Darts, the favored pastime of bars and rec rooms everywhere is now a video game on the Nintendo Wii and DS. But does this virtual dart game hit the bulls-eye mark? Read and find out:

If there’s one thing that PDC World Championship Darts has going for it, it’s authentic realism. You can play as real dart professionals, compete in authentic dart tournaments, and play in genuine locations (must be something they show on ESPN2 or something). If you don’t want to play as a real-life pro dart player, you can make your own profile in the Wii version as well.

You can play a quick exhibition game of darts, compete in real life tournaments, or enter a full career mode. Up to four can play, and there are also dartboard based party games with different rules for each challenge.

Play control on the Wii is more intuitive than on the DS. Hold the Wii remote like a dart and point it at the screen. Press and hold the A button to lock your target on the screen, then make a throwing motion with the remote, release the A button (but don’t throw the remote), and let the dart fly. Unfortunately, while the dart throwing controls are simple to learn, making your dart hit the target is not so easy to figure out. And when you’re dealing with computer players who can throw darts and make them land on top of other darts, it can get real frustrating and not very much fun.

The DS controls are even worse. Instead of throwing, you draw a line towards you and then flick away on the touch screen with the stylus. There is a dart meter that is supposed to help you find the ‘sweet spot’ to aim your target, but it’s really pretty useless. Other than that, the DS and Wii games are virtually identical. The DS version even has the voiced announcers.

Kid Factor:

PDC World Championship Darts is rated E-10 for Everyone 10 and up. The Wii version doesn’t have any ESRB descriptors on the box for some strange reason (since both games are virtually identical), but the DS version has descriptors of Alcohol Reference and Mild Blood. Since darts are found in many bars, I’m guessing the alcohol reference may have something to do with that, though I haven’t seen any myself. The only blood I saw is that one of the party games is called “Killer” and it’s written in blood-like writing. But you can’t throw darts at each other or anything. Reading skill and prior knowledge of the rules of darts is helpful as they don’t really explain the rules very well in the game. PDC World Championship Darts isn’t very good, but if you want to introduce your kids to the game of darts, this may be a safer alternative to the real thing. No pointy objects to throw at each other here.

Tags: Game Reviews