Cannon Fodder

Cannon Fodder from Sensible Software was a real-time strategy wargame a long time before the likes of Command & Conquer came along.  OK, there wasn’t a lot of resource management to go along with it, but you had to look after your little guys. Get too close to an exploding building, fall in a swamp, miss a crafty enemy and it was one more little white cross on the hill and one more serviceman who’d never see his mum again.

Sensible really rammed the point home, with red poppies and funeral dirges, so much so that there was an announcement at the beginning of the game saying “The British Royal Legion in no way endorses this game.”

You could drive jeeps, swim, fight, grenade, slide, ambush, shoot and generally put your men through hell.  But then war had never been so much fun.

A great game then, once again favouring the Sensible penchant for little guys running around your screen. See Sensible Soccer, Lemmings and Walker.