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Trap is impressive. It has neither fast 'n furious action, nor any great extent of strategy, but it holds a player's interest for a considerable amount of time.

An attractive title page appears while the game is loading, showing a 3D representation of your ship, flying down a narrow canyon. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, Alligata make no attempt to confuse prospective purchasers with a lengthy storyline. It's a game involving a lot of zapping, and is no less accomplished for that.

The idea is simple - you must try to shoot, dodge and fly your way as far into enemy territory as possible, bombing fuel cannisters and picking up cargo.

The screen is presented in much the same way as, um, millions of other games. It's a simple plan view, scrolling from top to bottom, revealing new areas of landscape as you progress. Your mission is made more difficult by the numerous defences which bar your way. Some take the form of gun installations, dotted around the walls of the canyon, while others are fiendish police squadrons, who fly straight at you, guns blazing!

Control of your ship is far from complicated - left and right, fire, Zappo (equivalent to a Defender smart-bomb) drop cargo, and increase/decrease speed. Cargo is collected by flying over it. There are three requisites which need to be satisfied before you can move onto the next phase. These are as follows: Aliens left to kill, boats left to bomb, and Police Craft remaining.

Something which will please all hackers is that a demo mode has been included. Try typing "demo" into the high-score table and see what happens!

And that's just about it. What we have, then, is a fast and furious zapping game, in the classic style. Not too complicated, easy to get the hang of - and, most importantly, fun to play.