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Arcade greats never die - in fact, it looks as though they don't even fade away. P.O.D. is at heart a Centipede clone minus the mushrooms. It also has elements of Jeff Minter's early classic, Grid Runner.

You control a small laser cannon - the P.O.D. of the title - which can be moved around the screen on a matrix of grid wires - it only fires upwards. Various multi-coloured alien sprites enter from stage left, right and top and do worrying things like shoot at you. Naturally, one must vapourise the little sods. Unfortunately, in their death throes they tear gaps in the grid matrix. These grow back eventually but meanwhile can restrict your freedom of movement. Well, that's all there is to it really.

Although there is much variation in sprite shape and style of movement from frame to frame, this game has no pretensions to being anything more than a simple get-'em-before-they-get-you. Shaun Southern, Mastertronic's prolific programmers, supplies refreshingly unhypey sleeve notes. Strategy, Shaun? "There is none." Fair enough, but the odd thing is I actually found the game rather addictive. Nostalgia, maybe.