I don't get rap. I never did. I don't like the sound. And I can't get excited about people talking over beats and melodic motifs, a musical endeavour that before the '80s would have been confined to a spoken word night at a Bohemian coffee bar in Greenwich Village.
I also can't comprehend the hip hop culture. I don't understand how when these artists talk so often about authenticity, “being real” and making it on their own, much of their music is about buying the most expensive clothes, cars, champagne and women after they hit it big as commercial artists by incorporating samples from songs that had previously charted. Somehow selling out is part of the image.
That's not to say that rockers aren't looking to make loads of money. It's just they don't usually sing about. Sure Billy Joel “played all kinds of palaces and laid all kinds of girls” but most rock music is feeling or issue-oriented. The sex, drugs and money part stays backstage. They didn't advertise their solid gold limousines. On the surface, at least, rock music is about bucking the system, not buying it.
In a sense, then I guess rap is more honest. But call me a commie, I don't personally care to listen to a song with such a blatant consumerist mentality about riding around in Bentleys, wearing designer labels and drinking Cristal, the sexual, violent, gun crime lyrics excluded.
A game about this lifestyle, however, I might give a chance. So here enters Electronic Arts' Def Jam: Icon. Basically, it's just a fighting game where rappers fight other rappers. You can pick from a number of rap stars, such as Ludacris, The Game and Ghostface Killah or you can create your own character. There's also a story mode where you start as a new record producer and make a name for yourself by signing new artists and releasing hits. And when I say make a name for yourself, I really mean, beat up people. You fight rival artists who are dissing you, paparazzi that are hassling your talent, or DJs who are planning on spinning cuts of songs that haven't been released yet. There are a few other things to do, such as deciding how much to spend to market singles, paying off the debts of your artists and girlfriend and buying new threads, but that's all secondary to the fighting.
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And it looks pretty good. The digital characters look close enough to their namesakes and the way the light glistens off them as they battle in the three-dimensional environments is impressive. I also found it funny that one of the arenas is the studio for 106th and Park, the BET talk show that seems to be on at least 16 hours of the network's daily broadcast as I remember from a former roommate who had his eyes glued to the set 24/7 with BET being his primary source of entertainment. (Of course at 3 in the morning, he would order porn on multiple channels, and stiff me on the bill for, but that's another story.)
I have to give credit that this game does two things which Tekken V: Dark Resurrection, which I recently reviewed, doesn't. One, it's one of the few fighting games I've played where you use the analog joystick to move around instead of the arrows. And two, it offers an online component where you can fight other players. A simple thing, but it's something that could make the gameplay so much better.
I say “could” because, in fact, it's pretty terrible. The movements are slow, the controls are awkward as you often have to use both joysticks and buttons at the same time, and the fighting itself looks lame. Sure, it has exploding backgrounds which you can trigger with DJ moves and I gained some enjoyment out of pounding the living daylights out of Lil Jon for all times he's said “What?”
But the game's moves primarily consist of punching and kicking. There's no burning feet, crazy sword work or killer dance moves. It's just a standard brawl. You can't even use weapons. I mean, what the Hell, what happened to the real East Side-West side rivalry, Biggie and Tupac weren't bitch-slapped to death.
There's also no energy levels for you or your opponent so it's hard to tell if you're winning. I guess it's supposed to be more realistic that way but in practice as your slow punches and kicks get blocked over and over, you just start to wonder when the bloody fight will be over so you can save it, turn off the machine and move on with your life.
Although, I appreciate the effort, Def Jam: Icon is not much of a fighting game. It's certainly no Tekken. And I think I'd probably take Karate Champ over it. Though I remember the controls on that one being pretty awkward as well.
WHAM! Rating: |
4 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature) |
Official Web Site: |
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