Mobile gaming used to be a bit of a joke, a crude scattering of rudimentary time wasters played on glorified pocket calculators. Then the iPhone came along and shook the whole business up for the better - as these best iPhone games prove.

Nowadays some mobile games rival their console and PC cousins for sophistication and depth.

Of course, there’s also an awful lot of rubbish on the App Store. The rise to prominence of free to play mechanics hasn’t necessarily been good for the industry. But the following titles remain shining beacons of what the iPhone can achieve as a gaming platform.

Here's our favourites...

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1. Card Crawl

If you still associate Solitaire video games with Microsoft Windows, Card Crawl will come as a revelation. It takes the basic premise of sorting a pack of cards and melds it with RPG mechanics.

There are cards that act as defensive shields and weapons, enemy cards that need to be attacked or defended against with said tools, and special-use cards that do all manner of weird and wonderful things. It all makes for an immensely absorbing Solitaire experience.

2. Vainglory

There had been several attempts to bring the multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA) genre to mobile prior to Vainglory. But none quite managed to nail the formula until developer Super Evil Megacorp stepped into the ring.

So popular was this mash-up of real time strategy and action-RPG that it became a massive hit in the world of eSports. It remains a finely balanced, technically lavish and strategically satisfying online mobile game to this day. And you can now even play against PC and Mac players.

3. Guns Of Boom

Call of Duty Mobile might be attracting all of the attention right now, but for our money Guns of Boom is the better mobile-focused online shooter. From its super-clean visual style to its nigh-on perfect controls and gunplay, this is the most natural-feeling FPS on mobile.

Guns of Boom hits that sweet spot between easy accessibility and skill, meaning you always feel victory is in your hands. The developer continues to support the game with fresh content several years into its life, too.

4. Reigns

What do you get when you combine a narrative adventure game with Tinder? Wait, no. Not that. Get your mind out of the gutter. You get Reigns and its two sequels, Reigns: Her Majesty and Reigns: Game of Thrones.

The game casts you as the ruler of a fantasy-medieval land, and tasks you with moderating the power of four vying factions. This is where the Tinder part comes into play, as you swipe left or right to make a string of interconnected binary decisions - the kind of decisions that will determine your immediate fate and influence subsequent runs.

5. GRID Autosport

There are a few games on the App Store that feel like console racers. But GRID Autosport actually is a console racer. It’s literally the same GRID Autosport launched on console and PC in 2014.

And what a racer that is, with stunningly advanced graphics and accurate driving physics that stand up to this day, as well as 100 cars and as many circuits to unlock. You’ll pay a premium price for GRID Autosport, but then it’s every inch the premium game.

HEAD TO SHORTLIST.COM FOR 5 MORE IPHONE GAMES