War. War never changes. But Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated? No, those don’t change either. We first stumbled upon iFun4all tower defence game back in 2011 where a very wise man stated the Wiiware offering was “(...) far from the worst game ever”. Seven years later, does this new entry bring anything new to the paper battlegrounds or is it just the same old piece of sheet? Beware of paper-cuts…
It is strange the game’s genre still insists in being labelled ‘tower defence’, since it rarely is these days. In fact, it has more in common with the classic Atari’s Missile Command than any tower defence game we can think up. Instead of nukes flying in from the top in, here you have endless hordes of paper units that creep their way from the right side of the screen and you, a paper tank, starts shelling these poor paper souls back to the recycle bin.
This is not however a 1:1 remake of the original game, hence the new subtitle. The original charming paper graphics have been all remade so at least the new soldiers do look better than in the original while still retaining their pleasing children drawing aesthetics. Gameplay does, however, remain true to the original: you aim the targeting reticule on the battlefield, press the fire button and decide how much bang you want on your paper shell by how long you keep that same button held. Bonus items often show up in the battlefield so you do have to take some care not to blow them up. This became a nuisance fast when things got more hectic.
The game offers several missions in three difficulties. Do yourself a favour and skip both the ‘rookie’ and ‘soldad’ settings, only young children will find a challenge there. There are only two types of mission: prevent a set number of enemy paper soldiers reaching your base (i.e. the left side of the screen) or hold the onslaught for a set period of time. As expected the game starts throwing different types of paper soldiers (and eventually vehicles this time) at you, with different walking speeds and boom resistance, but they always walk in a straight left-to-right line making them truly the titular cannon fodder. Still, there is a mysterious, somewhat zen quality to it all as you try to maximise you paper ordinance to take out the biggest possible number of them.
Quality, however, is not what you will find on the user interface. Yes, we understand the whole misprint and reverse letter shtick, but more often then not we had trouble distinguishing which options were highlighted, leading to some frustrating, accidental menu problems. The main issue then becomes if you will be able to unlock the two extra campaigns (the return of ‘Winter Assault’ and the all new ‘Zombie Wars’ featuring… yep, you guessed it: paper zombies!) before the novelty wears off. Criminally, one of the redeeming features from the original as gone MIA.: Survival mode returns, but the chaotic four-player option is nowhere in sight. A sadly missed 'papertunity' right there. At least the music is certainly… loud.
Conclusion
Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated is not a good game. It is not a bad game. It is a game. A harmless time-waster that will neither bring a revolution nor it will end the world by its quiet presence on the Switch eShop. It is, however, hard for us to recommend it at the current price point considering there are far more viable options content and gameplay wise for the same price. What we have here is yet another incredible kusoge whose existence made us remember not to take life too seriously. Plus the title did remind us to replay the Sensible Software developed classic Cannon Fodder. In conclusion: ‘Paper Wars: Paper-thin Fodder’.
Comments 13
Wow, that looks horribly childish. Almost as if the developer's ten year old nephew did all the graphics. Quite the insult to the ACTUAL and far superior Cannon Fodder series.
Or perhaps the developer was channeling his inner child to make this...
After watching the review on SwitchWatch recently I just think this game looks boring.... will pass on this one
A shame, though the two mission types you mention fit my (probably poor) understanding of what Tower Defence is.
@cmk8 There are no towers! There are no place to set up defences! There are no paths for the enemies to traverse! There are no choke points, only death!
I wonder if the guy in the other article about the switch collection is going to add this fodder....
And yet somehow this game was rated higher than Radiation Island which offers open world, complex crafting and decent graphics for £8. Go figure
Heyy, ‘‘twas me who wrote that first review. My quote only makes sense when you look at their ad campaign, where they claimed you had to play it because it was the worst game ever.
@Zach Indeed, for those who are unaware:
Review just reminds me we don't have Cannon Fodder or Papers Please on the Switch even though they would be awesome.
@samuelvictor My thoughts exactly. I had the game on the Amiga 500, back in the day. And that was the best version, especially for the music and sound effects. Also had the second game and after I bought the CD32, I also bought the CD version of the first game.
Still play it every now and then. Even the music playing during the roll call of lost soldiers was good. Sensible Software really was something else back in those days.
It's sad that so many great software houses disappeared over the years, ever since then.
@samuelvictor Yeah, I've heard of them. Seen some of their videos as well. Good channel.
@Shiryu Thanks for the Cannon Fodder review, saved me the $5 it's on sale for. Looks like San Slime (Slime San?) instead.
@rjejr Slime-san 10/10. Slime-san all the day, everyday.
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