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Why not take a break from those shoot-'em-up arcade games and take a visit to a quiet country pond? Starcade can take you there with Savage Pond, their interpretation of wild life under water.

Quiet it may be, peaceful it certainly isn't. In this fast arcade game you start by playing the role of a tadpole struggling to survive to adulthood.

Just like the inhabitants of any country podm, you have to avoid the perils of other insects and animals striving to live in there with you.

Survival of the fittest would appear to be an apt rule in this scenario.

Using the keyboard or joystick, you must guide your tadpole through its stage of immaturity, fattening it as you guide it round the pond digesting amoeba.

Now and again a fat juicy worm falls into the water and eating this increases your worm count by one.

Every time your worm count reaches five a beetle larva appears and if you can polish this off you take another step along the long path of evolution.

In stage one a multi-coloured dragonfly buzzes about above the pond dropping its eggs into the water. It is vital that you eat these as they sink, otherwise they settle into the cover of deadly hyra and become irretrievable.

When they hatch at the bottom of the pond a larva dashes off the screen only to return as a deadly dragonfly nymph whose staple diet is... yes, tadpoles.

He relentlessly chases you until he either catches you or you tire him out by outswimming him over the screen.

In stage two a bulldozer comes along, adding another hazard as it dumps radioactive waste into the pond.

If you can survive all this and manage to become a frog, with a flick of your long sticky tongue you can catch that pestering dragonfly as it buzzes overhead. There's thanks for you.

If having got this far you have had all your eggs and tadpoles destroyed, the computer dating agency comes into action and provides you with a lady frog.

After a loving embrace, you provide a specimen of frog spawn and depart for pastures new.

The spawn comes to rest at the bottom of the pool before hatching to give you another chance to start all over again.

As it progresses the program introduces many more wonders of the deep, such as blood worm, jelly fish, spiders, water fleas and bumble bees. They all have their role to play in this real life adventure.

Overall, the game is fun to play and has very good graphics. The sound is effective and complements the game very well.

The instructions are clear and concist and give a good insight not only to the game, but to the species that you will meet and their descriptions.

The 16K cassette costs £7.95 - a bargain in my opinion.