The Top 10 best sports games on mobile

Fitting whole teams of players into a mobile handset may seem like an unlikely task, but the skilled game developers of the mobile world have managed it many times over. The very best sport games on mobile are great at making you forget that you’re playing using a phone, sucking you into the competitive fervour that makes sports so compulsive.

The list covers everything from Olympic events to snowboarding, via the traditional stop at the footie field. Whichever sport you’re into, there’s a great mobile game to suit your needs. These are all Java games so, while they won’t run on an iPhone, you should be able to get hold of them if you’ve got just about any other device.

Playman Summer Games 3
By Real Networks
Mobile’s definitive Olympics game, Playman Summer Games 3 features a host of events including hurdles and javelin. Success relies on perfectly timed button presses. You even get to break the world record for each event if you manage to pull off a stellar performance. Playman goes for a fun look rather than the realism of some other Olympics games, but with its fluid animation, it’s still one of the best-looking mobile games around.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
By Glu
For a real game of football, Pro Evo is hard to beat. Featuring gameplay not that far removed from that of its console counterpart, the mobile version lets you get right into the action. You get to directly control the movements of the players, dribbling and tackling away. Most football rules are replicated here, so if you’re after a convincing-but-casual football sim, Pro Evolution Soccer’s the way to go.

Championship Manager 2008
By Eidos
If you’re looking for a more hardcore, lengthy game, Championship Manager lets to take care of the fortunes of a whole team, building them up through the leagues and into ever bigger and better stadiums. You’ll need a decent knowledge of the behind-the-doors workings of football to get the most out of a game like Championship Manager, but if you get on with it, it could easily become your most played game, ever. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Real Football 2009
By Gameloft
Gameloft is the master of genre jumping, and with Real Football, it proved itself a prince of the football field. It comes in two flavours too, the 2D normal version and the snazzy 3D HD version. Both have all the moves though. The only question is whether to go for Real Football or Pro Evoltion Soccer. Our opinion? The jury’s not entirely returned from its deliberations, but Real Football’s certainly approaching the goal.

Snowboard Hero
By Fishlabs
Using Fishlabs’ fantastic full-3D Abyss engine, Snowboard Hero is perhaps the best-looking game on this list. You race downhill on a snowboard, performing all sorts of crazy tricks. There are time trial events involved too, making this excellent snowboarding game a mixture of a racer and a pure show-off’s paradise. Levels full of jumps, grinding posts and lush scenery, it’s a fast-paced game that’s darn exciting too.

Freddie Flintoff All-Round Cricket
By Player One
Although this celebrity-endorsed cricket game isn’t all that serious, plumping for cartoony visuals and arcade-style gameplay rather than the sort you’d expect in a sober simulation, Freddie Flintoff’s All-Round Cricket is simply great fun. You get to travel across the world, playing in outlandishly themed fields, alleys and beaches. The controls have been perfected for the mobile handset too, giving this slogger a great feel for the ball.

Ronnie O’Sullivan Snooker
By Player One
Player One is the master of snooker and pool, and they’ve released a good many games using the same pool engine that’s used in Ronnie O’Sullivan Snooker. It’s realistic, it looks good and doesn’t demand that you know the rules of the game like the back of your hand. If you’re more into pool than snooker, check out Pool Star for similar sports fun.

Playman Extreme Running
By Real Networks
Some may say that parkour or street running isn’t really a sport, but Playman Extreme Running is quite simply great enough to make us forget those issues. You get to run freely about a cityscape, jumping off buildings, performing crazy airborne stunts and racking-up multipliers to boost your score. Sure, Playman Extreme Running isn’t all that realistic, drawn in Playman’s signature cartoon style, but it’s one of the best mobile games made, sport-themed or no. It’s also the only game in the list to make it into our Top 10 mobile games… ever feature.

Table Tennis Star
By Player One
Sadly, no actual tennis games made it into our sports Top 10, but Table Tennis Star manages to snatch a place, even if the sport it’s based on doesn’t quite have its bigger brother’s cred. You control disembodied table tennis bats rather than a visible player character, but the fantastic physics on show more than make up for this absence. Plus, the graphics are otherwise fab. Perhaps more than any other game on this list, Table Tennis Star aces the ‘feel’ factor, making you feel like you’re actually learning a sport while playing.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
By EA Mobile
Golf’s biggest star is the obvious choice to get involved with mobile’s best golf game. In spite of the involvement of this golfing great, and the relatively real-world look to the game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 is more accessible than it is hardcore. It’s still a remarkably robust game- one that’ll keep you swinging for way more than 18 holes