What athlete hasn’t wanted to compete on the world’s stage at some point? Well with Netflix’s latest mobile game Sports Sports, you can live out that dream wherever and whenever you want — virtually, of course — in a raft of fun mini-games themed after classic athletic events. Will you take home the title of greatest athlete, or will your podium dreams have to wait a little longer? Your journey starts today.
Sports Sports is a game about — you guessed it — sports! Pocket-sized versions of familiar track-and-field favorites are the name of the game here. Best of all? They’re wrapped up in a bright, colorful, pixel-y package that should appeal to players of all ages and skill levels.
Compete against friends, family, and maybe even the entire world with Sports Sports’ settings and leaderboards. If those aren’t enough to get the competitive juices flowing, perhaps custom competitions and achievements will do the trick.
Sports Sports bursts out of the gate with a decathlon’s worth of activities, with more to come as the seasonal updates roll out. Here’s a quick breakdown of what games to expect:
Playing Sports Sports is simple on its surface — all you have to do is tap. It’s a lot harder than that sounds, though. Depending on the event, you’ll have to tap with timing and rhythm to build up speed, clear hurdles, and glide through the water. In events like archery, for example, compensate your aim for the wind’s direction before letting your arrow fly. With clay shooting, timing is everything, as you need to lead each pigeon and account for the arc of its path across the screen before you pull the trigger.
Weight lifting, on the other hand, will require a bit of concentration and a bunch of rapid-fire taps to advance through each part of the multistage lift. Some stages require taps, others swipes, to keep you on your toes. If you can’t fill the meter before time runs out, you’ll foul, regardless of how many stages you’ve cleared. Swimming is a little more forgiving, but much like in the real sport, timing and rhythm are paramount to leading the pack. Time your kick just right at the 50-meter mark and you’ll earn a boost that you can deploy for an extra bit of speed.
The relay controls a lot, like swimming, and features a similar boost system. Except this time, speed bursts are the reward for a perfectly timed baton hand-off. Of all the games, running might be the easiest to pick up and play. Tap each side of the screen as fast as you can to sprint. Keep up the pace and you’ll snag a boost that just might put you ahead of the field at the finish line. The hard part here is getting the timing right on the starting pistol. This is a short race and every second counts, so you can’t afford to jump the gun — or stumble off the block.
The more you play, the easier it is to advance through the ranks in Sports Sports. Every medal adds to your overall points and position. If you want ultimate bragging rights on the leaderboards, you’ll have to work for ’em.
The tournaments game mode offers the most linear way through this process. There are two paths to choose here: themed and summer games. Themed is a series of challenges (a playlist of its own, in a way) across a three-game event. Summer games mixes it up a little. Six two-game challenges make up each cup. Cups get progressively more difficult as you advance.
Play Sports Sports right now ad-free and with no in-app purchases and no extra fees with your Netflix subscription. Just download it to your Android or iOS device via the Netflix mobile app.
