Christmas day brought us many useful and fun gifts. My youngest daughter, Miss Christmas, gave a gift to the family. It's a table top game that includes a shooting gallery with moving ducks and a pistol to take aim with. It's a lot of laughs and has brought on some tough competition.

The shooting gallery stands about 14"height and perhaps 16" wide. Colourful artwork gives it a retro look like those found in carnivals with its red stripes and fancy artwork.

A carnival barker beckons players to start and then tells them when they are a "Good Shot". Music accompanies the shout-outs and the ducks with red target stripes and a bulls eye start rolling across the target area once a start button in front is pressed.

As the ducks come up and move across the players shoots his wireless infrared silver coloured pistol at them in two places where the signal will be captured. Lining up these fixed pieces with the moving ducks causes a hit, a red lights shines and the duck goes down as we hear a ricochet sound noting points coming onto the LED board.

The pistols work up to 25' away. That's where the competition gets stiff. Up close a reasonably well-timed aim will knock over the ducks. It's at the greater distances where the real sharp shooting takes place.

What is nice about the game is that my grand daughter who is 7 can rack up good scores shooting from nearby and yet the challenge can still be afforded from a greater distance or perhaps in motion. We sometimes draw from the hip, shoot, and go back to draw position. It just adds to the challenge.

The game needs 6 AA batteries. The first batch have been doing well since the game has been played quite often by family members for the past three days. The batteries are easy to change and a shut-off switch in the back can shut down the game completely. Other modes are on switches in the back too. There's one for speed of the ducks and another that sets the time. All works well these few days.

The LED screen isn't very bright and one must look closely to read it. All other factors are excellent. Though the aim does not have to be dead on, there does have to be a reasonable amount steady handedness for play. The ducks go down every time when hit, the scoring goes up on the LED board and all have a good time.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): gift