Given the abundance of video games about World War II, alien invasions and secretive paramilitary forces, it's surprising that there are so few about that other domain of armed and bloody conflict: the world of hip hop.
When Def Jam Vendetta landed on the PlayStation 2 in 2003, it proved that the chocolate-and-peanut-butter melding of a wrestling game and rappers could be a ton of good, surreal fun.
Its 2004 sequel, Def Jam: Fight for NY, was made even better by tweaking the fighting system, introducing a storyline and bringing in a slew of new hip hop artists and oddball celebrities.
Heck, you could even pit Henry Rollins against Carmen Electra, if that turned your crank. Kick him right in that tree-trunk neck, Carmen!
But it's always alarming when a game developer promises to immerse you in a "lifestyle", which is exactly what EA is attempting with Def Jam: Icon. Guys, all I want to do is watch Ludacris beat up Lil Jon. If I wanted a lifestyle, I'd get, you know, a life.
Def Jam: Icon casts you as an up-and-coming record producer who must claw his way to the top of a hip hop empire, primarily by beating the crap out of paparazzi, crooked cops and rival artists. I guess that's what they call the hands-on approach to doing business.
The game's signature tweak from previous iterations is the way it introduces music into the fisticuffs. Each of Def Jam: Icon's eight spectacularly detailed battlegrounds is littered with hazards that throb and explode to the beat of the background music, and by taking control of the track that's currently playing (via a slightly goofy scratching of invisible turntables), you can shift the balance in your brawler's favour.
Although Def Jam: Icon has introduced a host of other new \elements, including some rather pointless business simulation stuff, the game feels like it gave up more than it gained over Def Jam: Fight For NY. There are fewer rappers, fewer arenas, fewer game modes, no weapons and -- horror of horrors -- no female combatants.
While it's cool that you can fight to your own custom soundtrack by plugging in an iPod (a feature that's absent from the upcoming PS3 version), the environments don't seem to track the beat of the music as well when you're supplying your own tunes. Or maybe I should have picked something other than Enya.
The game looks like a million bucks worth of diamond-studded bling, boasting visuals that rival those of EA Chicago's own Fight Night Round 3. But while Icon is more of a straight-up brawler than a wrestling game, the controls tend to feel a little soft, something that will annoy fighting game purists and previous Def Jam fans alike.
There's no reward without risk -- just ask 50 Cent and his nine bullet holes -- but Def Jam: Icon fiddled a little too much with the formula, and takes itself a little too seriously. It's not a bad game, it just feels like a remix that lacks the punch of the original.
BOTTOM LINE : Fantastic visuals, a decent plot and an interesting music-based fighting system are hampered by some tacked-on non-features, iffy controls and a thinner roster of rappers. Bring back Lil Kim!
STEVE TILLEY'S CHEAT SHEET
GOING DOWN: Certain hazards in the game's environments are instantly fatal. For instance, do enough damage to the picture windows in the penthouse, and you can toss some poor sucker right through them. It's a cheap but effective way to end a fight.
BACK UP: Practise reversals -- blocking an opponent's attack and then countering with your own move -- if you want to get through the tough scraps toward the end of the game without having your sorry butt handed to you over and over.
SPOILER ALERT: The artists on your label will frequently e-mail you with requests for perks, bail money and so on. While they sound like spoiled kids, you might as well indulge them -- $10,000 here and $20,000 there is nothing compared the millions you'll make off their backs.
WHAM! Rating: |
7 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature 17+) |
Official Web Site: |
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