A look inside the new Boom: Battle Bar in Atria Watford

Boom: Battle Bar opened its newest location in the Atria Watford shopping centre extension on January 28. It features a range of activities including darts, sports and of course axe throwing.

There is also a selection of food and drink, including a cocktail bar.

We were invited down to Boom: Battle Bar on Thursday to see how we would fare on the ‘battleground’.

Sports cage

First of all, we had a go inside the new sports cage where you can choose to either play tennis, cricket or baseball.

In the cage, there is a whiteboard which serves a ball to you and your goal is to hit the ball back at the board as hard as you can.

And there are multiple levels to choose from, ranging from amateur all the way to professional – the harder the difficulty the faster the ball is served to you.

Tennis was the easier sport to play, given there is a bigger surface area on the racket to hit the ball back and with practice we were able to work our way up to the hardest difficulty.

It’s certainly a fun activity and can even be great for those keen to practice their returns before a game.

Darts

After the sports cage we were moved onto the darts area, but it certainly wasn’t your average game of working your way down from 501.

Instead, there were four game modes to choose from, one of them being disco wall.

This is more like your normal darts game, where the goal is to hit the biggest scores possible to knock down your wall quicker than your opponents' – the first to zero wins.

Another game mode is Robin Hood, where the aim is to get as close to the bullseye as you can.

There are around six rounds and whoever scores the most points wins the game.

You can also play killer, where the idea is to try and invade your opponents' area of the board by getting as many darts into it as possible.

If you can hit those small areas highlighted, you are rewarded with more points.

Next up is halve it, where is a nutshell you have to hit the gold areas of the dart board to gain points. And as the name suggests, you lose coins if you hit outside it.

Whoever has the most coins at the end of the game wins.

Overall, the mixture of game modes make it a great way to stay entertained and is also good for any players to practice their aim.

Axe Throwing

Finally, we had a go at the axe throwing. You are put in a cage and the idea is to throw an axe as close as you can to the bullseye.

Whoever has the most points at the end of the session wins the game.

Before you compete you will be asked to sign a waiver and be given a tutorial on what to do.

Having never thrown an axe before, it's fair to say that at the start we struggled to get it on target, let alone actually getting it to stick.

But as the game went on we got to grips with it more, although for most of the session we struggled to get the axe to land on the board.

Nonetheless, it was a fun experience for us and was a nice way to round off the evening.

What else is there?

There are multiple activities you can play, such as beer pong, shuffleboard and pool.

Overall, you’ll find lots to do and Boom: Battle Bar and is a great place to head to with friends or family.

For more information, prices and bookings, click here.