Pushing The Limits: Cannon Fodder
War has never been so much fun – and it had never been so small, until this miracle port came along
Nick is on hand to explain why this Game Boy Color game is so impressive
» PLATFORM: GAME BOY COLOR » RELEASED: 2000 » DEVELOPER: CODEMASTERS
When considering classic home computer games that might work well on the Game Boy Color, we feel like Cannon Fodder was perhaps not the most obvious choice. The game didn’t shy away from the brutal reality of war, whether it was depicting a hillside gradually filling up with gravestones, or a soldier slowly bleeding to death from a fatal wound. It’s not really the sort of thing the Pokémon kids would have been into – but then, with Nintendo’s approval policies in place, that was never going to be what handheld gamers got.
Instead, Codemasters decided to pivot in a humorous direction, and in doing so added a number of features that the previous versions of Cannon Fodder didn’t have, despite their more powerful host hardware. A brand-new FMV intro depicted an ill-fated game of catch played with a hand grenade, backed by the classic War Has Never Been So Much Fun theme, while the classic hillside was replaced with a 3D military base; in-game, soldiers got new Worms-style quips. With a younger audience on board, these changes made sense, but long-time fans might feel the tone of the original was lost.
Of course, while the conversion was as faithful as you could hope for, some compromises and gameplay adjustments were naturally made for the handheld format. The lack of birds flying overhead is a detail that might be missed, but it would hardly have been the most pressing issue for purists. The slightly faster pace of play, the two-troop squad limit and the new way that recruits parachute in to replace their fallen comrades all gave the game a slightly different, more action-oriented feel than the originals. It’s a smart choice for the format, but maybe not for the most committed fans.
Although Cannon Fodder is a technical marvel for the Game
Boy Color, the ready availability of other versions and the lack of word-of-mouth hype means that the game’s price is currently reasonable – loose carts can go as low as £5, while a boxed copy in good condition will start from about £20. That’s not a bad price for an interesting and impressive handheld take on a 16-bit classic, even if the spirit has changed a little.