SEGA Presents: Touch Darts Review

By Simon Parkin Published 26 June, 2007

Play Round the Clock?

Version tested: DS

Even the way you say the word (Dah-Tss: like checking your breath for the threat of halitosis before hissing at a pantomime villain) feels unkempt and low culturish. It's one of those sports, like Rugby Union, Polo or pitbull-fighting which, when played in Britain, comes with a heavy sort of social baggage. These are all games intrinsically linked to the type of people who play them and the environments in which they're played. Darts is a game about fat men, gold chains, ropey pubs, peroxide blondes and beery carpets; Polo is about prissy paddocks, pure-bred horses, fox-hunting aristocrats and voting Conservative. Pay no attention to the virtue of the gameplay and let the broad brush strokes of prejudice painted by your upbringing dictate whether you approve or not.

Thankfully, in their other-dimensional presentation, videogames have a cute way of bypassing these sorts of tired class considerations of sport to reveal the underlying game for what it really is. Which, in the case of Touch Darts, turns out to be a pretty excellent one all told. Of course, this isn't the first game to try players' hand at the sport. However, for console gamers at least, the most recent iterations have mostly taken the form of minigames tacked on to larger projects. Be it in the game parlours of Sega's multi-million pound camp soap opera, Shenmue, or deep in the belly of Nintendo's 42-All Time Classics, Darts has usually played insignificant sideshow to another game's main attraction. So it's good to see Sega focus its efforts to bring us the definitive package onto Nintendo's handheld.

The rules of the game, for those who only frequent wine bars or gentlemen's clubs of a weekend are straightforward: two players compete in a game of physical accuracy and mental arithmetic to reduce their starting score of 501 or 301 points to exactly zero before their opponent. During your turn you can throw three darts which must hit a segment on the dart board to score. Each segment has a score marked at the edge of board which is subtracted from your current total when hit. If the dart hits the narrow outer ring you score double points while the inner ring scores treble points. Wires separate the segments and your dart will bounce off these if it hits one. The centre of the board is the bull's-eye which has an inner and outer part worth 50 points and 25 points respectively. The final dart, that which reduces your score to zero for the win, must land either in the outer ring of the board (i.e. a double) or on the bull's-eye otherwise it's counted as void.

'SEGA Presents: Touch Darts' Screenshot 1

Now then, we'll have no treble here.

And, for the main part of Sega Presents Touch Darts, these are the rules you'll play by. The presentation is cartoony and easy-going as you're charged with working your way up through four stages of professionalism (from Rookie up to Professional) taking on other cockney caricatures and unlocking new darts and characters along the way. While you start off playing in your shed or bedroom to an audience of one it's not long before you're in a pub, loud bits of sentences swirling around you interspersed with cries of support from the bar.

Where the game really succeeds is in that all important sense of control afforded the player. To play you touch your stylus at the point on the dartboard you ideally want to hit before drawing it back and gently flicking your wrist upwards in a vague approximation of the real-life action. In a sense it works more like a classic golf videogame in that, once you've picked your direction, it's mostly a case of setting the correct power.

Of course, it's possible to add subtle modifiers to your throw by, for example, pitching the angle slightly when you throw, or by throwing very gently so that the dart drops below your aim point but it's a lot more simple and streamlined than the 42-All Time Classics version. Indeed, while it will take you a few goes to learn the right sort of power to inject into your throw, soon you'll be turning out treble twenties without too much effort. That's not to say it's easy however, as you need to maintain a decent amount of concentration for those all important final doubles and, as the excellent crowd noises ooh and ahh behind you in, the game does a fine job of applying pressure at key points in the game.

'SEGA Presents: Touch Darts' Screenshot 2

The commentator is no Sid Waddell.

There are two factors that drag the game down a little. Firstly, the AI is literally hit and miss throughout. Pitching this kind of difficulty for a developer one of the very hardest things to do. While it's extremely simple to make a perfect AI opponent, making a believably fallible one is far harder. The game mostly fails in this regard as it's very easy to play through at least half of the single player career without losing so much as a single set. Secondly, while various multiplayer modes exist (both standard 501/301 games as well as various minigames (Round the Clock etc) there's no wireless function so you're left with having to pass the DS around the room - hardly a perfect set-up.

The game's not going to win any awards for technical achievement. The audio samples repeat themselves unapologetically and, while the different styles of dartboard and dart are many and varied, it's couldn't be described as a beautiful game. But where it counts Sega Presents Touch Darts is a triumph. Whether idly playing through the various mini-games or bucking down to a tricky leg in a long tournament the game is perfectly accessible, easy to pick up but hard to master and, even without wireless multiplayer or an adaptive AI this is still comfortably the best Darts videogame going.

7 / 10

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Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RedPanda #1 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • bauhaus #2 5 years ago

    This was my Fathers day pressie, and good fun it is too.

    The Chaz n Dave piano music is supreme

  • afray #3 5 years ago

    This is sitting at home for me, I'm glad it's turned out ok.

    However I've just moved house and I haven't seen my DS charger in a few weeks...

  • Oceadge #4 5 years ago

    "Dah-Tss" - isn't there an "r" in the word daRts? Or do most people here not pronounce their "r's"?

  • chupachups #5 5 years ago

    ""Dah-Tss" - isn't there an "r" in the word daRts? Or do most people here not pronounce their "r's"?"

    I don't think anyone from London would pronounce the R, and as this game seems to be going for a Chas'n'Dave feel, that pronunciation fits.

  • agparrot #6 5 years ago

    Now what about a Wii darts 'throwing' game then?

  • lennon #7 5 years ago

    Isnt there one in Wario Ware Smooth Moves?

  • Oceadge #8 5 years ago

    @chupachups
    Ah, I see!
    /trys to imagine someone on Eastenders saying the word

  • zuljin #9 5 years ago

    @Oceadge
    I was under the impression the joke was meant to be that even if you try and say darts very poshly (imagine Joanna Lumley saying it), it still "feels unkempt and low culturish".

    Picking at it like this however, its not very funny anymore...

  • redd #10 5 years ago

    Oh I see... Rockstar Presents: Table Tennis and now Sega Presets: Touch Darts.
    Where has originality gone to?

  • spazmo #11 5 years ago

    I really like the control and feel of this game. It's a great game of darts.

  • jonsaan #12 5 years ago

    Sounds great. If I ever finish Puzzle Quest I may well pick this one up.

  • Kiigan #13 5 years ago

    "Even the way you say the word (Dah-Tss"

    Maybe the way YOU say the word :)

  • FairgroundTown #14 5 years ago

    Interesting... I found the 42ATC version a bit random (tho' not as badly random as the pool game), and so I'm up for this in theory... but equally, I struggle to believe there is actually a complete game in there - I mean, without the beer and "mateship", is there really that much to darts? Maybe this is one to buy for a tenner in a few months time?

  • andromeda #15 5 years ago

    "Now what about a Wii darts 'throwing' game then"

    not trolling mate...but wouldnt a real dartboard be a lot cheaper and more "realistic" ;-)

  • Nithron #16 5 years ago

    Not enough guns.

  • knocker #17 5 years ago

    But if you want to sound prolier than though you'd say "arrers" anyway.


    @Jonsaan
    Sounds great. If I ever finish Puzzle Quest I may well pick this one up.

    Puzzle quest scares me. I don't believe it will ever finish.

  • Weezer #18 5 years ago

    Anyone else starting to ignore the first two paragraphs of EG's reviews?

  • FairgroundTown #19 5 years ago

    I thought the first 2 paras were great!

  • Wayne #20 5 years ago

    Bull's Eye or Bull's S**t?

  • stormuk #21 5 years ago

    Im suprised theres no Brain Darts game version for the DS

    Same thing but you have to do the maths

  • coach_mcguirk #22 5 years ago

    This is £14.99 at Play.com right now, btw.

  • olver #23 5 years ago

    am i alone in wishing there were more multiplayer games for the DS that involved simply passing the DS from player to player? it'd be a great way to kill a long coach journey or something (as nobody I know owns a DS, normal multiplayer functions are dead to me). will definitely get this purely for that reason.

  • coderkind #24 5 years ago

    It's a good game alright. They spent about 50p on the presentation, but the gameplay is there.

    7 or an 8 for me.

  • konniehuqfan #25 5 years ago

    ah lads, let's have a look at what you coulda won...

  • GrandpaUlrira #26 5 years ago

    Wow, didn't see that score coming... but you can buy a set of darts for less than this...

  • SeesThroughAll #27 5 years ago

    I know I've already said this too many times, but...

    SEGA, come back!.... :'(

  • afghan_jones #28 5 years ago

    How on earth can this be worth 7/10? (I'm sure you can all think of better games which scored 7/10 or worse.)

    I mean its a darts game. admittedly with a stylus but still, its hardly a full game is it?? Its just a single minigame?? In this day and age, one has to wonder why... Even if you bloody love darts and everything about this game was utterly perfect and it was the most wonderful depiction of digital dart throwing ever, its still just darts. on a DS.

    Can this please be marked down immediately on the basis of it being in disguise as a proper game. Thanks.

  • pancho #29 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones

    What a complete load of shit.

    Perhaps you could hand out guidelines of what, in your wisdom and experience, constitutes a 'proper game'.

  • GrandpaUlrira #30 5 years ago

    This was 30 quid in Gamestation today o_O

  • smelly #31 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones: Using that analogy then a fps is just a simple single mini game.

    Actually is an fps really any different from this? Instead of aiming at a board, you're aiming at someones head.

    see?

    Take Gears of War for example. The most generic shooter i can think of. Take away all the pretty pixels.. and what are you left with? Darts with moving targets.

    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 22:25

  • afghan_jones #32 5 years ago

    @smelly

    you are a silly little troll. If you genuinely find playing gears of war akin to playing a darts simulator then I pity you because you must really have trouble enjoying games.

    @pancho

    Its not a load of shit to ask that, If this was a minigame in another game like if the exact same darts engine was used in a minigame in GTA, people would say, oh darts, cool, spend five minutes on it and press on. I really question the merit of darts as a standalone title.

    Just cause its on the DS and its ot a shooter doesnt instantly mean you have to make out that its genius. Liking retro style games with low-end graphics doesnt make you instantly cool you know.

  • Arcadiian #33 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones

    You remind me of the whole "how do you dig half a hole" joke. A game is a game, you can't honestly think that if a game is not filled with the most polygons possible, that it can't be any fun ? Or that if you're not shooting aliens you can't be enjoying yourself ?

    And what's with the "troll" argument ? I see it on most forums. If i don't agree with someone else i'm a "troll" ?

    Also your own argument "Liking retro style games with low-end graphics doesnt make you instantly cool you know" works exactly the same against you. Modern graphics doesn't instantly make your game good.

  • pancho #34 5 years ago

    'Liking retro style games with low-end graphics doesnt make you instantly cool you know.'

    No but dismissing them as not being 'proper games' does make you completely retarded. Also, why is this a retro-style game? Because it's based on a sport? What's your logic here?

    Geometry Wars was a 'minigame' in PGR which was promoted to being a standalone title. Is that not a proper game?

    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 23:07

  • smelly #35 5 years ago

    "then I pity you because you must really have trouble enjoying games. "

    Erm. You seem to be the one who has trouble enjoying games (Without pretty pixels).

    Must be why you're so adamant to call people trolls and stuff. Probably too busy jacking off over graphics and why your console is better than anothter one to actually have fun playing anything.

    So erm, I guess i pity you.. Poor baby.

    Go back to jerking off over you "real" games - its obvious you dont enjoy playing them..

  • smelly #36 5 years ago

    Besides you didnt answer my question. I'll repeat : "Surely a generic fps is pretty much darts with moving targets?"

  • 3william56 #37 5 years ago

    We heard you the first time. It was a cr*p analogy then, and it's still a cr*p analogy. Give it up.

  • afghan_jones #38 5 years ago

    @smelly,

    I didnt call you a troll for disagreeing with me, I called you a troll cause this is the third or fourth time you have come into a comments thread, said little about the game in question but just tried to have a pop at gears of war for no obvious reason.

    and yeah, if you really think that darts sims are akin to FPS games then you might as well take it to its logical conclusion, throw all your games away and just play pong and space invaders cause every development since then in gaming is apparently all pretty pixels.

    @Arcadiian

    Yeah, Geometry wars was a minigame that became a full title. The difference is that Geometry wars has progression, variation within it. I questioned the validity of this darts title based on the very limited gameplay it appeared to offer, not because it isnt HD or whatever. I dont see that a darts game offers much variety. I'm ntot saying it isnt fun for a short while. I had a darts sim free on my old mobile phone which was a good laugh, but after a few plays I was done with it. HOw is this any different (bar the stylus mechanic)

    A lot of times, games get marked down heavily for offering very limited gameplay options. surely this is one of he most limited titles available. (Also, pancho called darts a 'sport'. Ha.)

    Edited by 1 at 27/06/07 @ 09:33

  • Freelancepolice #39 5 years ago

    Just sounds like you've got a problem with darts itself

  • mcmothercruncher #40 5 years ago

    How on earth you can get so worked up about a budget darts game is beyond me.

    Anyway. For those interested- it's decent fun and, if you enjoyed the darts game in the "42 All time classics" title then this is a better take on the legendary athletic sport of champions (that one's for you fps_jones). The central play mechanic is much superior to the random feeling one in the 42 title. I know it sounds from the review that choosing where the dart will end up before throwing is too easy but the path you then trace with the stylus coupled with the pace you put on it then decides whether the dart actually then gets to said point. Most importantly I suppose, if you throw consistently, you score consistently. There is a healthy dose of Bullseye-ness too with a cartoon style to it all very familiar to fans of the show. There are some pleasing little mini games in there too.

    One annoyance is the fallibility Sega have built into the opponents at the early levels- the random wayward darts they throw in order to play badly feel a bit fake. With the budget price in mind, I'd say a 7 is about right.

  • barnard666 #41 5 years ago

    Hey freelance police, I have a problem with you!

    And Bauhaus, you are right the music is the best thing in the world ever.

  • Razz #42 5 years ago

    Better than Tenchulol :)

  • afghan_jones #43 5 years ago

    Just realised if you swap the first letters of Touch Darts around, you get:

    'Douch(e) Tarts'!!

    Now that would be a game we could all enjoy!

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #44 5 years ago

    It's not a budget game. It has a ridiculous £30 RRP, but is being widely and heavily discounted to around half that, which is a reasonable price for what it is - an excellent game that's unfortunately been rushed out half-baked with a totally indefensible lack of WiFi play.

  • ph101 #45 5 years ago

    This is all well and good but why no sim city review?

  • smelly #46 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones: This thread is dead now but i'll reply. I used GoW as a recent example of a generic shooter that had no real gameplay other than aiming and shooting - just like darts.

    I couldnt just say "every shooter" as we all know that'd be nonsense.

    You really need to get the chip off your shoulder thinking that just because someone mentions a game on your console it doesnt mean they're slagging off your beloved machine.

    Pretty much everyone (apart from the fangirls) are now saying (now the hype has died down) that GoW wasnt actually all that after all, and that as shooters go it was pretty much as generic and on rails as they come.

    Which was why i used it as an example. Here's another example - wolfenstein. Am I now a retro-pc-hate boy or something?

    Gees. Get a fucking life. I'm not slagging off your machine you dumb-ass.


    But i will stand by the point that aiming a dart at the screen is no different to aiming a gun in a generically dull shooter (i.e. one without much in way of puzzle solving/exploring/etc)

    You can hide it under gloss and blood particles.. but it's all the same thing at the end of the day.

  • afghan_jones #47 5 years ago

    @smelly,

    If you really wna tto get into the Gears hting, its not a generic shooter. Its not first person, it has an interesting cover mechanic & co-op play, plus a small scale team based multiplayer rather than the usual all out deathmatch. It mostly revolves around close quarters shooting unlike the majority of other shooters which are mainly focussed on long range rockets, snipers etc.

    If you dont like it, fair enough. However, the fact remains that actually a lot of people like it a great deal and claiming that 'most' people now dislike it is just plain wrong.

    I never mentioned anything anywhere about 'my' console so I'm not sure why you have brought that up as an issue.

    If aiming a dart at the screen is exactly the same as playing a shooter then why arent we flooded with darts sims?

    Next time someone releases a team based multiplayer darts sim with vehicle sections, capture the flag, online co-op, you let me know yeah, cause apparently darts and shooters are just the same.

  • krudster #48 5 years ago

    Sim City review coming soon, next week in fact. We only got code this week.

  • 8bitMofo #49 5 years ago

    This game is great all the way up to Expert, then it just fucking annoys.

  • ph101 #50 5 years ago

    thx