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Virgin has had a somewhat unenthusiastic reception for its offerings so far, and Angler is unlikely to improve on this. The fisherman of the title sits in a small boat at the top of the screen and casts his line into a sea swarming with fish of various sizes.

The object of the game is simply to catch as many fish as possible while trying to avoid crabs, which will eat the catch given half a chance. Controls are simple - keys 5 and 8 move the boat from side to side, and any other key will cast the line.

Fish are caught by manoeuvring the line so that the hook appears just in front of the target, but catching anything often seems to be more luck than judgement (which is fairly true to life, I guess).

The line will reach the bottom only if there are no fish underneath it at the moment of casting.

If a crab is caught, it will immediately begin eating any fish in the boat. This may be rectified only by catching one of the much larger, tube-shaped bottom-dwelling fish - but care must be taken to avoid landing one of the largest creatures. Do this and the game ends in disaster.

All in all, it's a bit like the nursery rhyme about the old woman who swallowed a fly catch the wrong thing and you have to continue fishing until you catch a fish that can deal with the problem.

You have 100 casts in which to catch as many fish - and hence score as many points - as possible. Presentation of the game, in keeping with Virgin's packaging policy, is good, with a Hall of Fame that may be printed out on the ZX printer, but the graphics and sound can only be described as adequate.

There are various levels of difficulty to determine how close a fish must be to the hook before it is caught, but even at the highest level I can't imagine that this game will hold the attention for too long.