Def Jam: Fight for NY

"A very violent, addicitive game"

Def Jam Vendetta: Fight For New York is an Action Game made by EA Canada. In this game you can fight with and against many famous musical artists, many of them which are rappers.

Gameplay 9/10
In this game you have 5 different fighting styles: kick boxing, street fighting, martial art, wrestling and submission. On top of that, you can combine three fighting styles to make your fighter even stronger in Story Mode.

In the areas you fight in, there are many weapons to be found. Any of these weapons can KO you when you are in the danger zone of your life bar.

Furthermore, you can use the surrounding to your advantage, since you're fighting in an interactive environment. You can push your opponent in to the crowd, which results in the people holding him for you or pushing him back in the ring. Also you can KO your opponent by smashing him into pillars or walls if he is in the danger zone of his life.

You also have the ability to parry an opponents attack and to counter it immediately. Parrying becomes very important, when you're almost dead (danger zone) and you opponent comes rushing at you with a bottle.

In this game you can also team up with someone and fight against another team. This team match also is very enjoyable, since it ads a new gameplay element, which is the ability to fight two on two. When your partner is down you must try to fight against two others at the same time, which is very hard.

There also is a free for all mode, where for fighters fight until there's only one man left standing on the field. This is also very challenging, because everyone will try to KO the opponent who is in the danger zone, to get rid of some competition.

Story 8/10
The Story mode gives you the opportunity to create your own character. The creating your character is very detailed and you're most likely to make someone that looks very much like you. You can only make a male character though.

The story starts off when you saved a guy, D-Mob, from the police. He brings you to his crib and introduces you to his crew. From here you will be given the chance to prove yourself worthy and fight for him and his crew.

It is basically about who has the most territory in the city and it's a fight between D-Mobs crew and Snoop Dogs crew. They are fighting for the city of New York, hence the name of the game "Def Jam Vendetta: Fight For New York".

Video 9/10
The graphics of this game are very nice. The characters are very detailed and the in-game characters look very much to their real life counterpart.

The areas you're fighting in also are very nice. When you are surrounded by a crowd of people, you will notice that they too are drawn very nicely.

You will really start to notice how nice this game is in the graphics section, if you have created a character that looks like you. If you have done it right you will immediately see similarities and you'll notice the graphical details in the characters face and body.

When someone grabs and kicks or punches you, it seems to really hurt you. They just grab your head and unleash three kicks on it, while giving a fourth kick on it when you're on the ground.

When you get beaten up pretty bad, you'll also see your character bleed and you'll see blood dripping on the floor. If you get punched while you're bleeding you'll also see blood being scattered around in the area.

Audio 8/10
The audio in this game also is great. The game tracks in the game mostly are from artists that also are playable in the game.

The playable characters mostly are rappers, so if you're not into rap-music, you'll probably don't like the audio in this game. Rap music however is something I do enjoy to listen.

Furthermore, when you're in an area, you actually here the crowd interact with the players. Like when you're being pushed in the crowd by Xzibit , Xzibit will yell "you help me out!" and then the crowd will say things like "Yo break his face" and then he will get beaten up by the crowd and thrown back on the ground.

Replayability 9/10
This game has many modes to play in. Every mode had something unique to offer, which results in a variety of matches to play in.

In a subway match, the main objective is to throw the opponent in front of the subway to get an instant KO. The same principles go for ring matches and window matches.

If you have for controllers and a multi-tap and of course three friends, you can play with four players at a time in a "tag team match battle" or in a "every man for it's own" battle.

Closing Comments
This game is very addictive and if you're in to fighting games or rap or things like that, then you should definitely check this out. If you're not sure if this game is worth your money, you could rent it if you got the ability to do so. This game however has so much to offer, that if you like either fighting games or rap, you won't be disappointed with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/05