By John Walker on February 3rd, 2012 at 10:12 am.
Well here’s a thing. You may remember that last January there was a flurry of excitement at the prospect of a new Cannon Fodder game. The 1993 Amiga classic still generates a lot of love, and people especially like arguing about whether Cannon Fodder 2 was an acceptable sequel, and whether Stuart Campbell ruined it with his sticky-up hair. Let’s fight about that now! But a third never happened, until the peculiarity of Codemasters licensing the title for a Russian-only third part developed by GFI. Codies quickly distanced themselves from it, and things fell silent. But now every other site on the internet has reported the spotting of a YouTube video of some footage by Twitterite superannuation. And, well, it looks like Cannon Fodder with improved graphics.
But with the worst music imaginable.
There’s also an unverified demo linked from whoever wrote the YouTube description, which I’m about to check for viruses, etc, by installing… It seems to be clean, but it’s very much in Russian, and I’m a little rusty in the language so can’t figure out exactly what’s happening. Let alone get the resolution improved. Nor turn this hideous music off.
To get out of the first area, go to the top of the screen. But beyond that, not knowing what I’m clicking on in the menus means I keep restarting missions or going back to the main menu. Also, and I’m not quite sure, I think the game might be an awful lot racist.
03/02/2012 at 10:16 diebroken says:
Strange, that’s not an FPS…
03/02/2012 at 15:11 iGark says:
That’s no moon…
03/02/2012 at 10:16 Prime says:
God, you’re not kidding. The music reminds me of that soulless piece of RAWK! they shoved at the start of every Zero Punctuation review.
03/02/2012 at 10:27 lhzr says:
proper song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4iwM3fpEVM
03/02/2012 at 10:29 Prime says:
Ahhhhhhhh. Much more like it. Thanx. :)
03/02/2012 at 13:28 Benny says:
While listening to the proper music i stumbled upon this.
The old Rectuitment Screen music actually had proper lyrics and a decent recording!
[Edit: failing at links]
04/02/2012 at 01:09 Jacksie says:
Fixed: http://tubedubber.com/#gP5i2V2IkME:hDxCBx9Xb1I:0:100:0:0:1
03/02/2012 at 10:17 CMaster says:
Looks a little more crazy-sci-fi and boss battle orientated than I remember C&C being.
Still could be quite a lot of fun though.
03/02/2012 at 17:14 Baines says:
Looks like a modern old-school overhead shooter, except your extra lives trail you instead of just existing as a number in the corner of the screen.
Doesn’t look like it plays like Cannon Fodder, but it could be quite fun.
03/02/2012 at 17:45 geoffreyk says:
Jools is not an extra life! How dare you?!?
03/02/2012 at 10:17 Belsameth says:
Just grab Pineapple Smash Crew instead :p
03/02/2012 at 10:25 Icarus says:
Seconding this. It’s a bloody fun time and I think the rookie troopers even get named after the little Cannon Fodder people.
03/02/2012 at 10:46 sneetch says:
Thirded, got it last night and I can’t wait to play again. And it has a huge advantage in that it’s already out!
03/02/2012 at 12:35 princec says:
Yes! Get Pineapple Smash Crew! It’s brilliant. Here, I’ll save you some efforts – Steam Store page for Pineapple Smash Crew
03/02/2012 at 12:37 PatrickSwayze says:
You mean you guys don’t name your troops after the marines in Aliens? I AM DISSAPOINT.
Never got a guy higher than level 3 though HAH!
03/02/2012 at 13:20 Icarus says:
@Mr Swayze, you can name the first four of your troops, but if they die, you get a fixed-name rookie replacement that’s named after the Cannon Fodder mooks.
(I named my smash crew Delta, Fixer, Scorch and Sev)
03/02/2012 at 10:27 Neurotic says:
Speaking as a proofreader and text editor in the games industry, with nearly 15 years’ experience (lots of it with Russian devs), I can tell you that they’re crazy about their inadvertent racism and xenophobia. The things I’ve found buried in 2000 text strings for otherwise innocent games, would make you :O
03/02/2012 at 10:29 lhzr says:
oh, come on, you can’t just say that without giving any examples !
03/02/2012 at 10:29 lordcooper says:
I demand examples.
03/02/2012 at 10:33 Prime says:
*chants* We want racism! We want racism!
03/02/2012 at 11:04 Jorum says:
Yes sadly it’s not uncommon in Russia. Sometimes just plain racism (hello Mr Brother-in-law) and sometimes just not realising how certain things are perceived by outside.
For example I was watching Russian new year concert shows (like a massive version of a Jules Holland/royal variety mashup) and one group came on in full black-face to do a reggae number. I don’t think it was in any way supposed to be racist, they just didn’t consider it an issue.
I was also kinda shocked to see a kids cartoon (fairly recent I think) in which some islanders(or africans?) were drawn in that horrible 1930′s little short guys with spears and huge-lips caricature way.
Not sure what that was all about.
Although in fairness I suspect there is probably almost as much in the UK or US, it’s just not as socially/publicly acceptable so people hide it more.
03/02/2012 at 11:49 Kollega says:
Speaking as a Russian, i can say that there are both cases of serious racism (for example, neo-Nazis roaming the streets and killing immigrants from Middle Asia just because) and just plain bad humour (for example, caricatures of black people that would be horribly racist in the US are not considered a big deal since Russia never had black people to opress and thus nobody thinks it’s an issue).
Sadly, i have to say that Russia seems to be quite, quite xenophobic in general: there’s nationalism, racism, homophobia, and other such things in amounts that would make any American or European shake their head in terrified disbelief.
03/02/2012 at 12:28 pmanpman says:
I think america is the only country where that is a major issue,
One australian comedy show did a best of about 20 years after the fact, but being a live competiton talent quest thing, they got the same acts to come in an re perform the acts.
On group had a black guy with white paint and 4 white guys with black paint and that was aired on prime time TV.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=288_1255011238
Sure, they later apologised but it did make prime time… and they only apologised because some americans got up in arms about it.
03/02/2012 at 13:40 Zephro says:
Not sure I’d take the Australian quality test for racism very seriously ¬_¬
03/02/2012 at 15:05 Berzee says:
*sigh*
Being unreasonably afraid of (maybe also revolted by) something is a phobia; making fun of something or holding it in contempt is not a phobia.
I realize that the official definition may encompass both by now, but that’s dumb.
This comment paid for by the Association for Making the Word “Xenophobia” More Useful and Less Dumb.
03/02/2012 at 15:39 asshibbitty says:
Also known as the clueless baby committee.
03/02/2012 at 10:29 Eclipse says:
looks interesting!
But who’s the developer?
Looks actually to be more various than Pineapple Smash Crew, but seems to be slower paced.
03/02/2012 at 10:36 asshibbitty says:
It was actually made by Burut CT, who are a notorious shitware dev. GFI is a shitware publisher.
03/02/2012 at 10:48 caddyB says:
WHAT DID YOU DO TO CANNON FODDER MUSIC YOU ARSEBISCUITS!
explanation for the lesser gamers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cch0wrwg4tg
03/02/2012 at 10:56 MOKKA says:
It’s a shame isn’t it?
03/02/2012 at 11:15 MD says:
http://tubedubber.com/#gP5i2V2IkME:J4iwM3fpEVM:0:100:0:0:1
03/02/2012 at 12:05 caddyB says:
Should’ve been like that and I’d pay full AAA price for it even if it’s crap. It probably is anyway.
03/02/2012 at 11:39 Diogo Ribeiro says:
If there are explosions it must rawk right? God awful music.
Laser tanks and giant robos? Is this Cannon Fodder or Cannon Fodder meets Metal Slug?
03/02/2012 at 12:04 Jimbo says:
You can’t improve Cannon Fodder’s graphics.
03/02/2012 at 12:07 Turkey says:
Glad to see the great anti war message of the first one still remains.
03/02/2012 at 12:13 Unaco says:
Horrendous music, yes. But it also looks like they f*cked up the game, which is kind of hard to do when you think about it. 3D doesn’t work, and the screen just looks far too cluttered… what the hell is with the alien world, metal floor and laser beams look?… Dumbed down so you can only have 1 squad… the glorification of war… no tactics, just pointy-clicky-boom. What have these people done?
At least they got a colour other than green. That’s possibly the only decent thing about this.
03/02/2012 at 13:47 lhzr says:
“alien world, metal floor and laser beams look?… Dumbed down so you can only have 1 squad… the glorification of war… no tactics, just pointy-clicky-boom.”
you just described that pineapple game that people are raving about above you as being the new cannon fodder.
for what’s it worth, to me the video looked as cannon fodder-esque as they come. you got 4 guys that shoot and bomb the shit out of other shit. that IS cannon fodder, not the 2d, the “message”, the colour palette or whatever other window dressings you remember from the old ones.
also tactics? where? when? reminds me of people calling syndicate a rts.
03/02/2012 at 12:17 somini says:
So, Running with Rifles then?
http://www.modulaatio.com/runningwithrifles/
03/02/2012 at 13:00 Lemming says:
Am I the only one that thinks this looked good then? I’m happy with CF with better graphics, tbh..
The music for the trailer seemed to fit compared with the old helicopter level loading music, to me.
03/02/2012 at 13:41 lhzr says:
nah, it looked fine to me too. good enough to make me try the demo, at least.
03/02/2012 at 13:13 RyuRanX says:
Played the russian demo last year and it was fun. I’m looking forward to this game.
03/02/2012 at 13:15 max pain says:
240p is the new HD.
03/02/2012 at 14:29 Matt says:
Hardly Defined?
03/02/2012 at 15:17 mickygor says:
Those little guys look invincible. I swear they’re constantly being engulfed in explosions, yet it only took 1 bullet to kill a man in the original.
03/02/2012 at 17:34 hjd_uk says:
This had better include the guilt and shame of seeing your lack of military prowess create tens then dozens then hundreds of little white crosses all over the hills overlooking the recruitment-line…
03/02/2012 at 23:02 buzzmong says:
The “recruitment” screen in CF is one of the most poignant things I’ve ever seen in a game. An amazing idea, and certainly in theme with the anti-war sentiments of the originals.
04/02/2012 at 01:34 wodin says:
I loved Cannon Fodder back in the day…can’t remember what machine I played it on, either the Atari ST or an Amiga.
i think you could say it was one of the first RTS games I suppose.
04/02/2012 at 18:39 DickSocrates says:
Is 240p HD in Russia?
04/02/2012 at 20:11 Zagzagovich says:
It’s made by BURUT so you know it’s shit. Cannon Fodder was a giant hit on russian bootleg SEGAs and it’s really sad to see them trying to capitalize on that in such a lazy manner. I love how the first two selling points the give you are “MANY LOCATIONS” and “DAYTIME LOCATIONS AND NIGHTTIME LOCATIONS”. It’s lazy bad and poop.
08/02/2012 at 00:36 hayesmaker says:
War was once a lot more fun than this!
09/02/2012 at 22:16 cheeba says:
Heh. Nicely played, that man.