Darts isn’t usually a sport you would associate with video games, but that hasn’t stopped Oxygen Games from releasing what is their second darts game on the Wii in PDC Darts 2009.

 

PDC Darts essentially sees you using the Wii-Mote to throw darts at the board in order to become the champ. The controls are very easy to pick up, you simply need to point the Wii-Mote at the dart board to aim, hold down A or B (whichever you find more comfortable) and then begin the throw by using the Wii-Mote like a real dart before finally letting go of the button. It really is that simple.

 

 

The main issue with the controls is that aiming is not very easy, at first you will probably find it a real chore to aim where you want to on the board, especially if you don’t have steady hands. You will eventually get used to the aiming though and once you do you will begin to appreciate the neat little touches that the developer has included in this years version.

 

One of the main additions to this years game is the dart weights, these affect the sensitivity and power required to throw the darts, therefore heavier darts will require more power but are more forgiving while light darts provide greater accuracy but are more difficult to use. It really depends on your style what dart you should use, but it has to be said that this system seems to work very well.

 

So what modes are included in the game? Well as you would expect the main mode is a career mode, here you will play through a career as one of the games professional players or if you wish you can create your own player and edit their attributes to suit your own style. The career mode includes events such as the PartyPoker US Open, Stan James World Match Play and the Ladbrokes.com World Championship. Other modes included in the game are your standard modes such as Exhibition and Practice to the customisable Play it Your Way, which lets you create your own tournaments for up to eight players and Party Games which lets you and up to four players take part in various short games such as Half It and Around the Clock.

 

 

Graphically the game is certainly no oil painting, the crowds looks very uninspiring and the backgrounds are fairly bland, however the player models certainly look better than they did in PDC 2008. The sound at least improves things thanks to the tones of Sid Waddell who does an excellent job of building up some atmosphere and tension during each match.

 

PDC Darts 2009 may not be perfect but it is the best darts game around on any console at the moment, so if you long for this type of game on your system then you should probably get ordering this now.