Raise a Pint to Darts for the iPhone

After a long day of work, I lay down in bed last night and cracked open the ‘ol iPhone. Wanting to spend a few minutes playing a game before I called it a night, I opened up the App Store and perused the Top 25 Free Apps. At #2 on the list at the time was Darts from Brian Hammond. ‘Darts’ I thought… ‘I love darts!… I even have the official Unicorn Eclipse Pro dartboard in my basement!’ (that doesn’t mean I’m good, cause I’m not!).

With that, I went ahead and downloaded this fun little game.

When you open up Darts, you’ll be presented with 3 menu options. First, you can practice to get a feel for how to play the game… Second, you can play against a computer opponent… and Third, you can click the Help option for more info on rules of the game and how to play.

To start, make sure you open up the practice area where you’ll be presented with instructions on how to throw your darts. It’s really very simple. Move your target over the area you want to hit, and then flick your finger up across at least half of the screen to toss the dart. You’ll notice that the faster or slower that you flick will affect the darts height, and the distance and direction of your flick will alter the path of the dart as well. Practice till you’re nailing a bunch of ‘treble 20′s’.

When you’re happy with how you’re throwing go on and try a game against the computer. You can choose from two game types, X01 or Cricket, and you can set the difficulty of the computer opponent from beginner, to intermediate, to master. I would like to see a tougher opponent or skill setting added though, as I somehow managed to beat the master level on my third go round at the game.

Gameplay is simple and fun… and the animation and quality of the graphics is actually quite good. The dartboard looks real, and the physics or the game looks dead on.

One thing I would kill to see in this game (and many other games for that matter) is multiplayer over the internet. I couldn’t see gameplay being too data intensive that you’d encounter many lags or delays… Darts could be a perfect candidate for internet multiplayer gameplay. Just my two cents.

You can get Darts for FREE at the App Store, (iTunes link alert) or for more information visit the official site at dartsapp.com.