PDC World Championship Darts 2008 Review

The armchair sports fan has been treated to weeks of professional darts over the last month (what do you mean you didn’t watch it?) and the ‘Let’s make darts popular’ Premiere League Darts has been pulling in new fans, so there’s no better time than now for Oxygen Games to release its latest sports sim. PDC World Championship Darts 2008 isn’t the flashiest of sports games to hit consoles though, but this Wii version does at least offer semi-realistic real dart throwing gameplay.

The merits of darts as a sport can be debated elsewhere, but there’s no question that it’s a game that anyone can play if you’re down the local pub. The real question is if we really need a darts sim to play on our consoles, even if it does recreate the real thing pretty well with the motion sensitive Wii Remote.

First things first. This isn’t the best darts game I’ve played. Touch Darts on the DS still holds that crown, delivering a tactile feeling that this Wii game simply can’t compete with. In PDC World Championship Darts 2008 you use the Wii Remote to aim and then mimic the throw action. To start the throw you hold down the A button and then move the dart (Wii Remote) as if you were playing in real life, releasing A at the point you’d release the dart. The throwing action feels almost disconnected to what happens though, with your throw happening noticeably before the player throws the dart in the game.

The control system found in the PlayStation 2 game is also available. Here you aim using the Wii Remote, but use the Nunchuck’s analogue stick to effectively mimic your player’s throw. Pull it back to start the motion and then push forwards to throw. It’s very simple, but takes a surprising amount of skill to get right.

What makes it tricky is how the strength of throw required depends on where you aim. When played on the easiest difficulty you are shown an on-screen dart, which indicates the strength needed in order to throw the dart within the on-screen marker. This zone changes as you move the aiming reticule around the board, so on the harder difficulty setting, where there is no on-screen help, you have to know the ins and outs of your throwing action.

To add further difficulty, your forward stroke to release the dart needs to be smooth and straight, no matter which control scheme you use. A skewed motion will cause your dart to veer off target, which will be extremely costly if you’re going for the all important double to win a leg. By no means is PDC World Championship Darts 2008 in the same league of complexity as a sports game like PES, but it will certainly take time to master.

The core game mode sees you taking your custom created player (the character creation tool isn’t the game’s highlight) through his career, playing in tournaments for prize money and ranking position. It’s not the flashiest of productions, but gives you something to strive towards. Other game modes include a plethora of ‘fun’ mini-games, with just about every alternative pub darts game included, from Round the Clock to Cricket.

Those accustomed to the kind of production values seen in high profile sports games like FIFA will be in for a slight shock when PDC World Championship Darts 2008 loads up. Menu designs are rather ugly and player models look rather lifeless – especially disappointing given the lack of anything else significant on the screen. Commentary from fan favourite Sid Waddell is included although he’s even harder to understand here than he is in real life, making most of his one-liners fall short of the mark.

PDC World Championship Darts 2008 isn’t going to interest anyone who doesn’t already have a fondness for the sport and, given how easy and cheap it is to play in real life, even those fans may struggle to find reason to pick up their Wii Remotes. The gameplay works, but the simple presentation and general lack of polish unfortunately relegate the game to something only a very small minority will enjoy.