Published by Gotham Games
Developed by Big Ape Productions
Released: Out Now
Price: £29.99

It's probably doubtful that many deaf people would watch MTV but some of you might be familiar with the Celebrity Deathmatch feature that began on the channel in the late nineties. It featured clay characters, in the form of celebrities, that fought each other in a kind of anything goes battle that only finished when one had met a gruesome end. Well to cut a long story short what we have here is the aforementioned Celebrity Deathmatch bought to virtually all formats. This review looks at the PlayStation 2 version but I suspect all versions look and play the same.

Gameplay is as simple as it gets. You have a choice of Deathmatch or Episode mode. Deathmatch is a one off fight whereas the Episode mode is a series of fights where characters and fight areanas can be unlocked. Unlocking all the game has to offer will take no more than two hours. You can play with a number celebrities such as Mr. T, Jerry Springer, Anna Nicole Smith, Ron Jeremy and various members of NSYNC. You can even create your own celebrity if you so desire.

The game is all about fights to the death and each of the characters have there various moves but the main problem is that the basic mechanics of the gameplay are very poor and it's possible to to bash the same buttons until your opponent is defeated. There is no skill involved and it's all very unsatisfying. When your opponent has finally bitten the dust you'll see a little showpiece move from your fighter and then it's all over. There is no challenge from the AI opponents and it's all a bit limp.

Graphically the game is poor and could have easily been done on the PSone or Nintendo 64. No effort at all has been made to make the game look like it's running on one of today's consoles. The characters are supposed to be clay characters but they just look downright terrible. The games presenters and various combat moves look quite good but little else does. None of the games surfaces appear to have any detailed textures which is inexcusable in this day and age.

When it comes to being suitable for deaf gamers Celebrity Deathmatch is about as unsuitable as you can get. There are no subtitles or text and it's even flatter than it should be for deaf gamers. The characters make comments whilst they are fighting but this is lost on deaf gamers. The only bright side here though is that the comments are actually irritating and very repetitive. Still it would have been good if the game presenters had been subtitled.

Celebrity Deathmatch is inadequate in every department. Graphically it's poor, in terms of gameplay it's poor and in terms of longevity it's abysmal. The game desperately needs better gameplay mechanics. The fact that the game doesn't provide any challenge and can be finished in under 2 hours is horrid, especially when you pay almost £30 for the priviledge. If you are interested then make sure you rent it first. It's not always easy to say which is the best game of the year but it's cinch as to what is the worst game of 2003 and that award has to go to Celebrity Deathmatch.

Overall Game Rating: 2.0/10
Not much to say here really. This one's a stinker.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Absolutely no provision at all for deaf gamers.