Def Jam Vendetta

"Def Jam takes on AKI and EA and we're the winners"

Def Jam Vendetta is the latest wrestling game to be developed by AKI, creators of the acclaimed ''WCW/nWo Revenge'' and ''No Mercy'' (amongst others) on N64. Taking their fantastic game engine that was last seen in those games, a EA Sports BIG twist has been added, making it bigger, faster, stronger.

The story is very basic, you chose one of four heroes, but the game takes the same path no matter your choice - you are a fighter who had to take early retirement because of a local crime boss called D-Mob. Now your friend Manny has money problems, and to help him out you step back into the ring, working your way up to the top to win money and to win back your girl, who is now with D-mob. There is also a survival mode and standard multiplayer options (one one one, tag and free-for-all), there's not many game modes and to make matters worse, you can't edit the moves. I would love to turn KO off and just go for it until someone gets pinned or submits.

If you've played the AKI games before, the first change you'll notice is the speed. This game is fast, dragging the game towards being more of a fighting game than a wrestling game. The buttons are as simple, with one strike and one grapple button which are both used in a variety of ways, all easy to understand. with these two buttons, its possible to do both weak and strong attacks (depending on how long the button is pressed). Using this method, each fighter has 20 front grapple moves and 4 rear. Thats not counting striking moves, running moves and moves on the ropes and turnbuckles. Add to that 2 special ''Blazin''' moves and you've got a hand-to-hand arsenal at your disposal. To add more depth to the gameplay, everything can be countered or blocked in some way with a press of a button, meaning that its a matter of learning what moves can be used against others and then getting the timing down. Its hard to explain, easy to learn and damned difficult to master.

As you fight, and inflict damage on your opponent your ''momentum'' meter rises and when it's filled it flashes and you can enter ''blazin''' mode, when in this mode grappling your opponent and tapping the right analogue stick will perform your special move. If your enemies health bar is low enough, this will KO them. Failing this, you can work on body parts, wearing them down until they can't stand the pain and submit (usually accompanied by a hideous cracking sound) or you can try and pin them for a 3 count. There's no DQ and no count-out, it really is last man standing.

Sonically, this game is good, but not amazing. There's a good amount of noises from the characters, from standard grunting and groaning to put-downs and other insults. Funkmaster Flex is on ''commentary'' although it is little more than the odd line shouted over the action. Accompanying this is a hip-hop soundtrack, with tracks from all the featuring Def Jam artists. The main problem with this is that during matches the music is limited to instrumental versions of the songs which tend to get very repetative. I think keeping the lyrics may have been a good idea, as hip-hop tracks tend to be looped samples, which don't make good intrumentals.

The graphics are pretty good, nothing special, but they look nice and colourful. The animation is good too and it all runs nice and smoothly with no slowdown. Powerful moves sometimes give you multi-angle replays which is a nice touch, especially when you've done your blazin' move. The Def Jam characters look like slightly cartoonish versions of themselves and the other original characters have plenty of personality to them, which is a blessing when you look at some other beat-em-ups. No real complaints here.

All in all, its a good enjoyable game, its got a fair few flaws but nothing amazingly serious. I would say however, if you're not a fan of wrestling or Def Jam you should try before you buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/03, Updated 05/30/03