Cannon Fodder

"Lost in action...."

I bet everyone here has got a favourite game, that they played for hours on end on a retro console, not turning it off as the game could not be saved, and when the time to turn it off came, you just could do that to yourself, so you left it on and there was a power cut in the middle of the night, and that game you worked so hard to play is gone. This one is mine.

Everyone that has owned an Amiga has played Cannon Fodder, no exceptions, it is a game that defined the Amiga and the only truly memorable game on it. What if I told you this version bettered it? You think I would be lying? Well it isn't better, but it comes very close.

The controls are not nice, I mean really not nice, you don't have a mouse here, just the plain old SNES controller. This game was not designed to work with that controller, it was designed to be a free moving game, it is no longer just point and click. If you are facing trees and move the mouse point in front of them trees, you will not be able to move, and you will be killed, but that is what this game is. All about shooting, not enough about tactics.

It is too easy to shoot, and too hard to die. As long as you have the mouse point in a generally open space and just hold the A button down, you will shoot wildly and take everything out in your path. This is not good, the challenge from the Amiga version has gone, so has the frustration and agony from not doing well has also gone.

The graphics are an up side though, along with most of the rest of the game. Although the sprites still look square, the terrain is detailed even better. The water, well it has a few light texture things on it, but it is not overly detailed. If this game had too much extra on it, then it would not be good because it is taking us away from the classic Amiga version. The buildings now look 3D, but I can't say much for the explosions, maybe more detail could have been added onto them, you can't really see them.

Of course the classic mission end scene has been left in, with you troops walking around the hill, coming back from duty, that brought back a lot of memories. This game and all other Cannon Fodder games are classics and truly worth buying for the avid retro game buying, or just a casual gamer looking for a bargain and fun at the same time, which is not seen often in the modern world.

- Pros

. Good Graphics
. Very Fun to play.

- Cons

. Not challenging enough.
. Bad controls.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/04