Def Jam Vendetta

"Def Jam Vendetta, a great wrestling/fighting title. Thanks to Aki."

Like most people when I first heard of Def Jam Vendetta, a game said to revolve around rappers in an underground wrestling ''club,'' I thought it would be very lame. I thought it was a bad idea in the works, and while I am still not too keen on the rappers being portrayed as underground wrestlers/fighters, I was very surprised by the final outcome. I mean over time my interest in the game began to grow solely because of Aki, the creators of the Nintendo 64 wrestling titles published by THq. ''Why?'' You may ask. Well, unless you've been living under a rock for quite sometime you should be familiar with the famed Aki engine, which many believe to be the best of them all. I believe this also. Now, another plus to me is that the game doesn't seem to focus on rap as much as I thought it would. I mean the rappers are there for their fans to enjoy, but they're just there for boss characters. Their music only really comes up in the menus, but even as a non-rap fan I still enjoyed them. I'm just glad they let the game stand on it's own feet without having to throw in the character modes lip synching to their music or something like that. Anyway, time for the real review.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

The high score is much deserved, believe it or not. The character models all look great, there were so many small details put into the characters to make each of them as individuals, each in their own way unique. The arenas look great as well, all accurately represent what an underground wrestling/fighting arena may look like. Not only that, but most if not all of the fans are in 3D, and to top it of even further each and everyone of them has their own unique look. No, carbon copied cardboard cut outs here. Now, another thing Aki is widely known for is their great animation. In Def Jam Vendetta this is no exception. Each and every move has been animated, or reanimated in some cases to look more seamless and devastating. I really didn't expect anything less, but what really caught my attention was the animation of the characters faces. Up until Def Jam Vendetta Aki has never had to animate any of the faces for their wrestling games, and no I'm not counting Rock's Eyebrow Raising from No Mercy. That was just a couple frames of the eyebrow moving, then it froze on the last animation in the raised position. Well, in Def Jam the faces are fully animated and their mouths make them look like they are actually saying the words they speak, whereas most games just have a mouth opening and closing to the audio. Their facial expression look really good, and I was surprised by that. The graphics overall are very well done.

CONTROL: 8/10

The control would be perfect if they hadn't stripped away a lot of the engine, such as the dragging of opponents while they are on the mat, or the ability to place them into a tree of woe position in the corner. As well as the removal of the ability to lift the opponent into a seated or hands and knees position on the mat. They must fall into that position before you can do moves from that position. Not a big deal though. However, they did speed up the gameplay greatly. Something many people seemed to dislike about the past Aki titles. They also added the ability to do rope moves when you are in a grapple and your back is close to the ropes. You can do the most obvious one, that Smackdown should have had but didn't, where you place the opponent's foot on the bottom rope then use the ropes to bounce off to land a sorta butt drop to their knee. Another thing noticeably different is the ability to do combos. Somehow they managed to make the striking combos like a full fledged fighting game's, where you'd use any of the four main buttons (Triangle, Square, X, and Circle) in succession to pull of various combos different to each fighter/wrestler. It's a bit stripped down compared to No Mercy, and VPW2. But I can live with that, it's obviously meant to be something more than just a wrestling game.

SOUND: 9/10

The sound is done very well in the game. The sound of the slams, striking attacks, and submissions have been made louder than Aki's previous wrestling games. Thus they sound more devastating, as well as the added sounds of bones cracking it gives the game more of an underground wrestling/fighting feel as I assume was the goal. Each character seems to have their own specific grunts, and groans. So it's not the same recycled grunts, and groans like it was in the previous Aki wrestling titles. Now, while some may not be rap fans and might still want to take a look at this game, I suggest doing so highly. You only really hear the rap music in the menus, but during the match their is no words. Just some of each's background theme looped continuously. The only problem with that is that most of the background music have pauses in between where it's supposed to loop, so it sounds a bit strange. That's only one problem, but I do have another. The four characters made for story mode are mutes. They do not speak at all, and it seems rather odd because every other character in the game speaks both in and out of story mode.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

The gameplay is great in terms of control, but the main problems are with the AI. It features an AI that can sometimes go from being too easy, then suddenly it'll seem to kick into hard in the same match. That sounds like it would be good for a challenge, but the computer can be very cheap with reversals. Sometimes you can be reversed constantly not allowing you to get off so much as one attack in a minute or so. Besides that the game seems to have the problem the past Aki games had in tag team matches. If your opponent wants to make a tag, you'd better be damn sure he's going to make that tag. You try to grab him/her while they are making their way to their corner, and they'll slap your hands away and knock you on your ass. Same goes for striking attacks. Now, here's where the gameplay goes downhill, tag matches and battle royals. The camera makes it look like you're watching from the nose bleed section, so it can make it very hard to see what you're doing. Especially while in the middle of the action. The camera angle for these modes suck, and I mean it sucks bad. It's far enough away as it is, but the further you and you opponents move away from one another the further the camera pulls back even though it's not necessary. Another problem is the inability to set the rules of matches, such as turning pins, KOs, submissions, or rope breaks off.

REPLAY VALUE: 9/10
FUN FACTOR: 10/10

What can I say? The game severely lacks in match types. As a matter of fact it only contains Single Match, Tag Match, and Battle Royal. The story mode is good, very good in my opinion minus the fact that you can only play as four of the forty plus roster. The only other problem is that it is much too short, and thus you could easily unlock everything in a single sitting. Some may like that, but I personally do not. It's still good though because you can get different girls who fight over you, and by fighting as the woman of your choice and winning you will be rewarded with pictures of the models that the characters are based off of. Now, while that seems like it wouldn't justify my 9/10 rating. I merely give it that because it's so fun to play. Seeing all the combos you can pull off, then watching all of the supped up specials, aptly titled ''Blazin' moves.'' It's very fun, and this is one of those games where every aspect helps keep it fun. The sound, the graphics/animations, control, etc. All help keep the game fun, and fresh bringing me to my fun factor rating.

OVERALL: 9/10

While, there is an obvious lack of match types, and modes in this game it does little to hamper it's fun factor or replay value. I am one of these people who feel any new age wrestling title should not be without a Create-A-Wrestler mode, but unlike most of them I can do without. So I will not rate the game lower because of the absence of this option, but I will not rate it a perfect ten out of ten because of some of the problems in it. The problems in it are over lookable seeing as this is the first in the Def Jam series, and it's engine was obviously changed a bit to suit a more fighting game feel. The main selling point is obviously going to be the Aki engine, but know this; there is much more to this game than just the Aki engine. The characters all look unique, and have their own specific maneuvers and taunts making them seem more individual. While some people might be put off by the Def Jam theme of the game, or the over the top moves that can be performed. I say give it a shot even if you don't think you'd like it. Hell, give it a shot if you think you'll hate it. You may be pleasantly surprised. Just don't go without at least giving this game a chance.

Now, above all else I would like to remind others that what is said in reviews are the opinions of the reviewers. Reviews are meant to either give you pros and cons of the games so that you yourself can accurately decide if it's worth your time. So please think for yourself, and do not just buy or ignore a game because it's reviewed good or bad. Buy or Rent the game to give it a chance, and so you can form your own opinions and decide if you like it or not.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I hope that I was helpful to you in some way.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/08/03, Updated 04/08/03