Def Jam: Fight For New York

Written by D'Marcus Beatty  on September 14, 2004

Final Glimpse: Don't Call It a ComebackЕ

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Def Jam: Fight for New York, the highly anticipated new fighting game by EA, is right around the corner, and we're taking one last preview look at the title before it ships. The sequel to the surprise hit Def Jam Vendetta, which made famous the unlikely combination of wrestling and rappers, Fight for New York is bigger in almost every way, increasing its number of fighters and fighting styles while introducing interactive environments and weapons into the formula.

This time around, instead of battling against D-Mob, your character, who now has a voice and personality, is fighting with D-Mob, helping him to take his territory back from the even more ruthless Crow, who is played by the ubiquitous Snoop Dogg. Your character will battle through the ranks, which now includes 40 guest appearances the stars of which include Redman, Bonecrusher, Slick Rick, and even oddly enough Kimora Lee Simmons, wife to Phat Farm mogul Russel Simmons. Of course, there are also a number of created characters to round out the numbers, taking the total number of fighters up to a staggering 90. On top of that, there is also the option to create and customize your own character, dressing him in a number of licensed name-brand duds, even giving him a haircut and jewelry. One thing that is cleverly done in Fight For New York's create a character mode is the fact that it takes place as a witness describes you to a police sketch artist, which is innovative as well as contextually correct.

The aforementioned fighting styles consist of martial arts, submission, wrestling, street fighting, and kickboxing. Each style has its own strengths and weaknesses that will have to be taken into account when battling against a different style. For instance, martial artists are swift but are lacking in power, while submission fighters have the ability to wear down individual body parts, but don't have to ability to string together combos. In addition to fighting, there are also interactive environments like a surrounding crowd of rowdy watchers that occasionally hand a combatant a weapon or grab and hold an unlucky fighter that gets too close. Besides obvious weapons such as bottles and bats, fighters can also slam opponents into objects in the area, such as slamming a foe into a pole or a speakerbox.

Controls are simple and fairly intuitive. One button controls punching, another kicks, another grapples, and the last button allows the character to run. One trigger button blocks, and the other is for strong attacks, which, when combined with either the punch, kick, or grapple button, makes that attack stronger but slower.

The graphics in this game are great, with recognizable character models for all of the guest celebrities, despite a slight bulking up in many cases. All of the characters are well detailed and animated, and the attacks are animated so well that players will find themselves wincing.

In a game by a record label, the soundtrack has to be good. Fight for New York has a very extensive soundtrack with appropriate titles for a fighting game. Tracks will include Redman's "Let's Get Dirty", LL's "Mama Said Knock You Out", and a number of other tracks that are fitting for the background of a fight. The voice acting also seems spot on, with the characters bringing just the right amount of emotion to their respective character.