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Are you an ecology buff? Does your soul resonate with Mother Nature in all her glories? If so then Savage Pond is the game for you. Even if you're not a nature freak you'll probably still go for it.

By virtue of the ?, *, Z and X keys you become a tiny tadpole, swimming round in a pond, eating amoebae to keep up your energy. An idyllic sounding life, isn't it? The trouble is that it's not just you eating amoebae. It's other things eating you. The hydra that lurks on the bottom of the pond is just one example.

You can get temporary immunity to the hydra by gobbling down some of the little blue worms that are slowly falling through the water. Every five of these that you gobble adds to your score and takes you one step nearer being a frog.

The aim of the game is to build up a colony of these frogs. It seems at times that everything else has the opposite intention.

Don't pay too much attention to the impressive-looking dragonfly buzzing overhead, it won't do you any harm. Having said that, you have to watch out for her eggs which if they get to the bottom, develop into a nasty monster with an enormous appetite.

And if that's not enough, as the game progresses there's also radio-active dumping, mutant bumble bees, cowardly water spiders, water fleas and a whole host of other dangers to your colony.

It's not easy being a tadpole in the Savage Pond but it is fun. The game is original, amusing and addictive. In fact it's a winner.

Bev Friend