Def Jam: Fight for NY

 I've been playing this game for a few years now. This game gets classified as a fighter/wrestling game. Now I don't know much about wrestling games, but as a fighter and multiplayer fighting game, Def Jam FFNY is one of my favorites.

Why? Well, besides being able to unlock characters in the single player game, the story and solo play in this game is extremely solid for a fighting game. Your character you build during story mode is usable in multiplayer, and in solo mode, you have plenty of competitions to go to after you beat the story portion. Great job.

The gameplay is great. It becomes a little focused on using environmental attacks to win, for me at least, which made some open area battles difficult. You have plenty of options to build your character to your fighting style, and the controls are intuitive and easy. Also, lets not forget the 'limit break' moves or 'rage' moves that you can customize which ones your character uses. They are hilarious and awesome to use - especially on a friend or wife. Back to the controls - the XBOX version has good control, but I found that the constant button mashing on this system for the game fatigued us while we played, this was not evident on the GC version. This is the sole reason I like the GC version better.

BTW - as of August 2007 the XBOX360 cannot play the XBOX version, which is my main reason for having the GC version.

Graphically, the game looks good. On the GC, I don't think it compares to the XBOX - the tattoos are muddy, and characters aren't as defined, even with component output and progressive scan on both. The game still looks great on both, I just definitely prefer the XBOX. Just as a note, the sound options for creating your character aren't as strong on the GC as well, which has to be for space reasons.

Multiplayer is a blast on this game. There are many different maps and game types which change the way you approach the fight. There are 4 player FFA and team brawls as well. I particularly like the subway battles where you can knock someone out (kill them) by throwing them into a subway train that runs through the area periodically. In normal fighters, you kill someone, in this game when you win, you usually do so by humiliating them.

When you sum it up and look at it. I think that this game has all that flash that it tries to show from the hip hop persona. What is great - it has great gameplay under it.

Try the game and enjoy it.