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Galaxians have gone batty with squadrons of galactic flying bats! The layout is a 5 x 6 formation of galactic bats that swoop down, dropping bombs.

Your task is to destroy the fleet without losing all of your initial three lives. About 75% of the graphics screen is donated to the playing window.

Along the side is printed your score, hi-score, remaining ships and current level. Your ship's movement is controlled not by joystick but by the keyboard keys Z and X for direction, and the Shift key to fire missiles.

As the game starts, the bats flutter and small attack wave formations swoop down. The implied diving motion is very simple, not up to the usual intricate patterns incorporated into some of the other Galaxian-type games.

The ship's movement is also very bad, being far too slow. The rather large and slow missiles launched from the protector ship move in dead straight lines. I tried to "curve" the shot by moving while shooting, but this had no effect.

Once a screen of bats had been completed, a rather raucous spaceship sound occurred followed by a series of flying "doughnuts"! This is where C&VG's bug-hunting device activated itself to disclose a stupid bug.

Bombs from the previous screen in the process of falling were not cleared, but frozen and displayed in the subsequent screen.

You can't blast the "doughnuts" - you just have to dodge. This is very difficult - and sometimes impossible if a horizontal string of doughnuts is descending!

Another annoying characteristic of this screen is that two ship width sized margins are imposed on the left and right of the playing area - restricting movement.

Apart from that, the "doughnuts" do have very realistic spinning simulations. After this, the next level ensues with faster and more difficult action, alternating between flying bat and spinning "doughnut" screens!

Bat Attack is available from Sheffield-based Alligata (Superior Systems) for the Commodore 64, at £7.95.