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Space Fury is a very old idea in a new and not altogether successful package.

Shoot-'em-up fans will instantly recognise the similarity between Coleco's Space Fury and the legendary Asteroids games, even though there isn't an asteroid in sight.

You control the ship by moving left, right and forward as in Asteroids but the moving objects are certainly different, some would say uninteresting.

The game starts with a picture of an alien daring you to do battle with him. Coleco have made a very unconvincing attempt to synchronise the alien's lips with the scrolling message at the bottom of the screen.

This ridiculous performance is repeated at the beginning of each and every game. I have to admit the display is novel the first time round but from then on its attraction fades rapidly.

Compared with other games for the Colecovision, Space Fury's graphics are abysmal. The first screen starts with fifteen moving squares which you simply have to shoot. As the level progresses the squares join together to form large diamonds, which sounds sinister but actually makes the game easier to play.

The next stage of the game involves docking your ship with one of three motherships on the screen. You have a limited time to manoeuvre your craft in position, if you fail to dock in the time limit you will lose any bonus you might have gained from the first level.

The other two sheets on the first level are similar to the first but the enemy are a different shape.

The graphics are so bad it's hard to tell what they're supposed to be, but one set of aliens does bear a resemblance to purple-coloured doughnuts.

After the first level has been completed, further sheets contain mixtures of aliens.

When a game finished the alien appears again and cast this opinion upon your performance. His comments range from an "amusing" to a formidable opponent. To give you some idea how difficult the game is I became a "formidable opponent" within quarter of an hour.

Space Fury contains the obligatory catchy tune, but unusually bad graphics for the Colecovision. It also has the one fault that marrs almost all the Coleco games; it's far too easy and fails to present a new challenge to the games player.

Space Fury isn't up to the usual standard of games available for the Colecovision, and when compared to the original Asteroids games it really does fall flat on its face.

Give me an old-fashioned Asteroids game any day of the week.