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Long gone are the days of the Amidar-type game, when life's beauty was its simplicity. When all a wandering gamer had to do was roam around a maze, filling in boxes, by collecting dots or some other similar method. But then a voice came out of nowhere, a beam of light half-blinded me, and... in the oldest traditions of the immaculate conception it appeared on my desk, bearing only one word... Zoom.

Sorry about the rather OTT intro, but I just love anything that smacks of nostalgia. The aim of Zoom is to fill in the grid of boxes by going over the lines that make up the grid. When you go over each line, it changes colour, and when a box is completed, it does the same. As any player who was around during the era of these games will inform you, the best strategy is not to go about the grid doing it box by box, but instead to try and do it by swooping along all the long lines, thus giving you less ground to cover, also increasing your chances of earning a nice fat time bonus.

Of course my precious little chums, no-one is going to bring out a game without the grim subject of death in it. In this game it is available in many forms. Currently the most popular is death by the little nasties that roam around the maze intent on robbing you of one of your three lives. There is, however, a way for you to stand up for your rights as a yellowish spherical object! And that is best done dropping one of the three bombs you are given per life, in order to stop in its tracks whichever particular evil is after you.

Other forms of death include holes that appear in the grid, and surprise 'bonuses' which are more like forfeits really.

The beauty of this game are all the little kinks it has that all the previous games in this style did not have. It has lots of little bonuses such as extra points, invincibility, and level jumping. But be careful - as I have already mentioned, many of these so-called bonuses can backfire in your face!

It's hard to say what type of dude would really enjoy Zoom; personally I think it's absolutely brilliant. Not too complex but still enjoyable, no really stunning graphics or sound but still very good ones that are clear and attractive. The whole game has a really concentrated feeling of slickness about it. But although I may rave you may wish to think carefully before buying, as this type of very basic gameplay may only appeal to the very basic minded - like myself, for instance.