Cannon Fodder: The Complete History | Retro Gaming Documentary

This game was big in Europe not just the UK. Im from Sweden and Cannon fodder was huge. Sadly i played it on PC and never got the cool intro music :(

I borrowed this along with my mates CD 32 in exchange for for my PS1 for a week years ago and at the time this was the only game I couldn't take the piss out of him for wasting his money 😂. Oh and he also bought a Panasonic 3DO!

I remember.... my Father played 1st Cannon Fodder on Amiga600... i was 8yo and remeber stayng whole night watching how my dad struggle with it :D and alwas trying to drive tank or fly a hellicopter :D o7

I never got what was so great about Cannon Fodder. Sure it was ok/good but... Maybe I played it wrong or something.

This was the first game I played on Genecyst back in 2000 and found it so addicting that after finishing it, I immediately played a 2nd run to find everything I missed. It's so cool that it was ported to the genesis

Wouldn't agree that cannon fodder 2 was better. Can never beat the original.

The control system on Parallax was shocking, not much of the quality control there. So it ended up just as an unplayable version of Uridium. I only loaded it up for the music.

Can't you just say cannon fodder like a normal person would? :)

Mega-lo-mania is probably the best game ever. I actually bought it in London.

most boring documentation about cannon fodder, i've ever watched.

It was sucha big game in Poland, we all loved it

The media misunderstanding a game they've never played and shitting on it! Never! Surely they wouldn't do that........................................

But seriously I loved Cannon Fodder. Problem was I couldn't go on everytime Jools died. I had to start all over again and keep him alive to the end.

Cannon Fodder was big in my house in Canada, but I was like 1 of 2 people in all my schooling of 12 years to have played it. It's rare and most people even who are old enough never heard of it

I only had the demo floppy for PC that came with a gaming magazine. But still remember Cannon Fodder and other memorable games from the 90s: Syndicate with similar gameplay ... now that was a cool game with cool sounds. X-COM too. Populous comes to mind too as a cool game in that era, but different gameplay. I would say one of the predecessors of Cannon Fodder was a DOS game I played in the 80s: The Ancient Art of War.

So good to see some love for Kim Justice. They make some of the absolute best gaming content, and with a super likeable personality. As an American, I love experiencing the enthusiasm for these magical titles that were massive success stories over in Europe. There really is a magic to that British passion for the micro computer era that sparks my love for gaming in a really fresh and fun way.

Thanks for what you do, Slope and Kim!!

I had Meglomania, excellent game

I'm here via Kim's recent get Jools & Jops to mission 8 challenge funnily enough, great retrospective

My grandfather bought this game for me but we didnt know how to install it. floppy disc days

CF3 is better than 2, everyone who played it back when it came out agrees on that, but of course all the armchair history revisionists will try to make you think otherwise.

I wrote a paper on the RTS genre as a student back in 2005. I concluded that Sensible Software invented all the components in Mega Lo Mania and Cannon Fodder, but that it took Westwood Studios to combine it into modern RTS.

Cannon Fodder - best game I had on the A500. Cannon Fodder 2 - felt let down.

You did a very good job with covering this masterpiece. I would like to see a special complete history of Sensible Soccer too. It remains one of the most addictive soccer games of all time, especially if you play with friends on the Amiga. We reunited and played and it was sooo fun.

The Music in this is still nice to listen to. oh what a game

Such a shame that the novella for Cannon Fodder 2 wasn't finished and shipped with the game. It would have been a massive improvement to have context for each mission.

Wrong syndicate is cannon fodder on organic steroids diablo is also similar and many others

Oh level 8.
What a nightmare.
Boom boom bang bang if memory serves

Man, I had so much fun with the demo of Cannon Fodder, having no clue what was going on and just constantly replaying what was essentially one small segment of the game… good times…

1. It's 'CANNON fodder', not 'cannon FODDER' :)
2. Did you really do an entire 29 minute game retrospective without showcasing one second of game audio?
3. I remember Stuart Cambel from Amiga Power.
He was quite a character. I wonder if he has lived down the time he photocopied his sphincter and published it in his pre-Amiga Power game self published mag :)

"And on a more serious note: don't try playing this at home, kids, because war is not a game; war, as Cannon Fodder demonstrates in its own quirky little way, is a senseless waste of human resources and lives. We hope that you never have to find out the hard way."
-The last words of the instruction manual.
Credit this comment to
@antster1983 who posted it on another related video.

I was just a kid but I don't remember having any problems with the difficulty.. no idea what that guy was saying.. and having gone all the way through CF didn't really connect with the sequel or try and get deep into the levels.

I remember the demo in the style of sensi soccer n the salivating 2 month wait turning into many more months of waiting.. n waiting.. the wait just made it hit harder on release. What a game. Who's up for paintball !!??!!

The intro song to this game has lived rent free in my head since the early 90's. I must reference it or sing it out loud at least once a month.

Somewhere in storage, I actually have a copy of this for the 3DO. I didn't even know it was from a UK developer, hahah. Also got OG Doom and Guardian Wars. Those are the ones I remember playing most, anyhow.

I am that old. Remember playing both Canon Fodder games on my Amiga 500+ (And that music was awesome!)

Feel like that's ridiculous to make em change the poppy it isn't a swastika geez...I mean this is still a videogame correct? Surprised they let them have gravestones in it that's a symbol of death after all...I dunno seems ridiculous but great video as always

Cannon Fodder was a game that a friend showed me saying "Listen to this"... Fantastic intro (Amiga). And yes, i hated losing men and seeing that hill fill up with graves... The music on that one screen is burnt into my brain. Great stuff.

I bought this game in America in the 90s for PC. We did have it but it was pretty obscure.

once my dad showed me cannon fodder when i was young and i played it 24/7 it was the shit mate

Just heard you on RetroHour. Loving this Cannon Fodder doc, one of my all time faves and thanks to Evercade I can replay through it whenever I want.

Did you ever try Cannon Fodder on the Game Boy Colour?

Absolutely brilliant game. Very simple to pick up on, but the levels get very challenging.

Interesting... I always thought the "This game was not in any way endorsed by the ROYAL BRITISH LEGION" message was just another piece of humour like the title music and pictures.

This game needs a re release. Great game. I mean #1

Thank you for sharing these UK only sleeper games—now all I can think about is how good a sequel or remaster/collection would be on the switch…twin stick action shooter RTS with a cheeky anti war message YES PLEASE
(Also big beat em up fan picked up Final Vendetta per your recommendation and I love it final fight with a UK vibe good stuff)

I pull out the Atari Jaguar all the time to play Cannon Fodder.

Ahh yes

My one of the first games in genesis library, thank you for bringing this up

Was very popular in Australia, I was there 😊

You should definitely do a Complete History of:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Mario Party
Mario & Sonic
Luigi
Wario
Dance Dance Revolution
Just Dance
Tony Hawk’s