Shot over just one day and for a total budget of 500 pounds, it featured the entire team dressed up in military uniforms, an assortment of masks (including one of Mario) and toy guns. The version of the music track is more complete that the one that appeared on the 16-bit versions and was recorded professionally. In fact, the menu screen track is also a pared down version of a proper song, featuring studio-standard vocals. Both of these tracks were written and performed by Jon Hare, as were many of the other songs featured in Sensible's games.
Though segments of the video were featured on a short retrospective TV feature [1](from around 2000) profiling the title's origins, it is unsure where else the music video appeared. It was rumoured that it did feature on ITV's "The Chart Show" in 1993, but this has never been confirmed. Though a new song was created for the sequel, it is not known if it also received the same music video treatment. However a music video does exist for Sensible Golf, featuring the team members behind the game.
Interestingly, while the SNES and other versions of the game had the normal title music, the Atari Jaguar version also supported a vocal arrangement.
Parts of this video were also edited into a presentation for the Amiga CD32 version of the game. Archive on Google Video.
Cannon Soccer
One Christmas, a free Sensible Software minigame was included on an Amiga Format cover disk. Called Cannon Soccer, it was essentially two bonus levels of Cannon Fodder in which the soldiers fought hordes of Sensible Soccer players in a snowy landscape.
Handheld Versions
Once Sensible Software was sold off to Codemasters, the decision was taken to port the game over to the Game Boy Colour. The limit on having two men in your squad and a much smaller playing area meant changes had to be made to the gameplay, mainly to make it easier. Jon Hare himself described the change as converting "11-a-side football to 5-a-side football".
In 2004, Jon Hare set up a small mobile phone games team known as Tower Studios. Their first release was Sensible Soccer in 2004, followed by Cannon Fodder in 2005. Both titles were published by KUJU. The games were only playable on certain colour handsets and due to many keypads' inability to register a diagonal movement (like UP & RIGHT) the control systems for both games had to be radically redesigned.
Cancelled PlayStation 2 update
After selling Sensible Software to Codemasters, Jon Hare ended up consulting on many of their development projects. One of which was the PS2 title Prince Naseem Boxing. Work on this title was performed in a satellite studio based in Hammersmith, London. However due to the commercial failure of this title, the studio was shut down. A casualty of this was cancellation of a 3D update of Cannon Fodder, something that Jon had been working on for at least nine months. It's not known if the game was ever prototyped at even the most basic level, however Jon did speak about how he was looking to expand on the whole theme of war and include gameplay not just set on the battlefield: "I'd like to focus on the public's perceptions of war and warfare. There's many interesting things that go on behind the scenes with politicians". It may have been that Jon was looking to examine and provide a new satire on the media and governments actions during conflicts within his early drafts.
In an interview with Eurogamer in late 2005, Jon confirms that there was up to two years' work (on and off) put into a 3D update of Cannon Fodder: "I designed Cannon Fodder 3 with Codies six years ago, development stopped and started three times and eventually it was seemingly permanently halted when the London studio was closed 4 years ago."
He then goes on to add: "Nothing would please me more than to see this project resurrected, it was very advanced in its structure and therefore would need little modernisation."
Possible Re-Birth on Xbox and PS2
There has been a claim that a 3D Cannon Fodder will be making its way to Xbox and PlayStation 2. Since this made it into the UK games press in 2005, there has been a media blackout with no further details forthcoming.
References
- Darwinia makes a reference to Cannon Fodder's intro with a bootloader which simply reads "This game is not in any way endorsed by SENSIBLE SOFTWARE". A shortened version of the original theme tune also plays in the background.
- The 1996 Amiga game Mortal Tennis also references this intro with an opening message stating "This game is not in any way endorsed by the Royal Mortal Legion".
External links
- Documentary Short (Quicktime, 4min) on the game's origins. Features segments from the music video.
- Cannon Fodder Amiga version info page
- Cannon Fodder 2 Amiga version info page
- Cannon Fodder 2 development history The story behind Cannon Fodder 2 by Stuart Campbell
- Original intro sequence (Amiga version), thanks to Google Video
- Eurogamer's November 2005 interview with Jon Hare, where he discusses what happened with Cannon Fodder on PS2 and how the project's still on ice.
- TV plug-in-and-play version of Cannon Fodder that includes Sensible Soccer and Mega-Lo-Mania (all based on the Megadrive code).
- Poppy controversyde:Cannon Fodder
fi:Cannon Fodder fr:Cannon Fodder pl:Cannon Fodder ru:Cannon Fodder sv:Cannon Fodder