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Does the world really need more space invaders? Well, whether we need them or not, Postern has given us them. This isn't quite the standard invaders though, the Firehawks appear singly and in groups from the top of the screen and have to negotiate various fixed patterns of shields.

After each wave of Firehawks, a new shield pattern is drawn. At first, they come in slowly - they seem to hover waiting to be shot and get caught behind the shields - later, they come in more quickly but never show signs of intelligence. The last Firehawk on each sheet is very much faster, and so difficult to hit. In later sheets you're left feeling that the program has cheated.

The tape loaded successfully every time with three programs - a title and fanfare, some terse instructions and the game itself. The cassette cannot easily be copied to disc as it contains several protection mechanisms; however, a disc version is available.

The graphics of the game are disappointing - they make the BBC look like a Spectrum. One 12-year-old's reaction was "What's that - a flying Haggis?"

The controls are difficult: Z and X move your base left and right at such speed that we had no fine control even after practising for several days. There is no joystick option. You get a choice of the starting sheet and the speed of the Firehawks. The sheets count backwards from 15 but we never reached zero, so I can't tell you what happens.

Personally, I prefer Swoop or Arcadians but, if you're looking for a new challenge, Firehawks is an interesting version of an old favourite.