Def Jam Fight for NY

Def Jam Fight for NY is one of the coolest fighting games to come around in a long time. Don’t let the fact that this is a hip-hop and rap themed game drive you away. Fight for NY is an extremely solid fighting game that anyone, not just hip-hop fans, will enjoy. This isn’t a WWE game in hip-hop clothing like last year’s Def Jam Vendetta, either. This is a pure street fighting game that is brutal and raw and wonderful.

Rap Music for the Masses

Fight for NY has surprised me more than any other game in recent memory. I am not a fan of hip-hop or rap music, but I am a fan of some of the artists themselves. Xzibit, Snoop Dog, Ice-T, Ludacris and more are in the game and I am a big fan of their projects away from the recording studio. What makes Fight for NY really stand out is the fact that even though the soundtrack consists of rap and hip-hop, the songs were carefully selected so as to appeal to everyone. The whole hip-hop, bling bling theme is carried off with a great style where you know it is there, but it isn’t in the way. This game was carefully crafted so that more than just hip-hop fans will enjoy it. I urge you to check it out even if you aren’t a fan of the music. The fighting is extremely well put together and the theme is presented in such a way that it doesn’t scare you away but instead really welcomes you into the world of rap and hip-hop with open arms. This is too good of a game to let your musical preference stand in the way, so I hope you’ll take my advice and give it a chance.

Like Fight Club but With More Fighting

Beneath all of the flash is a foundation of solid fighting. You have buttons for kicks, punches, and grapples and there are strong and weak variations of each. Depending on the position of your opponent, different moves will be executed. The control scheme seems simple, but you have a lot of moves at your disposal at any given time. The game moves very quickly and the action is very frantic and fun. All of the strikes and grapples and other moves are also very brutal and are usually accompanied with some nice blood spatter. When you deal out a lot of damage, a meter fills up and when it is full you can perform a Blazin’ move. These moves are your finishers and are usually enough for you to get a KO victory. There are a ton of different moves you can assign as your finishers and they are all the most brutal, violent things you can think of. Stomping an opponent’s face into the ground or swinging them by their feet into a wall are just a couple of vicious moves you can perform. The fighting is very satisfying in Fight for NY and the gameplay is extremely solid all around.

Environmental Hazards

What helps make the matches just a bit more exciting is that you can use the environments to your advantage. You can smash your opponent into walls or tables or anything else in the area and these attacks deal out tremendous damage. If you are fighting in a wrestling ring or one of the other areas that are boxed in, you can climb up in the corner and launch an aerial attack. The crowd surrounding the fight also play a big role. They will hand you weapons and try to help you out if they like you or start beating you up themselves if you aren’t so popular. You can throw your opponent into the crowd and they will hold him so you can perform special grapples and other attacks. There are subway matches that take place in a subway station and the object is to try and throw your opponent in front of the train as it passes by. Another match type takes place in the parking lot and you can throw your opponent into their vehicle and do a ton of damage to their pride, their body, and their ride. Being able to use the environments adds that little extra something that most other fighting games don’t have and is a big part of the reason why Fight for NY is so satisfying and fun.

Story Mode

The majority of the time you will spend with Fight for NY will be in the story mode. In story mode you play the role of a mysterious fighter who comes to the aid of the king of the underground D-Mob and you are then thrust into the middle of a gang battle for control of the underground fight scene in New York. It takes about 8 or 9 hours to play through the story mode, and in that time you’ll hook up with a couple of different girlfriends, win a new car, and get into a couple of hundred fights. The story only follows one path and you have to win to move forward and if you don’t win you just keep replaying that fight until you do. It would have been awesome if different results let do different storylines or if you were given a choice as to whether you wanted to stay with D-Mob or turn on him and join up with Crow (Snoop Dog). You can’t, though, which is kind of frustrating because there are a lot of times in the storyline when I expected to be offered a choice but it never came. Overall, though, the story that you do see is rather interesting and worth the time to play through the story mode.