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In apocalyptic gobbledegook, Aquanaut's packaging blurb describes how "in the year 1999 Mankind finally came to its senses. All wars ceased and the nations of the world did, in fact, become united." Our lovely Earth, however, is once again under threat from those beastly aliens and it's up to you to save it.

Once you begin playing, the plot thankfully becomes irrelevant - this is a straightforward right-to-left scrolling shooter with a tad of collecting and lots of mindless trigger action.

Looking like a downmarket version of an ageing Speccy game called Scuba Dive, that has beautifully smooth graphics of sharks and swordfish, the sprites in Aquanaut are large but only have about three frames of animation each - which is crude and inexcusable on an ST.

The title tune is nothing more than bearable and the sound effects are limited to the hissing harpoon variety and explosions if they hit their target. There's no underwater noises and no bubbles or sub-aqua inhaling sounds to capture the atmosphere of the submarine depths.

The gameplay consists solely of shooting fish (how very unsportsmanlike) and collecting objects. Because the sprites are large and you can't see that far ahead, it's all too easy to bump into a shark or swordfish and lose a life.

It's an unspectacular, frustrating game and unless you're a sub-aqua freak, or a violently suppressed marine biologist you'll find Aquanaut a thoroughly damp squid.