First off, no online play. There may be a few of you out there that think this is an issue and some of you may think it shouldn't have to be in it. My rebuttal to that is...it should have been experimented with. When this came out in 2004, Xbox Live was out in full swing. Halo 2 had it, Timesplitters had it, and even a few other games had this functionality. So typically, it was the hottest thing out then (it kinda still is today but in a different way). This would've made for a killer online fighter and it probably would've been a well known name like Halo. Sadly enough, it was never implemented.
On the other hand, fighting games did have a track record of having shotty framerates
when it did go online, and as we all know, fighting games require quick button presses and pin-point reactions for counters and grabs to take place. This may have been the reason why it was never put in the final product. One game that can be an example of this problem can be an old Dreamcast game, Power Stone.
This was one of the first party games to ever support online play, but many complained that the offline speed didn't match up online. This was an issue many gamers had to suffer through when this came out. So, it's understandable why Def Jam didn't incorporate such a mode. Great idea, but suseptible to more shortcomings.
Another problem is something sort of personal. Def Jam came out on all three of the major systems and I owned it on the PS2. Now, if this game has a 4-player mode in it, WHY THE FLYING F*CK IS IT ON THAT SYSTEM?!?! Let's take this in to context real quick. The original Xbox had 4 controller slots and the Gamecube supported it as well. The only one that DIDN'T have it was on the Playstation 2, with its special 2 CONTROLLER SLOTS and 2 MEMORY SLOTS. That means if you wanted to FULLY experience the multiplayer mode, you would have to get one of these:
Yeah...THIS big f*ckin behemoth...back then this piece of sh*t used to run you about $30 just to REALISTICLY play one game: MADDEN NFL! Not for any other game, and it's the size of the 360 power bricks (seriously, I'm NOT exaggerating). Set up was annoying cause you didn't know what slot in the PS2 you had to use and if your system wasn't on a table or on the floor, it was damn near dead weight that could cause your gaming rig to topple over. So if I were to choose, get the Gamecube or Xbox version for multiplayer (granted that either isn't thrown away, traded in, or used as a lunchbox).
My final complaint, that many other professional reviewers mentioned, is the grappling system. I really had no problem with it (cause most of the time I would win a match HANDS-DOWN! PWND!!!), others said that when you and the opposing combatant tried to grab simultaneously, the grabs would sometimes go into a "flip a coin" moment, and someone would get grabbed randomly.
Occasionally, I would experience that in the story mode fights here and there, but most of the time it didn't really bother me. It was irratating at times to know I lost because of a grapple I didn't get. Not a problem of astronomical proportions, but still jarring nonetheless.
With that out of the way, there is something I'd like to discuss about the rest of the series.
This was their next game, "Icon". Published by the same company, but not made by the same developer. Strangely enough, this was made by EA Chicago, the same people who worked on Fight Night Round 3 and 4, both being boxing titles. Weird right? How would a sports developer made a fighting game? Well get to that in a second in greater detail cause I want to talk about some of the good risks that they made with this iteration.
For one, the risked making the game look as good as their previous game NBA Street Homecourt, which in all honesty wasn't a bad choice. See for yourself:
Yep. Both games are running off of the same engine and neither don't look too shabby. Gas pumps would catch on fire in real time, glass would break nicely, and lighting effects were phenominal. Even in-game cutscenes and fighters benefited from using the same tech. The rappers seemed more life-like and the environments and effects looked realistic, even if a little cartoony.
Another rish they did with the game was making the story mode not all "fight a dude, watch a scene, fight a dude, watch a scene" that FFNY used. The difference this time was that you had to handle a business and earn money not only through fights. Icon moved from the "rep yo hood" moniker in the last game to a more "put myself to work to make this money" vibe, which somewhat made sense.
The one risk that REALLY backfired (and the worst thing they did to the franchise) was the fighting mechanics. This risk sounded good in theory, but didn't really translate for the better. The fighing in this game felt more like a slower version of the Fight Night games and didn't even compare to the original Def Jam Vendetta.
It was essentially making those pretty venues your weapon and using different parts of it to your advantage. What they did was basically make a game with the same controls that worked in the aforementioned boxing games but in a confusing fashion. They used the right analog stick to make all of the important attacks (pull down and sweep left or right to hit a person to make them fly left or right of you, up makes you grapple) and only used the face buttons as combos to make the opponent fly farther into hazards. Even blocking and countering were done with the triggers in conjunction with the control stick. Problem is, none of it works as fluid as you'd want it to.
Its only saving grace was the DJ system (which was actually one risk that was pretty interesting) that synced the music in the background with the venues themselves. I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but put this image and the image of a real DJ working or someone playing DJ Hero and you'd get the picture. (FYI: the 360 version let you use your music from an iPod to work with this feature, TAKE THAT PS3!)
This was a complete 180 from what its predecessors did, for good and for bad. This was a very promising franchise EA had going for them, but they took too many risks with its latest installment and the bad outweighed the good. I wish someone would make a new one with the same (or even better) graphics, story mode, and DJ concept that this game had, but its future looks pretty dim.
Oh, and DON'T get me started on that Karaoke-Revolution-ripoff Def Jam Rapstar bullsh*t. Don't even THINK aobout it...>_>
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