Cannon Fodder

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For the literary use of the expression "cannon fodder", see cannon fodder.
Cannon Fodder

Developer(s) Sensible Software
Codemasters (New Version)
Publisher(s) Virgin
Designer(s) Jon Hare
Platform(s) 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Atari ST, Game Boy Color, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, PlayStation Portable
Release date March 24, 1993, [1] 1994
Genre(s) Real-time tactics, Action game
Mode(s) Single player
Media CD-ROM, 3½ inch Floppy, Cartridge, UMD
Input methods Joystick, Mouse

Cannon Fodder is a short series of two war (and later science fiction) themed action computer and video games developed by Sensible Software, initially released for the Commodore Amiga. Only two games in the series were released, but were converted to most active systems at the time of release. The series has a clear, somewhat darkly humorous method of gameplay that perhaps even doubles as social commentary. The pre-mission screen shows a hill with a grave for each dead soldier, with recruits lining up in front of it and a sports-like score at the top of the screen. Soldiers each have unique names, while on the grand scale of things being nothing more than interchangeable cannon fodder. The tagline 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".

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

In both games, the player is in charge of a squad (the titular "cannon fodder") of between one and eight elements that can be, for command purposes, split up to three groups (referred to as Snake, Eagle and Panther squads). All units have a machine gun with unlimited ammo, as well as caches of limited grenades and rockets that can be found on the map. In later levels, the player is provided with some free grenades and rockets at the start of the mission. The player's machine guns do not harm its own soldiers, but friendly fire can ensue from grenades and rockets, which are also the only weapons capable of destroying buildings and vehicles. Player units can also die if hit by debris flung from exploding buildings and vehicles, get caught in man-traps, mired in quicksand, and of course, hit by 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 whole mission, which gives the game a relatively hard difficulty at some points.

Each phase is structured around mission objectives which range from "Kill all enemy" or "Destroy enemy buildings" to "Rescue all hostages". Some phases are complexly constructed and require the player to use imagination, pre-planning and strategy 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 (assigning its control to 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.

[edit] Music video

The theme tune (War Has Never Been So Much Fun) for the game was written by the lead game designer Jon Hare, with musician Richard Joseph. Vocals were sung by Hare himself. A little-seen music video of the song was put together to promote the original release. An almost complete version can be found here: Archive on Google Video this version is an edited presentation for the Amiga CD32 and 3DO versions of the game.

Shot over just one day and for a total budget of £500, 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 than 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.

[edit] Characters

The original game saw hundreds of recruits marching for battle, each named individually. The first few members - Jools, Jops, Stoo and Rj - were named directly after the development staff. As each recruit was killed in battle, the next one in line would take their place. Each character was incremented a rank and given a slight boost in firing range when completing a mission.

The first 40 characters are named Jools, Jops, Stoo, Rj, Ubik, Cj, Chris, Pete, Tadger, Hector, Elroy, Softy, Mac, Bomber, Stan, Tosh, Brains, Norm, Buster, Spike, Browny, Murphy, Killer, Abdul, Spotty, Goofy, Donald, Windy, Nifta, Denzil, Cedric, Alf, Marty, Cecil, Wally, Pervy, Jason, Roy, Peewee, and Arnie.

[edit] Subsequent Versions

[edit] Cannon Soccer

Also known as Cannon Fodder - Amiga Format Christmas Special

In 1994, a free Sensible Software minigame was included on the coverdisk of the Amiga Format Christmas issue. 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. The levels were titled "Land of Hope and Glory", and "It's Snow Time".

[edit] Sensible Soccer 92/93 Meets Bulldog Blighty

Also known as Sensible Soccer: England vs Germany

On the Amiga Power Coverdisk 21 one of the demos was Sensible Soccer Meets Bulldog Blighty. It was a homage to the famous Christmas-time football match between the Germans and the British over no-man's land in 1914. It featured a mode of play that involved replacing players with soldiers from Cannon Fodder, and the ball with a hand grenade. The grenade would randomly begin to flash and would eventually explode after a few minutes, killing any nearby players. The match itself was also played in black and white.

[edit] Gameboy Color

Once Sensible Software was sold off to Codemasters, the decision was taken to port the game over to the Game Boy Color. 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 described the change as converting "11-a-side football to 5-a-side football".

[edit] Cellphone

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 color models 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.

[edit] Playstation Portable

On 28 August 2006, Codemasters announced that a brand new version of Cannon Fodder would appear exclusively on the Playstation Portable. The game would have retained its familiar top down view, and the big heads of the soldiers, and for the first time the game would have been 3D. The game has since been cancelled by Codemasters [1].

[edit] 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 confirmed 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 went 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."


[edit] Controversies

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[edit] Poppy

Title Screen with the poppy
Title Screen with the poppy

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 they claimed it could induce buyers in error, believing the game was endorsed by them. When the use of the poppy was revealed in a magazine article prior to the game's release, 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 was able to remove the poppy from the box before the game's release, but it remained on the title screen, and the developers also added an opening screen that read "This game is not in any way endorsed by the Royal British Legion".

[edit] Pacifism versus warmongering

The game was also criticised by the media for what was, at the time, considered excessive violence and glorification of war. In Germany the game was banned for sale to minors. Ironically, given its detractors, the game itself is a satire on war and those who revel in it, and makes numerous statements to this effect. These include the title of the game, the title song (which includes phrases such as War has never been so much fun), the poppy, and the enlisting recruits queuing next to a hill covered with deceased soldiers' graves. Each soldier has a name, and the player is reminded of the casualties by name at the end of the level. The game 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."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Codemasters forum - Cannon Fodder. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
  • 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 plays in the background. Darwinia's retro-style gameplay has similarities to Cannon Fodder.
  • 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".

[edit] External links