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As tranquil as a mill pond. That old cliche is given the lie by this completely novel game of dark deeds beneath still water.

Your task in Savage Pond is to keep a tadpole alive long enough for it to grow up and start its own family. The tadpole feeds on appetising amoeba, wiggling worms and delicious dragonfly eggs. If left uneaten these eggs eventually hatch into larvae and subsequently become voracious dragonfly nymphs.

Other perils include deadly-tentacled hydra, water spiders, jellyfish, water fleas, bumble bees and a rather nasty load of radioactive waste jumped by Mother Nature's worst enemy.

A cross section of a pond comes into view, at the top of which is an island, occupied by a log. Dotted around the water are pulsating pink amoeba while at the bottom, nestling near some hydra, are three eggs of frog spawn. Gradually one cracks open and, with a nudge from your joystick, out wriggles a tadpole, your alterego for the duration of the game.

The tadpole is guided by a joystick movement, aided by the fire button. Now and again, a dragonfly zooms overhead and dropping an egg into the pond, which the tadpole eats by touching.

Occasionally, an egg falls under a hydra. As contact with the tentacles means instant death, the tadpole must gobble up one of the many suicidal worms which jump into the pond - these make it invincible for several seconds.

An uneaten egg turns into a lava which scuttles for the safety of the bank, to return later as a fearsome nymph. The tadpole's only chance is to keep swimming and hope the nymph decides it's time it pushed off to become a dragonfly.

If it survives, the tadpole's next lesson is to avoid the sticky web of the water spider, the sting of jelly fish, indigestible radioactive waste deposited in the pond courtesy of a dumper truck, and water fleas which like nothing better than frogs' spawn for luncheon.

At a certain stage, a frog visits the island log. By pressing the space bar, the frog can capture a passing dragonfly with its tongue.

Mother Nature may further smile on you by arranging for a handsome frog to visit the island for some discrete mating, thereby replenishing the tadpole population.

An original game and educational to boot. Good graphics, challenging to play, and guaranteed to generate a Save The Tadpoles campaign.