YMMV / Cannon Fodder

• Awesome Music: The recruitment theme. (vocalized version here) At first, you wonder what the game is all sad about. Then the gravestones start appearing. And appearing. And appearing...
• Contested Sequel: Cannon Fodder 2. Its designer, former game journalist Stuart Campbell, regretted making many of the levels utterly difficult with a steep learning curve due to his inexperience. The original, more elaborate plot was also simplified in the final game due to Executive Meddling, leaving little explanation of the sci-fi, time traveling elements.
• Difficulty Spike: In the original game, Level Eight Phase Two is notorious for being much harder than anything before. (You have to clear a map of snipers before taking control of a gun turret to destroy several armoured bunkers, all the while being attacked by ever-increasing numbers of enemy soldiers who are much more aggressive than in previous levels, and capable of blowing up the turret itself and making the phase unwinnable.) Even judged retrospectively, it's one of the hardest phases in the whole game.
• Porting Disaster: The Game Boy Color version didn't work out very well due to technical limits, although the intro was certainly impressive. And don't get anyone started on how hard it was to manage a squad with only two buttons and a 160 x 144 Pixel screen. About the only redeeming quality that it has is that it features additional content from Cannon Fodder 2. But even then, it's still hard to convince anyone else that it's a Polished Port.
• That One Level:
  • Mission 9:2 is just sadistic, and not in a fun way but a boring way. It consists of endless, incredibly slow swimming, with occasional attempts to destroy gun turrets that are pure luck whether you destroy the turret or it shoots you. And you only have one soldier so if he gets killed you have to start the phase again from the start. It's hard to imagine anyone playing it again once they've finally managed to win it.
  • Mission 8:4 is an absolutely crazy skillgate that is almost impossible to do without the safety net of an emulator. And even then, you'll find yourself having to reload a savestate several times before you can get it right. The southern portion of the map is isolated by a tall cliff that will kill your squad if they fall over it. So the only way to get down "safely" from your starting plateau is to get in the jeep that you find and drive off from a specific part where the cliff meets the water. HOWEVER, you have to bail out upon landing in the water by clicking your cursor on the jeep to have your squad leave the vehicle. The HARDEST part about doing this is that you only have a small window of about a few milliseconds before the jeep is completely submerged. If you're too late, you'll be unable to click on the jeep and have to frantically restart the level or watch helplessly as the jeep eventually explodes and kills your squad.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite its cute designs, the game was clearly not for kids as it is a very violent game where you had to shoot people to win. And even worse. In the North American releases, Atari Jaguar and 3DO versions are rated "E" despite its reasons. It was later re-rated to T when the Game Boy Color version released.

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