It's not really a retro review if the game came out last generation, is it? Ah well, let's roll with it. Deathrow is one of those games that...well...no one has ever heard of it. No press release, no commercial, no friend telling you how good or bad it is, nothing. I mention this game and people give me that WTF look. So if it's so unheard of, why the hell is amazon.com charging so much? Fuckers. Anyway, Deathrow is about the made up sport sometime in the future called Blitz, which is a cross of hockey, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and MMA, and it all works quite well depending on which mode you play on. The goal is to score as many points as possible by throwing a disc into the opponents goal. You're free to whoop your opponents ass as you see fit (i.e. all the fuckin time). If rules are on, you can't hit someone when they're down. Sounds like something you want to do, but remember the AI takes full advantage of that rule too. It is possible to beat up on some till they can't get up anymore, and when you take out the whole team, you've won no matter what the score is or how much time is left on the clock. There are 4 quarters, and between each quarter, you can manage players' health, assuming you have enough money for it.
Season mode is really all about beating every team all the way up to the top. Each team has different tactics. Some like to coordinate offensive schemes, some are very defensive, and some are just in it to beat the living shit out of you, and unless your team can match that aggression, you're gonna wish you had rules on. There are two views: one is the sports view and one is the action view. The sports view looks like the camera angle from most hockey video games with the camera hovering over the action. The action cam puts the camera right behind the player you're controlling. For some reason, the arena you play in depends on what view you're in. The sports view plays fine, and get a friend to join and you can some damn good games of Blitz going. This is probably the most fun I ever had playing a fake sport. Then there's the action cam. Tell me if this makes sense. Left stick moves and looks, right stick strafe left and right. Does that make sense? NO! The controls are fuckin horrendous! Okay, Okay, I understand it was 2002, and the whole left stick to move - right stick to look things wasn't that well known or implemented then...actually YES IT WAS! What the fuck were they thinking? Didn't they see that this shit didn't work? I have never played movement controls so bad in my life. Somehow, they brought out the best and worst in me all in one sitting. One minute it's a great game; the next it's a piece of shit. I say if you can find it for cheap, pick it up and stay on sports view.
NOTE: I was told there was a way to change the controls, but I couldn't figure out how to change the sticks. Apparently, some people have no problem with the controls which I believe is fuckin amazing. Those are some well-trained hands.
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