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A tadpole's life is not an easy one. It's not all just swimming about in an idyllic pool waiting to become a frog you know. The poor little tadpole has to face many hazards before he grows up and starts his own little brood of froglets.

Your task is to breed as many frogs as you can in this pond without being killed off by the natural - and unnatural - hazards in the pond.

Things don't look too bad in the first stage of the game. You help your little tadpole fill up with amoeba and worms - avoiding the nasty stinging water plants at the bottom of the pond which will kill a careless tadpole.

Dragonflies zip over the pond dropping eggs which hatch into nasty water nymphs unless the tadpole eats them first. If a nymph hatches out, it will chase your poor tadpole and attempt to eat it.

As you master each phase of the game, more hazards are introduced until you reach the serious business of frog breeding. Jelly-fish drop in for a bite and bob around near the surface. Then just to add a topical touch - some nasty person dumps a drum of radioactive waste into the pond and your tadpole has to watch out for poisonous patches in the pond!

The third stage of the game introduces the first frog who sits on a log and can attempt to eat those nasty dragonflies as they zoom overhead. If you've got this far but all your tadpole eggs have been destroyed, the program calls up a 'computer mating agency' and provides you with some more spawn and another chance to start a colony of froglets.

Savage Pond is an original and fast-moving game with colourful and intricate graphics. At first it's a bit difficult to master the swimming motion of the tadpole, but with a bit of practice you'll soon be a nippy little amphibian!

You'll also need to take some time reading the instruction booklet which comes with the game - a very comprehensive publication, this. Other software companies take note!

I really enjoyed playing Savage Pond - it brought back memories of when I tried to breed tadpoles in a jam far. This way it doesn't take quite as long and you don't get baby frogs all over your living room.

Savage Pond for the Commodore 64 is available now from Starcade of Merseyside and will set you back £8.95.