Cell phones and the features they offer have come a long way in just a few years. Initially people were happy just to be able to talk without being constrained by telephone wires and cables; however, expectations grew and people began demanding more from their phones. Manufacturers responded by adding more and more functionality and now on most cell phones you can talk, take and transmit pictures, send text messages, surf the net and play games.

Some of the earliest improvements to cell phones were games that were preloaded on the phone—you couldn’t download new games or change what was preloaded on your phone. These early games were quite minimal, since the technology couldn’t support much more than a black and white screen and sounds consisting of various beeps. In reality, early cell phone games such as ‘Snake” and ‘Brick’ weren’t much more than animated black squares.

However as cell phones improved, so did cell phone games. Today’s phones have lots of memory, and you can directly download the latest versions of virtually any of the most popular games to them. In addition to the increased memory capacity, the phones also have improved graphic capabilities that are equivalent to a 4th or 5th generation game console, so visually playing more complicated and involved games is now possible on a cell.

In spite of these new technological capabilities and the availability of higher quality RPG and action games, according to EA Mobile (the market leader in mobile games) the five most popular mobile games today remain primarily the simple, straightforward games of yesterday. Naturally the games take advantage of the improved graphics capabilities and expanded memory to improve the game experience, but the games themselves are still quite basic. Here’s the five most popular games played on cell phones in the US right now:

1. Tetris® - one of the earliest electronic games. You rotate and stack falling blocks to form a solid line, and when the blocks make a solid line from edge to edge the line disappears and all the pieces stacked above move down a line. Leave openings in your lines and the blocks will pile up. Once the well is full the game is over and you lose.
2. Bejeweled® - Make the jewels disappear and get more time to play by arranging them in matching groups of three. The more jewels you can remove, the farther you will progress in the game.
3. Scrabble® - an old board game favorite. Simply make words out of a group of ‘letter tiles’ to score points
4. Tiger Woods Golf - play golf on some of the finest courses in the world against the greatest players in the world.
5. Jamdat^TM Bowling - for the bowling enthusiast. You can control your ball and watch the action from alley level or overhead. Play a single game or three-game sets.

At first it seems strange that the popular cell phone games aren’t the same games that are popular on game consoles, but in reality cell phone gaming is a different market. First off, a typical cell phone user is a casual gamer, someone looking for a short, easy-to-play game to fill some idle time. As well, although cell phone technology has improved, the processing power in a cell phone still can’t compare to that of a game console, so a cell phone just isn’t capable of providing the same gaming experience. Finally, using a cell phone keypad as a game controller isn’t close to using a video game console, so serious gamers simply aren’t interested in playing new games on their cell phones. They’ll save their serious gaming for a computer console.

To locate the cell phone user’s manual for the model(s) you own, visit the ManualsOnline Library.