Before we get into the topic at hand (the best Darts games to appears in Video Games), you need to know: I am a man of many obsessions, some of which come and go like a thief in the night. I had a dalliance with collecting retro game consoles, which is ironically how I came to meet our esteemed editor and formed a lifelong friendship. It’s also how I forged my career as a lowly video game hack. For a time, fishkeeping was my principle raison d’etre, as I moved from African cichlids, to piranhas, to aqua scaping. Then finally I moved onto the cash sinkhole that is marine aquaria. You can add Panini football stickers, vinyl records, NFL jerseys and trainers to this list. I drive my wife mad.
But no obsession has taken grasp of me quite like darts. Now, I have been around the sport for all my life; a childhood spent visiting CIU working men’s clubs with my parents and watching Bullseye and the BDO meant that the smoky, beer fuelled world of the arrahs was always on my radar. As I got older, the sport evolved and became more professional, more ubiquitous. Bristow, Lowe and Jocky Wilson gave way to the Phil Taylor era. Then, we hit the swish, high-money stakes PDC, which is now the all-consuming juggernaut of pro darts. Running concurrently was also something of a golden period of BBC Lakeside coverage, particularly the years anchored by the excellent Colin Murray, joined by Bobby George and his bling-bling “chav Infinity Gauntlet” of jewellery, was a highlight, making heroes of the likes of Martin Adams, the late Andy Fordham, and creating pantomime villains galore.
I always kept an eye on the scene, even having a little crack at playing a few times. But thanks to the rise of young Luke Littler and my 12 year old son becoming a firm fan, I am now all in on the sport. I have joined a pub team, with my talented boy joining me. I have even ended up becoming captain of a second team at my local pub, combining my obsession with the sport with a satisfying sense of power that being called “skipper” brings. Twice this season we have played against former BDO World Champion Les Wallace. We have spent months constructing an enviable setup at home, much to the dismay of my long suffering wife who remarks that our downstairs hallway now actually resembles one of the dingy clubs I got dragged to as a kid. I have recruited people from my day job into the fold, so that now even supervision meetings with my manager become half hour chats about dart weights, flight systems, and boards. I am obsessed. I am living the dream. In fact, I actually dream about tungsten on the regular, and I am not even joking.
So, this being a video game site (although we do have aspirations of covering some darts tech in future), there has to be a link to games in this article, right? Indeed. Let me take you on a little journey through some of the best darts games. These are the best, weirdest, and worst examples of the sport that gaming has to offer. You may be surprised at just how many modern games the oche-based sport has infiltrated. I hope that with this trip down darting memory lane you may get the urge to revisit some of these offerings, or even pick up a set of darts yourself. You know you want to. These are the best darts games… in games.
The best Darts games: The Simple Series
Let me first up take aim at a real obscure curio to start off my list of best darts games. The Simple Series is a wonderfully oddball franchise courtesy of legendary budget publisher D3, featuring a smorgasbord of eclectic videogames across a number of platforms, many of which never left Japan. Simple was the launchpad for the Earth Defence Force universe, one of my most beloved games dynasties of all time, and back in the PSX days, Volume 55 of the library was a darts simulator, named, quite simply, The Darts.
This one can be had reasonably cheap as an NTSC-J import, and features a number of rudimentary darting minigames, such as cricket or round the clock. It’s all held together by an easy to pick up aiming reticule control system that is a surprising amount of fun in execution. Where things get really interesting with The Darts, however, is a crazed RPG-tinged Story mode. Here, you play out a darting equivalent of the time honoured Double Dragon/Final Fight kidnapped lady scenario, with darts matches culminating in your opponents being set on fire. Yes, you read that right. Ah Japan… Now there been many great rivalries in the sport, but as fiery as the Taylor/Manley axis got, it never ended up with one of them combusting into flames. This one is wild, and is well worth checking out, no pun intended, and yes, it’s still one of best Darts games.
PDC World Championship Darts 2009
Moving on several years, there were some officially licensed PDC titles released in the late 2000s that are worth talking about when it comes to the best darts games. Surfing on the wave of popularity that the company were experiencing, in particular the legendary rivalry between “The Power” and BDO defector Raymond Van Barneveld, he of the miraculously regenerating hairline and background as a postman. Despite having the clout of Barry Hearn’s mob, these games are all fairly disappointing, with perhaps the best efforts coming on Nintendo consoles. The Wii version makes perfect sense given the motion capabilities of the controller, and the act of holding the Wiimote between finger and thumb is surprisingly effective.
PDC World Championship Darts 2009 has the characteristic lack of polish that many third party Wii games suffered from, but there are a tonne of licensed players and it is a typically hit and miss, but undeniably fun party game that fills a gap if you don’t have the ability to play on a real board. It got a bit of a kicking in some sectors, but the Nintendo DS version of the same game is one that I often return to. It has most of the content from its bigger console brothers, and an intuitive stylus-flicking throw mechanic which when combined with a handy on-screen power gauge, actually makes sense in execution. This one, and indeed all of the EA darts games, can be had for absolute peanuts these days, but it is the DS one that I am most likely to revisit, as it’s portability makes it one of the best Darts games out there still.
Darts of Fury
A relatively modern game of virtual darts which has a very similar control scheme to the DS game is Darts of Fury, an excellent and very generous free to play jobbie currently available on Android and iOS. There are paid elements to this one if you do wish to drop some dough, but the drip feed of unlockables is fair and well balanced, and the gameplay is satisfying and fun to play. Much like similar FTP sport title 8 Ball Pool, you can play people from across the globe, enter tournaments and play against friends, and the whole package is flashy looking and captures the modern day almost wrestling-like bombast of darts quite nicely.
Best darts games: Going Retro
Going further back in the sands of darting time, amidst a slew of licenced games in the 80s and early 1990s (Bully’s Sporting Darts, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson tie-ins), there were a couple of absolute gems, and like The Darts, they both came courtesy of legendary budget firms. 180 dropped for home micros in 1986 on the Mastertronic label, meaning that punters like me could pick it up for £1.99 in a local newsagent. Featuring a brilliant piece of cartoon artwork very much in keeping with the times, and a pub-based homage to the introductory sequence on Bullseye, 180 has your plucky generic Punch-Out style dart player taking on a very British sounding menagerie of opponents with names like Devious Dave and Beer Belly Bill. Jokes aside, the actual gameplay is beautiful. You control an actual hand floating across a dartboard, and have to harness it’s floaty momentum before releasing the dart. In execution this still works so damn well, and was one of my favourites on the C64.
Rivals Codemasters decided to foray into darting territory in 1991 with the similarly excellent Wacky Darts, and I remember having this one on the Amiga. The comedy factor is dialled up even further on this one, with a host who resembles a spiv being played by Bert from Sesame Street, and some characters whose names actually still make me laugh out loud – Jocky Pilsener, anyone? The gameplay is virtually identical to 180 with the same curiously active floating hand, but I am a sucker for this style of darting control scheme and as such would urge you to check both this, and 180 out.
Remember I said that darts can be found in a slew of more modern games?
Best Darts games: Deadly Premonition
And some bloody good ones too. One of the best darts games, but also the most obscure titles on offer happens to be one of my all-time favourite games, the wonderfully idiosyncratic Twin Peaks-on-acid fever dream that is SWERY’s Deadly Premonition. As well as it’s obsession with smoking, darts makes a memorable side hustle appearance here too, and like everything associated with Deadly Prem, this is no ordinary game of arrahs. Firstly, you can only play it using a gun, which is not something that I can ever see being sanctioned inside Ally Pally. And before you can fire your darts at the board, you have to maintain your balance, nerve and equilibrium by using one of the triggers to hold your breath. Bonkers.
Speaking of bonkers, Shenmue is famously laden with weird secret stuff to pass the time, and as well as being able to play classic SEGA arcade games-within-a-game, Yu Suzuki’s classic revenge-fantasy saga has a darting minigame, where you can earn rewards by playing against a selection of characters, one of whom has a none-more-70s-darts name: Barry Jones. Controls wise this one is straight out of the 180/Wacky Darts playbook, and is a good time in a game full of fun stuff to do, including the ubiquitous search for sailors.
GTA V, Persona, Final Fantasy
Role players and sprawling modern open-worlders are a rich hunting ground for quality videogame darts. GTA V, Persona 5 Royal and Final Fantasy VII Remake are some of the most beloved titles in recent memory, and feature very similar darting experiences, with traditional aiming reticule controls, and in-game rewards for successful play. GTA isn’t all about organised crime and killing prostitutes – you can get on the oche and earn some achievements and trophies doing so. Make Cloud Strife throw like Luke The Nuke and you can get your hands on some exclusive Materia, something that young Littler can only dream of.
Best Darts games: Yakuza
For me, though, there is only one game in the discussion for best darts games, overall, and that is Yakuza 6. The whole franchise is steeped in darts, indeed it can also be found in Like A Dragon, however 6 has not only the XP-earn-a-thon DARTSLIVE mode, but an entire sprawling sub-story dedicated to darts which culminates in a one-on-one with The Legend himself, Paul Lim. Lim became a household name for being the first player to hit a televised nine dart finish, and was back in the news recently with a sensational run to the final of the WDF World Championships, the “Singaporean Slinger” rolling back the years at the ripe old age of 71, and promising to come back next year for another crack at it. He is one of the most likeable characters in all of darts and still generates box office appeal so seeing him in the Yakuza-verse, in such a well-executed and satisfying approximation of the game, makes this my n role playing tungsten champion.
Perhaps the best standalone darts videogame I have played, however, has to be the immersive, responsive and extremely entertaining ForeVR Darts, which is available for your virtual reality headsets and is the closest you can get to flinging real darts without actually picking up a physical set. A tonne of modes, winsome cartoony atmosphere and all of the idiotic limb-swinging lack of self awareness that comes with donning the headgear, this shows just how far games have come since the primitive cassette offerings I adored as a kid.
There are of course countless other darts games that I could have nattered on about but I think I have just about scratched this itch for now, and it is nigh time I went back on the board myself for a chuck. I really hope that this waffling stream of consciousness inspires people to investigate this incredible, truly levelling sport that is accessible for all ages and has enriched my life for the better. It has brought me closer to my son, allowed me to meet a whole new circle of friends, and has developed my first obsession that has truly stuck and set in stone. But if you don’t fancy the real thing, I have given you ample opportunities to try the virtual version instead, so have fun doing so.
LET’S PLAY DARTS!
