Def Jam: Fight for NY

"The best combination in the world"

It has finally happened the combination of hip hop rap stars, real life hot girls, fighting, great graphics, and spectacular music and sound. To start off I am not a major fan of fighting games, but I do love rap. I hope this review doesn't bore you to much, if it does, nothing I can do about it. Def Jam's second release takes the original, and blows it out of the water.

All of the buttons flow perfectly together, it's just your job to use them right. I often found my self stuck because I was getting crushed by not blocking enough. But with buy able upgrades, being able to train your skills higher, and using weapons from the crowd, it made for a pleasureable experience. All of the characters have different fighting styles, and special combo moves. Def Jam makes you feel as if it is truly you against the world in some spots, and I thought that was awesome.

The further you get in the game, the more money and skill points you get. Money is spent just pimping out your character. You can buy him chains, ear rings, cloths, tattoes, new hair styles, anything that comes to mind. It went into a lot of detail, and the game shows it during matches. Skill points are spent either making your character stronger in a multiple choice of different areas, as in Speed or Strength, but you can also buy brand new finisher moves.

The story in Def Jam was amazing. It didn't fail to stop once. With so many surprises through out it, and right in the middle of the game a shock I didn't even see coming. I really thought this was a movie in a couple spots because it was such an interesting story. It starts as D-Mob, the leader of one of the local fighting gangs, is being arrested for charges of running illegal fights. So, the cops are driving, and driving, until suddenly, a black truck runs them over. Well, it just so turns out, you were driving that truck, and helps D-Mob out of his “situation” from then on, you're his right hand fighter, and must help take out the other local fighting gang run by Crow.

All the music is rap classics, how can it be bad? Some songs you may know, some songs you may not, I felt the choices to be a nice variety though. But all the punches and kicks can be heard perfectly. And all of the weapons sound awesome as they break across your opponent's skull. Everything flowed pretty much perfectly in this game. I never found anything wrong in voice animation or sound effects.

The characters were voiced all by big named rap stars like Snoop Dog, Ludacris, Xzbit, and dozens of other greats. Plus, your character be given five or six different voices for the entire game, and each one is different and sounds awesome. And the environments sound superb. When you break a pool stick on your opponent or smash someone's head through a jukebox, it all sounds scarily realistic and adds to the excitement and climactic state of the game.

The Graphics in this game were beautiful. Def Jams graphics don't exactly tie with games like Halo 2 and Half life 2, but they are all still just so wonderful it's scary. The people in this game were so detailed they looked almost real. To the shining of cars to moles on a fighter, these graphics are to die for. If you stop and really look at the cut screens you will see some of the best non real images ever. You can even customize your own player in every single way. If you want to make him fat make him fat, if you want a street voice give him a street voice, even if you want to walk around in nothing but an undershirt and tighty whites, go right on ahead its all yours

Def Jam:FFNY is one of the best games out right now, fighting or non-fighting. It looks simply amazing; you won't believe how in detail it goes. The music is all rap classics of Def Jam artist, and they all are great, plus characters and objects sound more real than a lot of other games. The story for FFNY is one of the most in detailed stories of video games I think, and has a major turning point in the game that makes it feel just like a movie. It is a must buy for gamers, and renting will just make you want it even more later.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/05, Updated 12/30/05