Stinger Foosball League

Some sports and pastimes don't translate well to the smaller confines of a smartphone screen. They lose their grandeur and scope, deteriorating into button-mashing nonsense. Others fit like a well manicured hand into an expensive electronic glove.

Foosball, the ancient tabletop game of trying to control a small ball using stiff, beer-stained, spinning wooden men, is one of them.

Of course, getting Foosball from table to phone isn't an easy job. There's plenty that can go wrong, from broken physics to boring gameplay. Luckily, Stinger Games seem to have avoided the spilt drinks and slip ups and built a Foosball games for the ages.

If you've never played Foosball before, it's football with added spinning. You control four rows of varying numbers of players, each attached to an immovable axle, which you can spin to your heart's content. The aim is to be the first team to score a set number of goals.

Stinger Foosball League captures the feel of a Foosball table perfectly. There are a number of control methods available, allowing you to build your skill as you work through them. At the Beginner level, you can tilt or slide to move and the game kicks automatically for you.

Intermediate gives you kicking control back to some degree, letting you swipe forwards to deliver devastating shots. Then there's Expert, which has you using multitouch to move, kick, and spin all of your rows individually.

It's a clever system and one that eases you into the game before slowly letting you stand on your own.

The game plays smoothly, and the presentation is solid and impressive, the rattle of plastic ball on wood a particular highlight. There's a variety of leagues and tournaments to play your way through, and more than fifty national teams to play as.

Local multiplayer is included, over wi-fi or Bluetooth, and it's just as much fun as the single-player game. There are also some enjoyable mini-games that let you hone your skills for the big time whilst still having a ball.

There's nothing more exhilarating than watching a powerful kick from one of your defenders find the bottom corner of the net. And nothing more depressing than watching an accidental back heel from one of your strikers trickle past your own keeper.

Stinger Foosball League is a tight package of table football fun that offers quick, noisy enjoyment. There's a depth to it too, once you're past the stage of spinning your players as hard as you can in the vain hope one of them connects.

Throw in customisable teams and a variety of difficulty settings and you're left with a table football simulator that's just as addictive as the real thing, but won't have you scurrying around on the pub floor trying to find the ball that just ricocheted off your keeper's face.