The clink of balls, cues, and chalk can only mean one thing - 8 ball pool.

If you think playing pool on a mobile device will suck, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried.

8 Ball Pool from Miniclip.com is an Editors' Choice on Google Play. And is rated at No.2 in the sports category by Apple's App Store.

So what's going on? How can a game played with delicately weighted cues even translate into a mobile game?

Well, unless you've tried the game already, you're in for a big surprise.

Features

● Play with friends and Legends

● One-on-one or eight-player tournaments

● Play for virtual items and special pool items

● Play with Facebook friends

● Increase your ranking and play for bigger stakes

More

Part of the phenomenal worldwide success of 8 Ball Pool is that the game has been continually improving and maturing over the past decade.

The game is this year celebrating its tenth birthday. In that time, it has notched up an insane 190 billion matches.

Therefore, the game has refined itself to be the top pool game on the planet and lets you play against users worldwide.

First of all, you may wish to get up to speed in the practice arena. However, the controls are smooth and well-thought-out, so you should have little difficulty getting to grips with the game.

When you feel lucky, it's time to hit the tables for real and take on the world. You can do so by entering 1 x 1 matches or entering tournaments to win upgraded cues and trophies.

The better you get, the more coins and upgraded gear you can get. Not to mention advancing further up the world rankings. As you get better, the prize money gets better too. You can use the coins you win for upgrading your table and cues. Or you can use your hard-earned pool money to enter more lucrative matches or buy stuff in the Pool Shop.

The smart thing about 8 Ball Pool, though, is its level system. This means you are always facing a new challenge to progress up the ladder to pool stardom. Playing matches helps you improve your ranking and gets you entry into exclusive match venues where only the best pool players hang out.

Like many games nowadays, you can challenge your Facebook friends. You only need to sign in to your Miniclip account or Facebook, and you can challenge your friends from within the game.

PROS

● As good as it possibly gets without an actual table

● Easily avoidable ads

● Excellent leveling up system that maintains your interest

● In-game chat

CONS

● No offline play

● The default setting is for left-handers, but you change that in settings

Price - Free with in-app purchases

How to use

8 Ball Pool is downloadable from Google Play and Apple's App Store, where it scores 4.4 and 4.7 out of five, respectively.

Users require either 69 MB of space and Android 4.4 or later, or 188 MB of space and iOS 10.0 or later.