‘Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder’ Review

Game Rant’s Jacob Siegal reviews Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder

The developer of Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder, iFun4All, set the bar unbelievably high when promoting this PSP minis title as the “worst game ever.” From looking at screenshots and reading the hilarious drivel that the developer released, one might mistakenly think that this is not only one of the worst games ever, but also yet another retread in a genre that has already run its course in the portable market.

Do we really need another tower defense game? The answer is yes… but this is the last one.

Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder is a very simple tower defense game with a slight twist. It is a remake of an iOS game called Crap of Defense which also attempted to garner the award for the worst game ever made. Taking cues from Missile Command before it, Paper Wars puts you in control of the cannon, pointing your red target at incoming enemies and trying to either take out a certain amount of troops before they overrun your side of the field, or holding out against them for a set time limit.

There are a number of power-ups, including mines, airstrikes, slowing time, and earthquakes, which do manage to give the player enough to keep track of to never get bored during a mission.

Although the variety of gameplay may not be plentiful, the amount of content in the game is impressive. Paper Wars contains three campaigns, the latter two of which are unlockable by completing ten missions sequentially in the previous campaign. Each campaign contains 28 missions, each lasting around 2 minutes. Within each campaign there are 3 difficulty modes, Rookie, Soldat, and Badass. That’s over 200 missions for all the completionists out there. Add in a survival mode and achievements, and Paper Wars is shaping up to be a surprisingly expansive game.

Where the game truly shines is its sense of humor, which should be evident from the announcement of Paper Wars‘s release. It is refreshing to see a game developer that not only refuses to take itself seriously, but actively seeks to receive negative attention. The graphics, while adorable, seem to have been drawn by sleepy kindergarteners. Everything within this digital release is ironically made of paper, from the enemies to the explosions to the player’s cannon. The text is also apparently lifted from a strange mix between Toys ‘R Us and leet-speak. In other words, all the A’s are upside-down, the R’s are backwards, and any word ending with S gets altered. That means no missions, just missionz. A personal highlight of Paper Wars? The options menu contains only one option – Blood: On or Off.

For a project funded by “Panama’s Laundryman’s Investment Bank” (check the credits), this is one of the most worthwhile PSP minis I have ever played. The learning curve is almost non-existent, yet the challenge is exciting and builds at a very appropriate pace. If you need something to play between all the high-profile FPS titles releasing this month, I highly recommend Paper Wars, (not) the worst game ever.

Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder is out now on the PSN for $5.00.