PDC World Darts Championship 2011

If you fancy losing weight, toning up, and getting in shape but have neither the time nor inclination to hit the gym – my fellow Pocket Gamer scribes, I'm looking firmly in your direction – then there's a very simple way to shed the pounds: star in a video game.

Insulting as it may be, darts isn't a sport that springs to mind when one thinks about daring feats of athleticism, or bulging biceps.

Balding guys with beer bellies tend to hold court here, though five minutes play on PDC World Darts Championship 2011 is enough to make you believe they've all been on the Rosemary Connelly diet.

On target?

The idea of the sports stars being slimmed down isn't without symmetry in play, however.

Aside from the fact that, by and large, this is identical to the last crack of the PDC whip in 2010, the latest World Darts Championship tie-in yet again makes it play far too light. In short, winning is plain easy.

Whatever game you're playing – and there are eight different forms of the game on offer, in all, including a full on championship – the setup is the same: you pick your intended target on the board by simply moving your cursor around with the number keys, before pressing '5' twice to send your dart flying.

It's the second button press that is key. To get the shot spot on, you have to tap the button at exactly the right moment – just as a target circle closes in on a dot in the middle.

Without weight

The problem is, the pace of said target circle is pretty slow, making it incredibly hard not to get your spot dead on each and every time.

As such, games of 701 – where the aim is to bring your score down to 0 from the aforementioned total – are over in seconds, because there's just no sense of challenge, whoever you play as or play against.

PDC World Darts Championship 2011 seems more concerned with showing the sport as some glossy event in the palm of your hand than with actually letting you play it.

In truth, this is one sports sim that could do with packing on a touch more weight, however unattractive that might make its stars.

PDC World Darts Championship 2011

Essentially the same package served up yesterday, PDC World Darts Championship 2011 is too light and easy to really feel like a challenge
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.