Def Jam Vendetta

"A truly great wrestling game."

I was at first hesistant when I was going to pick this game up, a wrestling game with rappers is not exactly something that too many people would be thrilled about. Even with this strange theme AKI with the support of EA Sports BIG has managed to crank out a very enjoyable wrestling game.

Features : 7/10

This is probably the worst aspect of the game. Considering how many different types of matches you expect to find in a wrestling game this game just doesn't deliver. No cage, ladder, or hardcore matches, there aren't even any weapons. There is no create-a-wrestler which can be a disappointment to some.

The single player story mode however is very enjoyable. You pick one of four no name fighters each with their strengths and weaknesses. Then you get to take your fighter through many battles with cash prizes awarded to you based on your performance, which can be used to increase your fighter's stats. In between there are plot segments which are suprisingly well done considering the genre.

Girlfriends are an interesting aspect of this too. At some points in the game you will have women come on to you. At first you will not have a girlfriend and you will automatically get hook up with the first chick that is into you. Along with your arm candy you also unlock a gallery with some tasteful pictures of a pretty hot chick. As you continue along the ladder to the top of the Def Jam world there will be other babes that approach you at which point you can either pick to stay with the old girlfriend or go with the new one. Once you pick which one you are more into the girls fight and you take control of the one you picked. If you pick to stick with the old girlfriend you will get more pictures of her added to the gallery and if you go with the new babe you unlock a whole new gallery with pictures of another hot chick. This might not seem like a big deal but it is a really fun break from your primary fighter.

Another cool aspect of the story mode are the occasional tag team matches when you and a computer controlled wrestler team up. You controller the legal wrestler that has been tagged in. Your tag partner will run in to help in a couple situations. One is if you are getting pinned or having a submition move done to you or if opponent's partner rushes in. These matches need to be played differently since it is much more difficult to pin someone when you know their buddy is going to run in and mess things up. Overall a very fun and rewarding story mode.

The other single player mode is survival where you pick any wreslter you have unlocked and fight an endless stream of opponents for cash. This is also a fun mode since you get to play as the Def Jam rappers you have unlocked rather than the four nobodies that you play with in story mode.

This is a great multiplayer game, sure there are not the wide assortment of match types we have become accustomed to but the ones available are quite enjoyable. There are the standard 1 on 1, 2 on 2, and up to 4 player free for all. You will obviously need a multi-tap for 3 or 4 player fun. I played it yesterday with two friends that had never played wrestling games before and they loved it. Some of the wreslters that are unlocked late into the game are very powerful and can even out the playing field if one person is much more experienced than the other. One thing to take into consideration is that you need to pick a profile for each player when doing multiplayer and each profile needs to have all the characters unlock in order to play the game to its fullest.

Rounding out the feature list is a non-interactive 10 chapter tutorial that teaches the basics of the game. Not great, not bad, gets the job done, would have been better with some more instruction regarding the defensive system.

Gameplay : 10/10

What can I say this game is a blast to play. No comparison to the current next-generation wrestling games. Almost everything is flawless.

The striking system uses just one button for both punches and kicks. If you lightly tap the button you do a quick fast strike to you hit the button harder you will do a heavier strike. Holding the strike button and hitting the grapple button will make you do a strong fierce strike.

The grappling system is just as nice you hit the grapple button either lightly for a light grapply for harder for a heavy grapple then you hit a direction and either strike or grapple to perform a throw.

On the ground you have several options. You can pin them, put them into a submission move, hit 'em, jump at them from a turn buckle, or pick them up and inflict some more pain.

Your wrestler has two meters one is your popularity and the other is your stamina. As you get hit you lose stamina as you go without getting hurt your stamina increases to some extent. The popularity bar gets better when you beat people up, use a variety of moves and when you taunt by pressing the right analog stick in any direction. You lose popularity by getting beat up, using the same move over and over again or getting interrupted while you are in the process of taunting. Your popularity is also dependent on the charisma stat of your character, the more charisma you got the quicker the bar goes up.

To do a special move you need to max out your popularity bar, when it starts flashing you need to hit the right analog stick and your wreslter will go into ''Blazing'' mode. When this happens you can execute your characters special move. This is done by simply grappling your opponent and hitting the the right analog stick in any direction while in ''Blazing'' mode.

There are several ways to win a match. The most obvious is a pin, you pound your opponent until their stamina bar is very low and hit L1 when they are down. If you get a three count you win. One other method is a knock out, to do this you need to perform your special move when the opponent is VERY low on life. The last way is to make your opponent submit. To do this you will need to put your opponent into a submission move most of which are done when your opponent is down. You will need to concentrate on a single body part when you want someone to submit. When you start a submission move a meter appears with the name of the body part you are working on, this meter never goes back up. When it is all the way down the your opponent will submit and you will win the match. This is a great method to use on bosses that can take forever to beat through KO or pinning.

Graphics - 8/10

Very nice graphics for the PS2, not exactly a huge poly count, aliasing is visible and the fans are card board cut outs, but the game still manages to look really nice and crisp. The animations are very lifelike, there is some clipping seen when grappling and near the ropes.

Overall it has a very hi-res look that won't blow you away but works great for this game.

Sound - 8/10

Nice sound effects and voices are fantastic, but the in match music is disappointing. They just play the beat to a Def Jam song, I have no idea why they just didn't use the actual songs since they have them playing when you are going through the menus. It does have Pro Logic II support for those of us who have a decent home theater system.

Lasting appeal - 10/10

To be able to access all the wrestlers with all four players in a multiplayer game you will need to beat the story mode 16 times. At 5 hours everytime that is 80 hours of playtime, that is quite a bit for this type of game. The multiplayer is amazing fun, it is the number 1 requested game by friends that I hang out with. I have gone through a 20 minutes 4 player free-for-all seemingly with out blinking, lots of fun to be had.

Overall - 9/10

There is some more that could be improved a few more modes, or dare I say online play would have made this game phenominal, likely the best wrestling game ever made. At its current state it is the best next-generation console wrestling game. I have high expectations for a sequel. Here is the bottom line, if you hate rap enjoy wrestling buy this game, if you hate wrestling and love rap rent this game, if you like good games in general then buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/03, Updated 04/04/03