Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	9
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	9
PlasmaFactor:	9
Overall:	8.4

Def Jam Fight for NY Review
November 16, 2004 by Brian Callam

by Brian - November 16, 2004

If you played last year�s Def Jam Vendetta, you know that it more than just a gimmick to fight with your favorite (or not) rap superstars. It was actually a solid grappler. With its success, EA and AKI have brought us Def Jam: Fight for NY which ups the ante in all categories: More hip hop stars, more arenas, more music, more unlockables, and an �M� rating. But it is as good of a fighter as its predecessor?

That had to hurt...

Fight for NY plays very similar to Vendetta but there are a few significant differences. First of all, instead of the plain old grappling style of old, your fighter now gets his move set from the different fighting styles in the game which include kickboxing, wrestling, street fighting, submissions, and martial arts. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, moves in the martial arts set are very quick and acrobatic, but do significantly less damage than, say, street fighting. As you play through the story mode, you can learn up to three of the five styles in order to expand the variety of your moves.

Actual combat is nearly identical to Vendetta, though it seems a bit more fast paced. Your health bar has two overlapping bars to represent health and toughness, as well as a blaze bar beneath that. Your toughness determines how much punishment you can take and the health bar determines how much toughness you are able to recover. When your toughness gets really low you will be in danger, and only then can you be KOed. If you manage to last a little longer you can recover enough to get out of danger though, which allows for some pretty big upsets. Not just any move can knock an opponent out though. Only special moves, which you can use when your blaze bar reaches its maximum, weapons, such as bottles or pool cues, or environment moves, such as slamming your opponent head first into a jukebox will be able to knock them out, so finishing them off isn�t always that simple.

What really makes Fight for NY better than Vendetta though is that the story mode is a whole lot deeper this time around. It picks up where Vendetta left off. D-Mobb has been arrested and is being hauled downtown in a police car when out of nowhere a car slams into the drivers side flipping the police car over allowing D-Mobb to escape. It turns out you were the one driving the car, and this sets you up for picking or creating your character. Back at the police station, the officer driving the car can either pick you out of a line-up (pre-made characters) or you can describe what he looked like to the sketch artist and make your own. The customization is extremely detailed, and once you get in the game you can customize even more as you unlock new clothes, new bling, new tattoos, and new haircuts while fighting your way through the clubs of NY. After you have your character all ready you will begin fighting. Each victory gets you more development points which you use at the Gym to buy new blazin� moves, styles, and increase your stats (strength, speed, etc...), and money which is used to buy new duds. The main plot pits D-Mobb�s gang against his rival Crow�s (played by Snoop Dog) in a battle for dominance of NY�s fight clubs, and it is surprisingly interesting and intense, although the ending is anti-climatic.

Then of course there is the regular old exhibition mode where you can play against your friends in a variety of modes which require you to do different things to win the match. For example, in order to KO an opponent in the subway fight, you have to throw them in front of the train. Multiplayer is pretty much par for the course for this game.

Bling Bling

Graphically, Fight for NY doesn�t disappoint. It looks a lot smoother than Vendetta, and utilizes the PS2's power well. The characters look amazingly similar to their real-life counterparts as well, and even the generic characters look great. The cut scenes are also very pretty, and wonderfully directed. Although its not the best looking game on the PS2, its up there.

Now That�s Old School

The main attraction as far as the sound goes is the variety of old and new school hip hop tracks that are found in the game�s soundtrack. Songs like LL Cool J�s �Momma Said Knock You Out� are perfect for a game like this. During fights you will only hear the instrumental versions of each, though the menus have full tracks. Unfortunately, being a huge hip hop fan, I was kind of disappointed with some of the choices for newer songs included in the game.

Voice acting in Fight for NY is also surprisingly good. Although most of the rappers only have two or three lines, the ones actually involved in the story such as Snoop Dog, Redman, Method Man, and Busta Rhymes all do a fantastic job at portraying their characters the way they should appear.

 

Completists Beware

As far as other things that stand out about Fight for NY, there are a ton of things to unlock in the game. There are about forty hip-hop stars in the game like Ice-T, Red Man, Ludacris, Joe Budden, WC, Fat Joe... I could go on and on. On top of that there are plenty of other fictional fighters in the game to choose from as well. You will unlock dozens of stages and game modes, as well as hundreds of new clothing items, chains, watches, rings, hair styles, tattoos, and songs in the game. If you are a completist, you will be spending a lot of time unlocking all of these items.

 

If you liked Vendetta, you will like this.

If you didn�t like the previous game, don�t bother with this one as it doesn�t deviate enough from the previous game to give it another chance, as its main gameplay is essentially the same. However, on the flipside, if you thought Vendetta was good, you will definitely have a lot of fun with Fight for NY. It continues the story from the original, and it has a lot more content this time around. This is definitely a worthy sequel to a good fighting game.