11 Best Nintendo 3DS Sports Games

Inazuma Eleven 3 is the final installment in the original trilogy of Inazuma Eleven, a series where football matches are part of an RPG. It first came out in Japan in 2010, in three versions, and Europe got it on the Nintendo 3DS. Lightning Bolt and Bomb Blast arrived there on 27 September 2013, and Team Ogre Attacks! followed on 13 February 2014.

The story starts right after Raimon beats Alius Academy. Now there is the Football Frontier International to win, and a team called Inazuma National is put together to represent Japan. As in the other games of the series, you walk around the map recruiting players, and the matches are played with the touch screen. It is the end of the original story, so it is a better place to finish the trilogy than to start it.

Chrono Stone is the fifth main installment in the series and a direct sequel to Inazuma Eleven GO. It came out in Japan in December 2012 and reached Europe on March 27, 2015, as Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stones, in two versions called Wildfire and Thunderflash. This one is a time travel story. An organisation from the future called El Dorado wants to erase soccer from history, and Arion and his Raimon team travel through history to stop it.

The new idea is Mixi-Max, which lets two characters transfer their auras between each other, so a player becomes a hybrid with a partner's power. Armourfying is also new, and it turns a Fighting Spirit into armour you wear. In the future of this game, soccer has become a fearsome weapon, a plot only this series could pitch with a straight face.

Blast Ball is the football mode from Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a co-op shooter Next Level Games made for the 3DS. Matches are three-on-three, and players in mech suits shoot a ball into the other team's net. Nintendo also released it on its own as a free download on the eShop on July 21, 2016.

The free version came with a limited online period, and its online support ended on December 31, 2016. The mode is also in the full Federation Force with its online play intact, and your progress from the free download carries over to it. Federation Force got a largely negative reception from fans when Nintendo announced it, because it looked very little like the Metroid games before it. Its side mode is the part that made this list.

Inazuma Eleven GO is the fourth main game in the series and the first of its GO trilogy, a role-playing and sports game Level-5 made for the 3DS. It came out in Japan on December 15, 2011, and in Europe on June 13, 2014. Japan had two versions called Shine and Dark, and Europe got them as Light and Shadow. Both versions share one spot here.

The story jumps ten years past Inazuma Eleven 3. An organization called Fifth Sector now rules over soccer and manipulates matches, and Arion Sherwind leads Raimon Jr. High in a revolt by winning the Holy Road tournament against its wishes. The big addition is Fighting Spirits, mythical beings you summon during a match. Each one gives you an edge in attack and defence, and many come with special moves of their own.

Urban Trial Freestyle is a racing game made by Tate Interactive, about riding a motorbike through city levels. The idea came from Julien Dupont, a Red Bull Racing athlete, who worked closely with the developers to get the look and feel right. It came out first on PlayStation 3 and Vita in February 2013 and was added to the 3DS eShop on June 27 that year.

Critics gave it mixed reviews on all of its platforms. It still sold well on Sony's side, reaching #3 among the best-selling Vita games on the PlayStation Network by April 2014. The 3DS got the sequel to itself. Urban Trial Freestyle 2 came out only on the 3DS in 2017, starting in Europe on March 30. If you are tired of cartoon golf, this is the pick on the list for you.

Mario Sports Superstars is a 2017 game by Bandai Namco Studios and Camelot for the 3DS. It has five sports: football, baseball, tennis, golf and horse racing. None of them are mini-games, since each is a full-scale recreation of its sport, so the football is eleven versus eleven. The tennis brings back Chance Shots from Mario Tennis Open, and the golf is based on Mario Golf: World Tour, and both of those games are further up this list.

Horse racing was new for the Mario sports games, which had never had it before. Critics praised the variety and the online play. They also criticized the amiibo cards and found less in each sport than in the standalone Mario sports games. Motoi Sakuraba wrote the music, as he did for Camelot's earlier Mario sports games.

Rusty's Real Deal Baseball was a free-to-play baseball game Nintendo published on the 3DS eShop. It came out in Japan in August 2013 and in North America in April 2014, and it was never released in Europe. The game is a set of baseball minigames that you buy one at a time at Rusty Slugger's store, and you can haggle with Rusty to pay less for them.

Haggling is the main event. The minigames reward you with items you can use to haggle, and Rusty takes them and uses them to fix his life problems. You can still pay full price, but only after the game warns you several times. IGN called it "uncharacteristically dark" and "surprisingly funny", which is a lot to say about a sports shop. Since the 3DS eShop closed, the minigames cannot be bought anymore, though the story still plays for free.

Pilotwings Resort is the sequel to Pilotwings on the SNES and Pilotwings 64, and it was a launch title for the 3DS in North America and Europe. It is set on Wuhu Island from Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort, and it was the first 3DS game with Mii characters. Nintendo showed it at E3 2010 with the plane and rocket belt missions back, and the hang gliding missions returned later.

The missions climb from Training through Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum to Diamond, and Diamond opens only after you get three stars on every mission. Free Flight Mode lets you explore the island with any aircraft you have unlocked. An early review said it was "perfect for demonstrating your latest gadget's 3D capabilities". The usual complaint was length, and one verdict put it as "there just isn't quite enough".

Mario Tennis Open lets you play as your Mii or a Mushroom Kingdom character, locally or online. Unlike the earlier handheld games in the series, it has no RPG elements and no story mode, and it was the first Mario Tennis with region locked online play. Coins from each game mode buy gear, and costumes unlock when you complete certain objectives.

The touch screen has simple controls for the different tennis swings, which helps while you are still learning them. Reviews were mixed. Critics liked how it played and how it looked, but they said it was too close to the older games, with online lag and a focus on Miis over the Mario cast. It sold 1.11 million copies worldwide by March 31, 2013, and players put it in the top three here.

World Tour is the fifth Mario Golf and the first one in a decade, since Mario Golf: Advance Tour on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. Camelot made it, and Nintendo announced it in a Nintendo Direct on February 14, 2013, before delaying it to May 2014. It takes an arcade approach to golf with simple controls and faster play. Super Shots give you extra distance, but only a limited number are allowed per course. Some courses look like real ones, and others are Mario worlds.

It was the first Mario Golf with online multiplayer, and critics praised that side of it. Their complaints went to the Castle Club story mode, which is short and only lets you play as a Mii. IGN gave it an 8.6 and wrote that "You don't have to be a hardcore golf fan to get hooked" on it. Players rate it the best Mario Golf, well above the later one on the Switch.

Pocket Card Jockey is a horse racing game played as solitaire, made by Game Freak. It came out in Japan on July 31, 2013, and Nintendo released it worldwide on May 5, 2016. Your jockey loses the first race and gets trampled, and an angel comes down to teach them to see horse racing as a game of solitaire. The card game it uses is called golf, which is a funny way to end up ahead of Mario Golf. You clear cards that are one point higher or lower than the card you drew, and the Ace and King connect.

How well you play the cards decides how well your horse runs. Good rounds build unity between jockey and horse for a better position, and you steer the horse around the track with the touch screen. Nadia Oxford of USgamer called it "unorthodox but brilliant". Nintendo Life liked it too but said "It flirts with the line where difficulty is replaced by mean-spirited design". One player called it "surprisingly very good", and players picked it more than any other 3DS sports game.