Def Jam: Fight for NY

"A gimmick? Or a true Brawling/Wrestling game?"

I played Def Jam: Vendetta, and I thought it was all right. Nothing great, though. The story mode was pretty good, but for some reason, I just didn't care for the game. The ring got old, the story got old, and even the characters got old.

So what happens when I discover that he newest Def Jam wrestling game is coming out? First, I'm not a big wrestling fan; never really was, and I probably won't be. Also, while I like the rappers in the game, I looked at it as another gimmick to sell the Def Jam title. So, I reluctantly rented this game one day. Boy was I wrong.

First off, the graphics are great. Not as good as the XBox version (which I've also played), but nonetheless very good. The animation is excellent, everything's fluid. All of the techniques are brutal, and each character has their own finishing move (my favorite being Method Man's finisher).

The music is, of course, great, as it takes songs from Hip Hop and Rap artists and puts the clips of their music into the different fights. Of course, you can listen to the entire track of various songs using the soundtest mode (or whatever they called it), as well as throughout exploration mode. I'll admit; they choose some pretty good music for this title.

So how's the gameplay? Let's put it like this; it's one of the best brawlers/wrestlers I've ever played. It's easy to control, and you can pull off difficult moves early in the game. Sure, your customized character starts off very limited, but if you stay with it, increase your stats and learn finishers, your character will be a powerhouse in no time.

And then there's the story mode. This is an excellent story for a wrestling/brawling game. The story, in one word, is "immersive". You customize your fighter from the very beginning; the choices, at first, appear limited (the keyword is "appear"), but as you get into the main game and hit the shop, you're character will look unique; and awesome. There's a great character customization system. Also, and this is something I've never seen in a game like this before, the option to change the voice of your main character. Sure, it's been in other wrestling titles, but this is different; you actually use this character and his voice throughout all of the game. Each of the voices are unique, and can a range of a category of any character you create. And the voice acting is well done.

The story's dramatic, and takes a good couple of twists. One of the most amazing things about this story mode would be that you create your own character and use him to discover this story, not another wrestler. For example, you won't be fighting AS Method Man, but you'll be fighting WITH Method Man (team-deathmatch, tag-match, etc.).

The replay value isn't the highest, because the story is rather linear. There are some extras after finishing the story line, giving you another chance to earn some more points and to max out your character. The amazing thing about the character creation system? When you finish the story mode, your character actually WILL be as good as Ludacris; you'll actually want to choose your character in a match. That's how good this game's custom character system is.

The reason why the game didn't get a 10 out of 10, would be because of it's crutch, which is the fight clubs. Sure, they're fun, and fighting a ton of characters in various styles and various locations is nice, but the story progresses in the formula of "Fight all characters in X amount of clubs to continue." Thus, it gets a bit tedious if you're constantly jumping from one club to the next, fighting all of the characters just to continue. Luckily enough there's a wide variety of characters, but some will get recycled. For example, I have no clue how, if you know one guy off of a building in one fight and kill him, how he'll come back again to fight you later. Still, it's a fun game.

So should you buy it or rent it? It's a tough choice. It's a short game, and can easily be beaten in a couple of days. Then again, it's a great game. I'd purchase it if you had some friends who enjoyed playing it and challenging your characters with theirs. But like I said, if you only play games Single Player, then it's a very short game. Then again, the character creation system is so good that it'll keep you coming back another time just to create another great character who has 1) a different appearance, 2) a different voice, 3) various fighting moves, and 4) a combination of 3 out of 5 different fighting styles.

I definitely recommend this game. It'll keep you busy for a short while, but it's still fun. The fighting is great, the handling and brawling is some of the best I've every played. The environment can be used to your advantage (smashing a guy's head into a wall three times in a row never gets old). What more could you ask for? Well, maybe 50-cent, but that's for another story.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/06