Darts Up is yet another one of the numerous budget titles on the Wii U eShop right now, which certainly isn't a bad thing. There are still ones you have to look out for, though. Will this be one that you try your hand or, you will it miss the target completely?
    Darts Up is essentially a slightly refined minigame, and this is where its problems start. To be fair, EnjoyUp Games did try to flesh out the game more, but there's undoubtedly more they could have done. There are 4 different modes that you can play as, but there really aren't many differences apparent between them. You're still using the same dart board, the same darts, and the game still functions the same for the most part. Classic mode has you trying to get as many points as possible in however many rounds you set and you can try to beat your friends with a multiplayer mode. X101 Mode has you trying to get a specific score, and yet again you can change some of the rules but there's still not much depth, it's still the same mode. It's not really like you're dramatically changing the rules of that game. Combo Mode is pretty much the same thing as Classic Mode, but this time you're trying to get certain combinations of point values to get bonuses. Arcade Mode is the only mode that we found ourselves playing much at all for the simple reason that is there's an online leaderboard for this mode, and this mode only. In Arcade Mode, you can try to beat a certain score with a limited number of darts, and after all your darts have been thrown, you progress to the next "level," which is just a repeat of the last "level" but with a higher score to beat.
    Playing is incredibly simple. You must use your GamePad's touchscreen to navigate the menu, but you point using the help of the Wii U GamePad and shoot by pulling back the control stick. That's all there is too it.
    Perhaps the game would be slightly better if the way the game worked was a bit more sensible. For example, every time you shoot a new dart, the Wii U GamePad recalibrates so that you're pointing to the center of the dartboard. It was very quickly that we figured out you could just set down your GamePad on the ground or some other surface, pull back and release the control stick, and get a bullseye every single time. Well, almost every single time; if you hit one of the darts that's already been thrown, it'll bounce off and to the ground. There's really no rhyme or reason to when this'll happen if you're aiming at approximately the same place, so you'll just have to be lucky to get more points.
    There isn't really any music in the game, there are a few short tracks but a better term to describe these tunes are "background music." There are sound effects, though (that don't add to anything whatsoever). The fact that you can point where you're shooting means you can look around and behind you, if you want, and you can see the poor graphics of the arcade around you. The game possibly could've been better if you could choose one of the Miis saved to your Wii U, but the only avatars you can pick (that actually serve no purpose unless you're playing with a friend and even then it's only for telling who's winning and whose turn it is) are ones predesigned for the game, which look essentially look like poor graphical quality Miis. Even some of the small things in the game could have a higher quality, like the fact that if you hit a bullseye, the screen displays the words "BULL EYE." There's an automatic replay function in the game which might be okay in some games but makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in a darts minigame. The only thing that really helps the game at all is its online leaderboards, which show you the NNIDs of the people with the top 8 scores and what place you are. There is off-screen play, but even that won't prompt you to play very much longer.


    In less than an hour, you'll probably be done playing Darts Up. It has little to no replay value once you've tried out all the modes, and there are many other multiplayer games on the eShop to pick from, if that's what you're looking for. It's not even really all that entertaining the first time through. While a budget titles minigame may be a sound concept, it needs fleshing out and something that'll keep it fun for at least a little but, but unfortunately, Darts Up does neither. This is one budget title you should probably keep away from, even if it has a low price of $2.49.


Review copy provided by Enjoyup Games.