Review: PDC World Darts Championship 2009

Darts, it's not the most exciting or athletic sport, is it, some would argue that it's not even a sport at all. I suppose it depends on your definition of the word, but for the mainstream it actually qualifies as a sport, just like Chess and Poker do, and I heard a rumour somewhere that Tiddly Winks will make it in to the next Olympics. But regardless, sport or just a game, Darts can be fun in the right circumstances, usually with a few pints in you down at your local. Does this Nintendo DS version provide as much fun as the real thing, let's see?

Cut Down

Well, as I'm sure you are aware the game I am reviewing is a hand-held version of a console game recently reviewed by Boomtown, that's not to say the game is any worse than its Wii counterpart. In many ways it's an improvement, although you might not think that at first, it's a cut down version of the Wii game, and as such it suffers in some departments.

The main area which suffers is presentation, especially in the graphics department. The entrances are gone, as are the animations between throws showing the players pulling their darts from the board, but character models seem a little better. In the Wii version the players looked a little washed out, not so here, they are well detailed and look better in general, their wrists look more realistic too. The games audio has had some cutbacks too, you still get a commentary from Sid Waddell, but it's not so frequent and his comments are shorter and more to the point. Personally I found this a good thing, in the Wii game I found his constant repetition and annoying turn of phrase got right on my wick, and find this cut back version a lot more bearable.

A Little Short

Compared to the game's presentation though the content has made it over to the hand-held with very few omissions, with just a few players missing from the Wii version, the create a player option is also missing. Apart from that though everything is pretty much intact, with the games career mode being the main single player game, unfortunately though unless you are a real darts fan you're going to find it pretty tedious.

With a minimum of six games needing to be played for every round of a tournament and god knows how many rounds per tournament, you are going to be throwing a lot of darts. Fortunately there are several multiplayer modes to play with your friends to offset the tedium of the main single player mode, and these can be played on the dame DS or through single card wireless play. You can play straight darts over the game's wireless play mode, with several configurations of game play, 501, 301, etcetera, but the game's party game mode offers more variety, and can be played on a single DS.

In party game mode you'll find plenty of games you may be familiar with, such as round the clock and killer, and loads more you've probably never heard of, all of which are playable with up to four players. So, you get plenty of options in multiplayer without the need for another DS, or another copy of the game, the only real shortfall is that there is no online mode, but that's forgiveable, as I can't imagine it being a very popular game online.

Intuitive Controls

One of the major selling points of the Wii version of the game was its realistic control scheme, obviously things are going to be different here, but the developer has done a pretty good job of still making the game feel like darts. With the dartboard on the DS's touch screen you aim by touching with the stylus, pull it back and quickly swipe it forwards to throw, this takes a little getting used to, but once you have the hang of it feels a good representation of real darts.

You get an aiming aid in the form of a gauge in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which measures your throw and lets you know the best point to throw forward when you are drawing back. This makes the throwing a bit easier than the Wii version, but to counter that when you're aiming for your finishing double, or your third triple twenty, the aiming reticule goes all wobbly. This actually more than compensates for the difference in control systems, and coupled with what seems like a much improved player AI you are at an extreme disadvantage against the computer in single player mode. Another reason why the game is more fun in multiplayer.

Perfect Finish?

So, as with the Wii version you get a well put together game of darts here, but the problem is, it's just darts, and unless you are a big fan of the game this isn't going to hold your interest for long. Like the real thing it's fun in short bursts with a friend, but thanks to the frustrations of the single player game you're not going to get much fun out of it on your own. They really need to work on the game's AI to make the single player game fairer, and that wobbly reticule, if they are going to make another edition next year, but even then it'll still only be darts.