Bloody Hell, Where's Our Decent Darts Game? Unpacking Gaming's Weird Blind Spot
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Despite darts being a massively popular sport with huge events and compelling stories, the gaming world has largely failed to produce a truly great darts video game, relegating it to minigames or struggling with replicating the sport's feel without making it too easy or too complex; but with the sport's current surge in popularity, a 'FIFA Street'-esque arcade take or a 'Football Manager'-style 'road to pro' simulator could finally hit the mark.
You know that feeling when you've got all the ingredients for a magical potion, a sure-fire recipe for success, but every time you stir, it just turns into a lumpy, unidentifiable goo? That's kinda how I feel about darts video games, mate. On paper, it's a no-brainer: a globally popular sport, easy to understand, full of drama, and yet... crickets. Where's the digital bullseye we all deserve?
Right now, as we speak (or, well, as I type this, which is probably past the actual event, but you get the gist), the PDC World Darts Championship is going off like a firecracker at London's iconic Ally Pally. We're talking hundreds of thousands of punters cramming in, iconic commentary moments like Wayne Mardle's immortal 'they're both on nines!', and legends being forged and cemented. Think Phil 'The Power' Taylor's ridiculous 14 world titles – a record that feels like a forgotten prophecy from an ancient scroll – or Luke Littler's meteoric rise from mere mortal to darting deity last year. It's proper theatre, a global spectacle that pulls in millions, with an estimated 17 million Americans playing, and it's allegedly the 'fastest growing sport in the UK'.
So, naturally, you'd expect a digital counterpart that absolutely nails the vibe, offering us a chance to live out those 'nine-darter' fantasies, right? *Right?* Instead, where do we find darts in our favourite virtual worlds? Mostly tucked away in the darkest corners of a minigame menu, like a dusty old spellbook you only open when you're desperate for a buff. *Final Fantasy VII Remake* has it in the Seventh Heaven bar – a nice touch, but hardly a full-blown experience. *Watch Dogs: Legion* lets you play in pubs to recruit civilians, and *Grand Theft Auto 4* and *5* offer it as a distraction. *Persona 5 Royal* even grants combat benefits if you whack a few arrows in your downtime. The best of these minigame appearances, I reckon, might be *Yakuza 6*, which features real-life legend Paul Lim – still competing at 71! – in a substory. Fair dinkum, how cool is that? But even that's a brilliant cameo rather than the main event, a digital guest appearance rather than a starring role.
It wasn't always just a digital afterthought, mind you. Back in the Atari 8-bit days of 1981, we had 'Darts.' Then the BBC Micro got one in '85. These early attempts tried to inject challenge by making the cursor wiggle around like a nervous pixie on a sugar rush, because otherwise, it’d just be too easy to hit the bullseye every single time. A few more popped up in the late '80s, and then we saw pro players lending their names – Jocky Wilson, John Lowe – but the gameplay was largely the same: just... darts. On a screen.
The next noteworthy one didn't land until 1999: *Elite Darts*, which had Raymond van Barneveld's name attached in the Netherlands. This one tried motion-based controls with the mouse – a noble effort, but one that could lead to overshooting the board entirely if your hand twitched like you’d just cast a faulty lightning bolt. Then came the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) themselves, sensing a gap in the market during the sixth console generation's sports game saturation. They launched *PDC World Championship Darts* for PS2 and PC in 2006. It had licensed pros, official tournaments, and party modes, and critics gave it a mixed bag. Eurogamer called it 'solid' but questioned the point of an on-screen darts game that couldn't replicate the 'tactile feeling of actually throwing darts.'
That didn't stop the PDC, though. Just over a year later, in 2008, they released *PDC World Championship Darts 2008*, and this time, it was on the Wii. True motion controls were possible! They even motion-captured players' throwing styles and walk-ons, which is pretty neat. You could change dart weights, a crucial real-world detail that many casual fans might not even know about. This should have been the bullseye, right? The grand slam? Bloody hell, it got panned even harder! IGN called it 'complete and total crap,' and Metacritic gave the Wii version a measly 51. The Official Nintendo Magazine UK was a bit kinder, noting the Wii Remote added realism, but said the atmosphere felt 'more local pub than Ally Pally' – not what the official world championship game devs would have hoped for.
Two more official PDC games followed, but the primary governing body eventually took it as a sign to abandon the idea. Since then, standalone darts games have struggled, even with innovative attempts like *Top Darts* on PS3/Vita with its Move functionality, or *Phil Taylor's Power Play Darts* on DS using the stylus. Nowadays, Steam is awash with basic, feature-light darts games – and who can blame them? What *can* you add to make a darts video game appealing in this day and age, especially when the barrier to entry to play the real thing is already so low? You could grab a second-hand setup for extremely cheap, mate, and all you need is a wall you don't mind potentially damaging as you learn the ropes.
So, why the constant struggle? Why does the idea of a great darts game feel like trying to hit a double 1 with your eyes closed? One argument I keep seeing, and it's a fair one, is that if you 'suss out the aiming,' every game quickly becomes '180 after 180.' And then what? Just a race to nine-darters? Pretty dull, mate. Another: 'I've got the 3D version, it's called a dartboard and a set of darts.' It's tough to disagree, because it's very easy to foresee players figuring out exactly how to land a treble 20 with every dart within the first week of release, flooding YouTube with tutorials, and turning every match into a contest of who gets to throw first and therefore land a nine-darter – the sport's hardest challenge.
But what if we thought outside the box, or perhaps, outside the oche? What happens if we add a bit of wizardry to it? Some folks are suggesting we go full arcade, 'FIFA Street' style. Imagine power-ups, combos, quadruple targets, even spells to mess with your opponent's aim. That sounds like a right laugh, doesn't it? The problem then is that it strays too far from the real sport, and the official PDC might look at it like I look at a broken teleportation spell: 'That's not what I asked for!'
Then there's the 'road to pro' idea, which, I reckon, has some serious magical potential. A proper single-player RPG-esque journey. Create a player, start in smoky pub leagues, climb the ranks through local competitions, manage sponsorships, handle media interviews – a bit 'Football Manager,' but with actual throwing. Imagine the lore! The rivalries! The drama! If the gameplay itself could find that sweet spot – challenging but fair, maybe with subtle 'fluke' mechanics or environmental factors to keep it from being *too* perfect – then we'd be onto a winner.
The stars seem aligned, mate. Darts is booming. The technology for nuanced input is better than ever. We're in a gaming era where niche genres can thrive. All it needs is a talented team willing to cast the right spell, or perhaps, hit the right triple 20. If they do, you can bet your last digital coin I'll be there, cheering from the virtual stands. Who knows, maybe this time someone will finally hit that mythical bullseye.
This whole thought experiment was sparked by a cracking read from Ford James over at Polygon, delving into the same mystery: "Why isn't there a great darts video game?". Go give it a gander if you want more of the historical deep dive.
Tags: Darts, Sports Games, Gaming History, Game Design, Simulation
Original article: Polygon