Midnight Darts

We've never played darts at midnight. Perhaps we're missing out on something and there's a version you can play like ten-pin bowling in the dark which uses luminous pins. Except in this case the darts board would be luminous and it would be, er, rather dangerous.

What a relief, then, to find that the word 'midnight' in the game's title isn't to be taken literally. In fact, the whole thing takes place across a nice, picturesque sunny map which contains no fewer than eight different pubs, each with their own challengers for you to take on in various different dart-based games.

If there's one thing you can't criticise Midnight Darts for, it's a lack of play modes. Eight different types of game are offered and some, like Round the Clock, you'll have no doubt heard of, while others – Rally and Cricket spring to mind – you're never likely to seeing as they're strictly fictional.

What you can criticise it for slightly, however, is for not representing a game of darts that accurately. It's no doubt tough to come up with a good way of recreating the 'sport' in a video game and it's good to find the system used here isn't too complicated. But it's also very easy to master if you have even a basic sense of timing.

After setting a target where you want the dart to land, you simply press '5' when a fluctuating circle lands right on it. Get it spot on and the dart will always land where you want it to, unless it bounces off another dart nestled in the same place. If you shoot slightly early, it usually lands a little off target. A split second too late causes the real damage – a sort of glass smashing sound accompanied by your dart flying towards the ceiling.

But for anyone in possession of decent timing, these penalties probably only occur once every ten darts or so. The rest of the time it's quite easy to land 180s and finish on the double you want to every time.

The game does try to progressively offer more of a challenge by giving you tougher AI and tighter time limits to go up against in the single-player game. That said, the actual gameplay doesn't get any harder, so actually throwing the darts accurately is never anything more than quite mindless stuff.

With the negatives out of the way, it's worth noting Midnight Darts does still have a lot going for it. A few of the eight games feel a bit like filler material – such as the Cricket game, which has a convoluted set of rules yet essentially just involves throwing darts at the appropriately lit sections of the board – but Round the Clock, High Score (in which you hit the lit sections against a timer) and Shooter (which abandons the dart board completely for target practice) are all good fun.

Better still, they can be played with up to four players taking turns on one handset.

Also pleasing are the highly polished and colourful visuals. The characters you go up against in each location have their own look and personality, while a little adrenaline is injected into matches with the use of animated sequences to build up the tension when you're going for a final double.

There's also some extra incentive in single-player in the form of cash winnings, which can then be spent on bonuses such as new darts and board types, although these don't seem to have much of an effect on the actual gameplay.

So, it might have a misleading title seeing as it's a decidedly cheery, bright and breezy darts affair, and the gameplay might not be that comprehensive when you realise it's just a case of repeatedly stopping a circle at its smallest point. But the range of modes, bonuses and overall presentation mean you're unlikely to be hugely disappointed with Midnight Darts. You just might not be staying up until midnight to play it, that's all.