Top 10 best iPhone games for wannabe Navy SEALS (2011)

This week, following the longest game of hide and seek on record, an elite special forces team burst into a Pakistani mansion and killed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The soldiers who carried off the attack are mysterious black-operatives. It sounds like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, rather than real life.

But these Navy SEALS - so called because they are sea, air, and land soldiers (do seals go in the air? - ed) - are far from fictional, and carry out dangerous, deadly, and downright bad-arse missions, every day of the week.

Here are ten super soldier iPhone games that let you play pretend SEAL.

Chanting "USA! USA!" while you do it is optional.

Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus (Gameloft)

In Gameloft's visually-stunning FPS you can choose which elite US soldier you want to play as, before throwing on your uniform, picking out your favourite weapon, and heading off on a globe-trotting mission to snuff out terror and villainy.

You'll get to handle real-world military weapons, letting you get your mitts on the same tools and kit as the bonafide military warriors. That includes roaring machine guns, silenced assault rifles, and long-range sniper rifles.

You can also take the fight online, to try your SEAL skills against under soldiers around the globe. Just like in real life, your valiant efforts in defusing bombs or capturing flags (okay, not entirely like real life) will be rewarded with ranks and medals.

A victory parade will presumably be in Modern Combat 3.

Buy Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus

Splinter Cell Conviction (Gameloft)

The military isn't just about bombastic shoot-outs, backed by a fluttering American flag and a John Williams soundtrack. Sometimes a mission requires a little more tact.

In Splinter Cell Conviction you play as sneaky stealth operative Sam Fisher, who tries to carry out his missions without raising alarm bells. His silenced pistol and bag of high-tech gadgets helps you take out enemies and reach your objective without anyone knowing you were there.

But if you get caught, or you're just sick of everyone ignoring you, Sam Fisher is no one-trick pony. If he's spotted he's more than happy to produce an AK-47 from his bottomless designer rucksack, and go to town.

The mark and execute system lets him cap multiple headshots and a pile of grenades help finish off the stragglers.

Download Splinter Cell Conviction

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (EA Mobile)

In the Bad Company games, you're rarely the sort of medal-sporting war hero that'll get a street parade and action hero biography.

In fact, these heroes are a hodgepodge collection of military vagabonds - troublemakers, screwups, and the like - chucked into the B-Team to avoid them screwing up any proper missions.

Luckily for you, this drops them into dangerous and deadly missions that a real heroic soldier is deemed too special for. Proper suicide stuff that plops you in the jungle heat, Arctic snow, and desert dust. If you're good, they might just let you have a go in the attack chopper.

Once you're done in singleplayer, you can take the war online with six-player squad battles and free for alls.

Download Battlefield Bad Company 2

World War (Storm8)

Fast forward to 2012, and World War paints the near-future globe as a dying blue marble, ravaged by nuclear conflict. Still, don't let nuclear destruction and apocalyptic terror put you off: you've got more war to do!

World War turns the fight into a freemium stat-battler, as you spend points and military budget on completing missions. You get to choose your units, pick your best missions, phone up the president, and battle other players over the web.

Download World War

Command & Conquer 3: Red Alert (EA Mobile)

If you're prefer to give the order - rather than execute it - this smart strategy game from EA lets you get a taste of the battlefield without actually getting in the thick of it. You might be fighting Soviets rather than Al Qaeda, but it's all the same stuff - kill bad guys, vanquish evil, earn medals.

You can play this off-beat real time-strategy game on a handful of skirmish maps, or lead your units online for one-on-one tactical bouts across the web.

The intense RTS works great on iPhone, but it's even better on iPad thanks to its massive screen that can show much more of the battlefield.

Download Command & Conquer 3: Red Alert

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard (Gameloft)

If you thought Sam Fisher was sneaky, think again. The silent-but-deadly elites in Rainbow Six make Splinter Cell's protagonist sound like an angry cat stuck in a bin. Their Inspector Gadget-like array of tools and gadgets make covert ops easy.

You've got snake cameras to spy around corners and under corners, silencers to keep your gunfire discreet, and some handy finger-wiggling techniques to tell your squad what to do in silence.

As you pop about the globe, gutting terrorists and foiling naughty plots, you'll be accompanied by a three-man unit who are top-dogs in recon, demolition, and stealth. Use them wisely to cover you, breach rooms and scratch that itch on your back you can't quite reach.

Download Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard

Marine Sharpshooter (Groove Media)

You can blast in with blazing guns and close quarters weapons. You can sneak around the back with high-tech gadgets and a silenced pistol. Or, if you're a coward, you can sit back and pop off bad guys with a high-powered, ear-shattering 50 calibre sniper rifle. An awesome coward, that is.

Marine Sharpshooter gives you a very big gun and asks you to point it at evil doers across the Middle East. In the dozen combat environments you'll have to assassinate bad bastards and save innocent hostages, meaning a steady finger and nerves of steel are required.

Download Marine Sharpshooter

Guerrilla Bob (Chillingo)

Right, enough sincerity. The heroic, flag-saluting soldiers in this list are all well and good, but we need someone to liven up the place. Enter: Guerrilla Bob.

This meaty moustached soldier drops precision rifles for landscape-chewing chainguns, and ditches extremist terrorists for chainsaw-wielding butchers.

It's fun, fast-paced twin-stick shooting fun with a side dish of utter sillyness. You can play it in co-op now, too.

Download Guerrilla Bob

F.A.S.T. - Fleet Air Superiority Tactics (SGN)

Getting down and dusty in the deserts of the Middle East is commendable, but spare a thought for the men in the sky. These steel-nerved pilots might not be in the thick of it as they deal death from above, but they are flying multi-million dollar tin cans over enemy fire.

In F.A.S.T. you'll don the goggles of an elite jet pilot (do 21st century fighter pilots still wear goggles?) and gun down baddies from 20,000 feet. Once you've finished the story you can go online for head-to-head battles over the internet.

Download F.A.S.T. - Fleet Air Superiority Tactics

Metal Gear Solid Touch (Konami)

The king of stealth, the reigning monarch of sneak, the don of covert ops. Konami's Solid Snake might be getting on a bit, but the hero of Metal Gear can still squeeze his ageing, brittle frame into an empty box to hide from attackers.

This app features 20 action-packed stages to shoot through, with giant robot fights, sniper showdowns, and street-side firefights. Winning battles will give you Drebin points, which you spend on lovely wallpapers for your device. Apparently Konami's never heard of 'Google Images'.

Download Metal Gear Solid Touch