Excitement? Well... possibly

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If you have a musical ear, you may be attracted to Bird Strike from Firebird Software. Music plays a big part in this game, as you realise after a few seconds' loading.

All of a sudden, the micro breaks into a frenzied version of "It's a long way to Tipperary" - the sort of version Liberace might produce if let loose on a synthesizer after a few pints. Once the rest of the program has loaded, and you've read the instructions, you are treated to a few bars of "Colonel Bogey", followed by the famous introductory notes to Beethoven's Fifth."

Three musical themes, and the game hasn't even started yet - promising!

However, Bird Strike turns out to be yet another variation on the shoot-em-down-and-win-a-coconut type of game.

You are presented with a pleasant view of a river valley, a cluster of houses on one side, and a churchyard on the other - somewhere in Europe in 1914 according to the micro.

At the bottom is your cannon, and from the top biplanes float down, trying to get you before you get them. Only a hit dead centre destroys them, but herein lies the novelty.

Winging a plane results in the release of a carrier pigeon and shooting this results in the addition of a musical note to a stave at the top of the screen.

Complete the stave and you've defeated that wave of planes. To celebrate, the micro plays the music you've "composed" - a few bars of "John Brown Body". Then it's on to the next wave.

There are four in all - biplanes, monoplanes, jets, and something that looks like a Chinook helicopter - all a bit odd for 1914. After the fourth wave, you get all four staves of John Brown, and then it's back to the beginning.

Promising as I said but for me the game didn't live up to its promise. Jack Charlton would undoubtedly approve of blasting away at pigeons, but I'm not so keen.

As they flutter across the screen, they utter a few dispirited cheeps, rather like a sparrow that's had a bad day at the races and I felt a bit mean shooting them down.

The game doesn't seem to progress much. It does get a bit harder to avoid being hit, but nothing new happens and I ended up getting bored with the whole thing.

Admittedly, the graphics and use of sound are good, but on the whole the game seems to lack something.

Excitement... possibly.

James Bibby