MOBILE GAME REVIEW
Phil Taylor's Power Darts '08Jim Bowen would be proud |
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For most of us, darts is a game best played in the pub, washed down with a few ales and a packet of scampi fries. Seeing it played out on TV by 'professional athletes' has never seemed quite right to us. It's like televising and offering prize funds for that pub game where you flick up and catch a load of beer coasters. If only that were so, we'd be world-famous millionaires.
But let's get back to the darts. Big bad Phil "The Power" Taylor is a leading proponent of the spike-flinging art, and it's his mug that Player One has chosen to adorn its new game. Taking control of one of the eight racial stereotypes on offer from the start (we went for the Japanese kamikaze sumo wrestler guy), Career mode sees you honing your skills in your local pub and accepting the odd challenge from a rival player, before gaining entrance to one of the big tournaments. Win enough of these and you'll gain the right to face The Power himself in Las Vegas.
Most of you will be familiar with the basic rules of darts, so let's skip directly to how the game translates the feel of throwing the things. As a game starts you view the board head-on and you shift your aiming cursor around the board using the thumbstick. A quick depression of the latter will bring up three circles – static outer and inner circles, as well as one that expands and contracts rapidly between the two.
Press the thumbstick a further time to stop this as close to the inner circle as possible and you will take your throw. The accuracy will depend on just how close to the inner circle you get.
It's a very simple and intuitive system.
This simplicity does pose a problem once you've perfected the timing, as there's very little else to learn once you've mastered it. You could put this down to the nature of darts itself, but a more involving, nuanced system would have helped keep our attention from wavering.
As it is, that task falls to the sheer range of game variations, as well as a very well conceived Career mode. You're certainly not left wanting for things to do in this game, and praise must go to Typhon Mobile for its efforts in keeping the content interesting.
As well as the standard 501 rule game, we have such delights as Around The Clock (hit each number in sequence), Golf (hit numbers one to nine in the least number of throws possible) or Call Three (hit three random numbers as they are called). Whilst you're essentially going through the same motions for each mode, it's remarkable how far it can be stretched just by mixing up the rules a little.
We should mention how brilliantly presented this game is, too. From the introductory scenes, to the neatly drawn map screen, to the dartboard itself, it's all realized with considerable graphical style and panache. The only weak point visually is with some of the character models, such as the oddly proportioned Sara Castro.
Such complaints are really only minor niggles, though. The main question mark over Phil Taylor's Power Darts '08 is with the overly simplistic dart-throwing system. And to counter this, the developer has skilfully created enough smoke and mirrors to stop things from getting stale too early. It doesn't quite represent a spectacular bullseye, then, but rather a confidently taken double.
Phil Taylor's Power Darts '08 |
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A brilliantly presented darts game with plenty of mileage to the single-player experience
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