ZOOM should bring a whiff of nostalgia to those gamesters of maturer years. Longer ago than I care to remember there was an arcade game which involved racing round a two-dimensional grid made up of blank squares - Amidar, I think it was called.

Assorted creatures infested the grid, determined to make life difficult for the player. The aim was to avoid the pursuers and try to pass over all four sides of a square, whereupon it would be painted in. The ultimate objective was to join up each and every square on the network.

At heart, Zoom is that game, dressed in new togs. The flat grid has gone three-dimensional, the game can be played alone or with another player - alternately or simultaneously - there are umpteen varieties of bizarre nasties chasing you and varioud other embellishments have been added, including sampled sound effects.

The hero of the game is Zoomer, a PacMan style character. As he dashes around, he paints in any lines that he passes over. He must join up all the squares on the 3D grid before he can attempt the next level. There are 50 screens to be conquered.

Doing their best to stop Zoomer are a wide variety of bizarre beasts, most notable of which are the deadly Jaggernauts (blond-red, flapping lips - no need to spell out the allusion here), the Wormlets (rubbery green creatures who rub out any painted lines belonging to an incomplete square) and the fast moving Angleheads.

Black holes pop up at random, swallowing Zoomer if he happens to blunder into one. The enemy does not have it all its own way - Zoomer can lay a trail of bombs as he goes.

Inanimate objects strewn around the grid can be helpful. Candy gives him a short burst of speed, apples earn four bonus squares, ice cubes freeze the enemy to the spot while a tube of glue slows them down. A mystery object in the shape of a question mark may reward or punish Zoomer. Best of all, a rocket enables him to leap to the next level.

Graphics are very good, with the three-dimensional effect working well. Animation is smooth and competent and quite humorous in places. This is an entertaining game, presented with much sparkle and polish. There is a large variety of grids and many fast and furious aliens to keep the adrenalin flowing.

Zoom's problem is that it is just too tough, even on the lower levels. If you have fast reflexes and a quick eye, this could be just the game for you. Others a touch slower with the joystick may find Zoom more frustrating than entertaining.

Long ago 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 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 is hard to say what type of dude would really enjoy Zoom; personally I think it is 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.