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The most eagerly awaited arcade conversion of the year? Yes, of course, but why? Why should gamers used to hi-tech and complex thrills be all aquiver at the thought of what, to be honest, is no more than an updated version of the ages-old classic Breakout?

Well, the obvious answer is that there's nothing new in the games world - everything is based on something else. Certainly, despite the attempt to give Arkanoid a background story of a lost spaceship, the game looks uninspiring to begin with and 30 screens of blocks which have to be knocked out by a ball deflected from the bottom of the screen by a moveable bat.

Yet there is so much more to this - Arkanoid is one of the most compulsive I can ever recall and Peter Johnson's conversion is a model of its type - clean, flicker-free graphics, nice sound and all running at a speed that has had hardened C64 and Spectrum games players taking a fresh look at the Beeb's capabilities for games.

The essence of the game is simple - just learn how to manoeuvre the bat properly! Equally important, however, is learning to recognise the various bonuses that descend down the screen through gaps in the wall of bricks - extra lives, slow or high speed, shooting cannons, triple balls, catch and throw and, very usefully, the escape bonus which allows you to slide off the screen to the next level. A major element of success in the game depends on your fast consideration of whether you should go for the bonus at all (cannons are very useful near the start of a screen, triple balls vital when your ball is behind the gold bricks which demand more hits) and whether it is worth the risk of missing the ball and losing a life. My strategy suggests that caution is always the better bet.

The 30 screens are all different, some easy and some very tricky indeed - different strategies are needed for each. In some the layout depends on precise ball control so that you can drop it inside a pattern, after which it will clear a whole screen with no further action needed; in others, very quick calculations of speed and angle are your only hope.

In fact, my basic tip is that you just play the opening screen again and again, practising the angles that you can get from the bat - different parts of it spin the ball off at different degrees. Not only is this useful when trying to clear the odd brick stuck alone at the edge of the screen but also essential when the disruptive 'stompers' move down the screen blocking your shots.

So, this is near perfect for a conversion. Add to that the fact that the game is damnably compulsive, and you end up with a 'Game of the Month' that will cry out to be the first game loaded onto your Beeb for the foreseeable future.