MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch

"Even Stone Cold couldn't save this one... if he were in it."

Imagine that there was a game that allowed you to assume the role of a celebrity and allow him to beat the crap out of a celebrity you can't help but hate... keep dreaming, because imagination is free and probably has better design than today's offering.

Celebrity Deathmatch... what more needs be said? The MTV claymation series of celebrities beating the crap out of each other had attained a wide following and not surprisingly, a video game was made for it. In addition to having ports of the game to PS2 and X-Box, they also released the game on PS-One. Now, in a sense, it's similar to what Konami did when they released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters years ago, when versions of the game would appear on the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and even the NES during the last days of that system's life. But while Konami succeeded in getting a competently good game out of an aging system, Gotham Games simply dropped the ball on this one.

Now before I get any further, I should let people know that I haven't touched the PS2/X-Box versions and thus can't compare the two products. Suffice to say, judging from the majority of reviews that have already been posted for those versions, I probably won't have to.

STORY: Celebrities are angry. They fight. And because they can't find enough good celebrities, they toss in a werewolf and alien into the mix. I mean, what the hell? Has there been THAT MUCH of a drop in celebrities when the game was originally conceived? Were there not enough celebrities to fit into a game that you have to resort to adding in your generic stereotypical monsters? Why don't we throw in the announcers as well? 6/10

GRAPHICS: The clay models in the game are similar in respects to the models from the TV show, so in that respect, the game earns some points. But other than that, there isn't much to look at. If you absolutely hated the stiff movement of the clay models in the show, this will definitely NOT change your mind because it seems the movement of the characters somehow seem either stiff and choppy or smooth and slow. It's an anomaly at best. 4/10

GAMEPLAY: Downright abysmal. There isn't much substance to the gameplay and as such you are unable to recreate the crazy action of the TV show. Regretfully, the control is pretty awful. It's difficult to pull off any moves (which all look the same - I might spot a unique move or two) and I have never been able to pull off a fatality in this game. As I said, the selection of celebrities in this game is pretty weak, but instead of adding more prominent celebrities, they add in a werewolf and alien instead. And guess what? None of them play differently either. Big whoop. It's too bad that Mr. T had to grace his presence in this game, because it's totally wasted in a game like this. Then again, at least the game designers were smart enough to keep Stone Cold (who was a recurring character on the show during a time when he was the hottest thing in wrestling) away from this game? 2/10

SOUND: The sound is pretty sad. The music is god-awful. The voice acting isn't that great. And the commentary (or what little there is of it) is repetitive, although to be fair, most in-game commentary found in actual wrestling games tends to be boring once you've heard everything, so it's hard to knock points for that. But on the bright side, they have the Celebrity Deathmatch theme song in there and the horrendous sound is at least clear... doesn't make it good though. 3/10

REPLAY VALUE: Not worth agonizing about. I mean, it might fun to give it a couple minutes worth of your time just to see how terrible this game can get, but other than that, there's not much to it. Terrible. 5/10

CHALLENGE: The AI is either too cheap or too easy that you'll think you're playing in Training mode or something. There's no progressive difficulty either. It all seems random. 9/10

OVERALL
Aspire all you want; Celebrity Deathmatch is seemingly underwhelming as a PS2 or X-Box game, but is downright abysmal on the PS-One. For the love of Stone Cold, I have no idea whatsoever why this game was made nor do I have any idea what possessed me to buy this game. Don't make the same mistake I did; if you see this game, ignore it and move on. You'll thank me later. 1/10

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/08

Game Release: MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch (US, 10/21/03)