Sports

Sports games in a browser work best when they pick one motion and get it right: the drag-and-release of a pool cue, the two-button jump-and-kick of head football, the timing window of a tennis return. The ones that try to simulate an entire league on a 5 MB budget usually fall apart, so this section leans toward focused arcade takes on individual sports.

Two things matter more here than anywhere else on the site. First, input precision: aiming with a mouse is a different game from aiming with a thumb, and I say which one each title is really designed for. Second, the opponent. Many of these have a computer player whose difficulty either ramps sensibly or spikes into unfairness, and a surprising number offer two players on the same keyboard, which is the best way to play most of them.

Session length is short by design. Almost everything here is a two-to-five-minute match.