Reviews

Now as a darts player and fan myself, I always enjoy playing a darts game...180 was a game I had as a kid and is what probably introduced me to darts in the first place. And I had great fun doing so too.

The throwing mechanism is quite simple...maybe too simple as I (and possibly you too) was able to throw my darts at a rhythm which meant I could practically hit a 180 every time...even with my eyes closed. The music is jolly and stands out well during the game when your computer opponent is throwing his darts...credited to David Whittaker I believe it's actually the work of Jas C. Brooke...oh well.

Apart from the simpleness of the game which can spoil its charm from time to time it's definatly one of the best darts games out there, many in fact claim it to be THE best darts game on the Spectrum...and they have a good case with that.

1986 Mastertronic M.A.D.(UK)
by Ste Pickford, David Whittaker and Jeremy Nelson

The best darts game I ever played on the ZX Spectrum.
The graphics are superb, great animation, great control, simple to get into but very challenging.
And this is by far one of my most loved speccy games, not so much by its memories but for the game itself.
Who thinks the game is repetitive is totally wrong or is a hell of a player, on the other hand, real dart games are also a tad repetitive, that's the nature of the game, well, at least until someone suffers a punctured eye!

I suscribe everything The Dean of Games said about this superb and challenging darts game.

Still I don´t give it a 5 becuase, imho, the graphics could have been better.

This has always been a favourite of mine and still today I enjoy playing it. I agree with those who say this is the best darts game on the Spectrum, in fact I can't think of a darts game on any system that tops this.

The game allows you to play with two players or the computer, before all this you may choose to tune up your darts and your accuracy with a game of Round the Clock, go around the dartboard in descending order (20, 19, 18 and all the way to 1), which can be a good time filler but most of the time you will just want to play the game itself. Here the normal darts rules apply, start on 501 points and reduce your score to 0 while finishing on a double, first to two legs is the winner.

The throwing is very good and fairly accurate, it can get very easy with time if you keep to a rhythm but otherwise it's still great. The board itself is accurate and I always liked it because growing up I had a dartboard which was coloured yellow and black, the same as in the game, so I always felt like it was my board. A really great feature is the 180 speech when you hit a 180.

In normal one-player mode you face three players in a quarter-final, semi-final and then the final itself, the players you normally face are Del Boy Desmond and Devious Dave while you always face Jammy Jim in the final. To beat Jammy Jim you need to hit a nine-dart leg before he does, if not you just have to hope he misses, he sometimes does but it's rare. Luckily you only have to win one leg against Jim, even at 1-1, you will win, not sure if this was intended or a glitch but that's the way it works. When it's their turn you get to see them throwing which is another nice feature, although they all look the same apart from their face. The bar background looks really nice and on occassion a dog appears and does a little wee after the computer's throw, I always used to think he did some kind of karate kick, thus I used to see him as a ninja puppy!

180 is just great fun, I have always enjoyed playing this game.

A lot of people say this is the best darts game on the Speccy, and you know they are probably correct. Unlike Wacky Darts which I had years ago where the throwing at times seemed a little wonky and unpredictable, here it's much much simpler and thus is makes a more enjoyable game. Wacky Darts looked better, but this plays more favourable for novice fans like me. I'm not big on darts but I liked Wacky Darts and I would have loved this game if I bought it years ago.