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Touch Darts (DS)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Tuesday 1 December, 2020  //  I stopped playing this game on: Friday 11 December, 2020
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

December 11, 2020 06:23:54 PM
I now know the (basic) rules of darts. I didn't before, and I have this game to thank - which is kind of strange/bizarre.

I've been thinking about this, in fact I thought I had gamelogged about it. So, it's a peculiar game design challenge to take into consideration when your game is based on a real-world sport/game such that players might already know the rules or NOT. I'm usually in the "not" category, so it's interesting to see how easy or hard it is to learn how to play a game when the game's tutorial (if any) is primarily focused on teaching you how to interact with the game (learn the UI, etc.) rather than in how the game itself is played. So, imagine a DS version of Chess that doesn't teach you the rules (or have a way to let you do that) - but only explains how to tap and move pieces on the board (or whatever the UI is). I think it would be easy to learn to move the pieces and how different ones have different possibilities - but really hard to learn what the goal/objective is, and SUPER hard to learn to play chess better.

Now, the same applies at a much higher level with sports - I think you kind of need to know how American football works if you want to play Madden. I think. Never tried, to be honest.

Anyways, all of this to say that I really appreciated that this darts games explained the rules of darts (the scoring and goal). Now all those dart boards with numbers all over the place make sense. For my own records: You play darts by counting backwards from an initial score. First player to zero out wins. Landing a dart in the outer little area for a given number is x2 the score, the inner one is x3. Bullseye is 50 outer bullseye is 25. When you play you have 3 darts per turn, then your opponent goes. If you zero out, you win (don't need to use all the darts) BUT your last dart must land on a x2 spot on the board - by the time you get there it'll probably be the one for one of the lower numbers.

Darts is surprisingly mathy - you can win early if you've realized three different shots that add up to your current pt total with the last (3rd) shot on a x2 spot. This DS game has a little calculator that tells you a possible winning shot (if there is one) which I used all the time.

I decided to not continue playing mostly because after winning 2 of the leagues (there are a few more), well - I just got a bit tired. Also, my strategy seemed a bit boring - basically try to get the most amount of points possible such that I have more attempts at zeroing out. As I advanced up the leagues my aiming skills started to make this strategy less effective.

I wonder if it's possible to get into a position where you cannot zero out?
(you have 1 pt - what can you hit on the board?)


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria