INTRODUCTION
No matter what anyone says, Sensible Software is the biggest Amiga software developer. With such stable and enjoyable titles as Sensible Soccer, Wizkid, Mega-Lo-Mania and Cannon Fodder, the boys have raked in the awards and, more importantly, the sales from the software endeavours.
This year, Sensible has been working on the sequels to two of its biggest ever products. Sensible World of Soccer, the follow-up to the world's most popular football game will appear within the next month, but first out of the Sensible starting blocks is Cannon Fodder 2.
The original game sold by the bucket load and gamers were impressed with its simplicity and the fact that it was packed full of more action than an early Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Cannon Fodder, at the time of its release, received a lot of bad press from the tabloid newspapers who branded the game 'shameful' and warned readers not to buy it.
The inclusion of a picture of a poppy and the strap-line "War has never been so much fun" were the reasons why the tabloids and the British Legion Chiefs got so angry, and they tried to get Cannon Fodder banned. Even though it wasn't done on purpose, it was insensitive, so Sensible took out the poppy and displayed a message within the game disassociating Cannon Fodder from the British Legion.
However, all this palaver turned into what was perhaps the best advertising campaign that publishers Virgin could have ever hoped for, and Amiga gamers couldn't get their hands on the product quickly enough.
Forget about the publicity before the release of Cannon Fodder though and you'll find a game that was packed full of top-notch graphics, sound, playability and addiction and that's the reason why Sensible's shoot-' em-up achieved as much success as it did.
Sensible Software, after much public demand, decided to do a sequel and it has arrived. Will Cannon Fodder 2 shoot its way to glory once more or is Sensible's second effort lacking some fire-power? For answers to these questions all you need to do is read on...
SOUND
The first Cannon Fodder featured the now classic 'War has never been so much fun' tune and not to be outdone, the sequel features yet another composition of musical excellence.
Very much in the same vein as the first piece, with plenty of strong vocals, the song has now got a dance edge to it. It's a good piece of music, but as soon as you've heard it once you'll skip past it with the click of the mouse-button the next time you load up the game.
Actual in-game music and sound effects are identical to the sounds heard in the original Cannon Fodder. This, I suppose, is a bit of a shame, but the only sounds you're interested in hearing are gun-shots, explosions and the screams of pain as your enemies die a horrible painful death.
Yet again, there is nothing that new on the sound front, but what's in the game is adequate enough to satisfy most gamers.
72%GRAPHICS
On first glance, Cannon Fodder 2 looks virtually identical to the original game, especially when you're playing through the first couple of missions. Another couple of missions later, you stumble upon a switch and unknowingly summon a bunch of aliens to Earth. You get to board their ship and this is when the graphics start to change, but not necessarily for the better.
The alien levels aren't the most original things you've ever seen and whoever chose the colour schemes should be put away in jail by the Department of Bad Taste.
On other levels you take a trip to medieval world which features Knights of the round table and spectacular castles plus you get to visit Chicago where you roam the mobster riddled streets. To be perfectly honest, although each level has its own theme the graphics aren't particularly amazing. Maybe I was just expecting too much, but I didn't get the feeling that I was playing a brand new game.
As far as I can see, Cannon Fodder 2 doesn't contain any graphics that you haven't seen before in the original game. The animations, including the 'pained death', are still in there, but nothing new has been added which is a real shame as I'm sure fans of the original would've loved to have seen a few more additions, no matter how small.
Overall, you'd have to say that the graphics are just as good as the ones seen in the original - which were pretty good at the time - but I would've liked to have seen something new this time around.
70%OPINION71%
Cannon Fodder 2 should've been one of the Amiga games of the year, but there are a few problems that keep it away from the charging pack.
For starters it should never have been a sequel - the actual game is a lot more like a data-disk than a follow-up to Cannon Fodder. There are far too many similarities and not enough differences to make this sequel a classic.
The biggest problem of all is the difficulty level. It's set way too high. Now maybe it's just me, but I like a game to get progressively harder rather than getting virtually impossible after just four missions, which is exactly what happens in Cannon Fodder 2.
Gamers out there might be doubting my gaming talents at this moment in time, but everyone who has had the pleasure of playing Sensible's shoot-' em-up sequel in the Amiga Computing office has suffered exactly the same problem.
The game will last you a hell of a long time, but I'm sure you'll be trashing your mouse to bits before you even get to mission five, and you have to consider that there are 24 missions in all.
Another slight problem is that you have to guess what is going on in the game because there is no plot explanation while you play along. One minute you're in Beirut, then you're in space and then you're back to Earth, but back in Medieval times. It's all very confusing!
There will be a lot of Cannon Fodder fans who will no doubt buy the sequel no matter what I say, but for the rest of us gamers I would be very wary of Sensible's latest effort. It's not so much a sequel, but more of a director's cut. It's good, but it's nowhere near as good as everyone else is saying.