Drop everything and download: Super Over!
It’s just not cricket!
The ICC Cricket World Cup is barreling towards its dramatic conclusion, which will see England face off against New Zealand. In the meantime, show both teams how it’s done by mightily thwacking balls from the safety of your phone, in mobile cricket ’em up Super Over!
What does it do?
Strips cricket right back to a slightly unreasonable degree. In the single-player modes (one of which is a World Cup), you’re tasked with scoring a set number of runs from a tiny number of balls.
You hit balls by stopping a bat that whizzes precisely once back and forth across the screen. Stop it on a 6 or 4 and you take a chunk out of the total you’re chasing, and get to feel a bit smug. Hit W and you’re bowled out and instantly lose. Twenty20 has nothing on this game’s pace.
The best bit, though, is the same-device two-player mode, which has one player bowl, the other bat, and the loser smash up the phone with a cricket bat.
Any downsides?
You might – rightly – argue that this isn’t really cricket. There are no fielders. In fact, there aren’t even any bails on the stumps. And it’s not exactly a graphical masterpiece, players animating in a manner that makes even South Park look sophisticated.
But, frankly, you’d need to be a massive misery guts to care about any of that, because Super Over! is supposed to be fast-paced arcade fare – a test of nerves and timing. If you want real cricket, find some chums and go and stand in a field for five days, and then see how much fun you have!
Where can I get it?
Super Over! is free for Android (Google Play) and iOS (App Store). A piffling 79p (Android)/99p (iOS) IAP gets rid of the ads.
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
