Game on!

Darts duo: Wade and Taylor

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The best darts two players in the world right now might have found a new warm-up routine from the most unlikely of sources - a new computer game!

World number one Phil Taylor and number two James Wade were both astounded by the accuracy of the new PDC World Championship Darts 2009 game when they put it through its paces on the Nintendo WII in a special preview event in London.

Both players were taken by surprised at how realistic they new game was, and both could now even incorporate it into their practise routine or even their pre-game warm-ups.

The star duo also hope and believe more popularity in the world of computer games and such will help attract more players to the oche and keep the game going from strength to strength.

Ever the competitor, 14-time world champion Taylor was instantly hooked, and determined to become the best in the world on the virtual oche as well as in real life.

Addictive

"It's dead addictive, my kids have got no chance of getting a game!" Taylor told skysports.com as he battled Wade in virtual darts.

"It's a different challenge for me - on the board I'm in control of that but I'm not in control of this yet so I'm going to keep trying it."

And such is the reality of the game, it would hopefully help bring more players to the oche.

"It helps not put holes in the wall, especially for young kids!" Taylor added.

"My grandson would love this, he can't throw a real dart yet as he's only six. It's very close to the way you throw your dart. When you're a pro you know if you throw it too hard it goes above the treble and on this it goes exactly where it should go."

And would a computer game seriously be of use to the 14-time champion of the world and best player ever to grace the oche?

"I tell you it would help me, all joking apart," said Taylor. "About half an hour before I go on the practice board I could pratice with it a little bit to warm my shoulder up a bit, I might try that."

Wade wonder

And world number two Wade agrees and might even try out the game himself before a match.

"Why not? I've been playing on it for half an hour and it's warmed my shoulder up," said Wade. "It'll bring younger players in to it as well, you can play all different levels so hopefully it will attract more people to darts."

Wade will be taking a game home, after being surprised by just how alike it is to playing darts for real.

"It's fantastic, it's as close to real darts as you're ever going to get, it's unbeliebvably accurate which surprised me a lot.

"The game does react as it would if it was a real dart, if you push it it goes low if you snatch it it goes high, it really is accurate, it's quite frightening really.

"I'll be getting one without a doubt, it's a chance for my friends to have a game against me and have a realistic chance of winning maybe."

Keeping logging on to skysports.com for your chance to win a copy of PDC World Championship Darts 2009 in the next few weeks.

Phil Taylor was talking at a preview of PDC World Championship Darts 2009, released on 29th May 2009 on both Nintendo DS and Wii formats.