"You want to hate it... But you can't."

Def Jam: Fight For NY: The Takeover, in addition to having a ridiculously long title, is also based on a ridiculously lousy idea. The game is a hybrid fighting-wrestling game in which rappers do battle with one another. It sounds horrible, and that was my justification for not playing this game when it debuted on the PS2. However, with the launch of the PSP version I again began to hear talks of it, and how good the fighting was. So, preparing for the worst, I decided to play the game. And though it almost pains me to say it... it's great.

The story mode of the game starts you off as some random guy on the street, who needs to earn some money by fighting. You can customize the look of your fighter with some basic designs at the beginning, and as you go through story mode you can pick from a large selection of clothes, jewelry, hair cuts, and tattoos. As you go through the mode, you'll eventually find yourself liking the way the character looks, even if it didn't originally start out that way. As for how the story progresses... Well, it's passable -- barely. You won't really care about the story, but it's enough to keep you interested, despite most of the ridiculous dialog spoken being atrocious.

The game can't be sounding too appealing so far, but the gameplay is all quality content. Fights are amazing. See, when you begin you'll choose from one of the five fighting styles that the game has to offer: Kickboxing, Wrestling, Martial Arts, Submission or Street Fighting. All of these styles have completely different move sets and abilities. However you'll be taking your styles up a few notches as you go along. You'll be able to learn two more styles, or double (or even triple) up on one style to learn more moves in it. This works out real well in allowing you to finish fights your way. If you're good with wrestling, you'll be busting out brainbusters, suplexes, and powerbombs. If you're a submission fighter you'll be choking people out, or wrenching their ankles trying to make them tap out. The fights are brutal and enjoyable no matter which style you pick; and if you are able to fill your "Blazin'" meter, you'll be able to perform some completely outrageous, yet enjoyable finishing moves. These often include impossible flips and spins through the air, or the tossing of your opponent through the air as if they were a tennis ball. I love it.

Tied into the fighting mechanics closely, are the arenas. Many of them have direct impacts on the fights. For example, in several stages you'll be surrounded by cage. You'll be able to scrape your opponent's face across it. Another stage has breakable stereo systems. Further still, crowds of people exist in many of the stages. These people are downright bloodthirsty; not only will they hand weapons to you, they'll actively hold back a fighter that gets thrown into them, allowing the other to land a devastating blow. All of the arenas you'll be fighting in have different feels, but they all look fantastic. In fact it's surprising how good the environments look, when the games characters look just as good.

Unfortunately, the audio doesn't match the visual -- or the gameplay. Actually, it can't even stand up to the story and dialog, and that's kind of sad. The music in the game is absolute garbage; It's awful. Truthfully, you'd have to expect that from this game, but it's still upsetting. It's no secret that sound in a game really improves the experience -- and the sounds of bones being broken in this game certainly help to do that -- but it's damn near impossible to enjoy this with the volume on. It's unfortunate that they didn't allow for the use of custom soundtracks, because the game really would have benefited from that. As it stands, you'll probably want to have your iPod at hand while playing.

Despite the shortcomings in the game, which can only be be blamed on the lifestyle the game was based on, the game is definitely a recommended purchase. There are a large amount of famous rappers in the game, for fans of the genre to play as. For the rest of us, there's a large roster of famous rappers in the game for us to force to tap out. Regardless of which side of that you intend to be on, you should pick up the game. Break some ankles, bust some faces, and kick some ass. This game may be good in a guilty pleasure kind of way, but there's no denying that it is indeed good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/07