Played on:
Xbox 360
OK, I’ve never been a huge fan of the newer rappers. Sure, I’d listen to some rap occasionally as my brother was into it for awhile, but I never really considered it my favorite genre of music. So, when the original Def Jam game and the sequel came out, I kinda let them pass me by despite hearing that they were fun, over-the-top wrestling games that happened to be centered around an equally over-the-top story with tons of rap music. I didn’t decide to let Def Jam: Icon pass by after seeing that demo, though – does the actual game live up to the pretty graphics and interesting ideas in the demo?
See, Def Jam: Icon takes a huge step away from the wrestling-style of the previous games and moves to more of a street-fighting type of game. When you start the new Build-a-Label mode, you’ll create your fighter and pick from two different styles – Ghetto Blaster and Street Kwon Do. Each style has variations in move sets and what they’re good and bad at. They both have some takedown moves and, while some of these are wrestling moves, this isn’t a wrestling game as you win by pretty much beating your opponent into a pulp.
A nice touch is that EA has implemented Fight Night Round 3’s system of showing the damage on the fighter instead of via health meters (though you can turn on the meters). As you beat up your opponent, his clothes will get tattered, his face bloody and he’ll move around as if he’s injured. These things don’t just magically appear on the body, either – it at least feels realistic as they gradually show up. However, I found trying to play without the meters to be difficult since the fighters were moving around so much and it was hard to get a good view of their faces. Though you could tell when one was nearly knocked out since the screen got really bright and the camera zoomed in a bit on the fight. I really didn’t like this part since it made it harder to actually see what was going on in the fight.
One interesting element added to this version of the game are the DJ controls. See, each fighter in a match has their own music. If it’s a rapper, it’ll be one of his songs and if it is your created guy, you’ll get to pick from a list of songs (generally from the rappers on your label). At first, these DJ controls seem to be a really great idea and like they’d add a lot to the game. However, there are only two things you can do – change the song to your fighter’s song so he does more damage or set off an environmental hazard.
Environmental hazards are another addition to the game. If you’ve played the demo, you’ll have noticed the gas pumps that explode whenever a heavy beat hits or the car wash brush that comes out among other things. Well, these will do damage to any fighter that is near them when they go off or thrown into them. You can force the kind of beat that would activate them with the DJ controls – hold the left button and rotate the right thumbstick twice. It’s a really neat idea to implement this kind of environmental damage in the game and add another layer to the fighting. The coolest part of these hazards, though, is that they’ll react to custom soundtracks during a solo fight too. I tried playing Apocalyptica’s “Hall of the Mountain King” to test this out. It starts off with some heavy beats and is then tame for a bit. After that, it goes crazy for a bit. The game did a great job of picking up on this, with the part of the song that has lots of heavy beats near each other being nuts for hazards going off. This proves to be very entertaining in and of itself for anyone with a wide variety of music – country music could be absolutely hilarious with this game. However, custom songs won’t get the “scratching” sound effect that plays during the Build-a-Label mode and can’t be switched between with the DJ controls, which was a bit of a letdown.
Overall, the controls were a mixed bag. While the fighting system was interesting, it really doesn’t compare to many other wrestling games or straight up fighting games that I have played. The moves are animated well but there isn’t too terribly much variety in what you can do. The variety is supposed to come in with the environmental hazards and it does, at least for awhile. After you’ve thrown a guy into the speakers and sent him flying for the umpteenth time, though, it starts to become bland. The DJ controls could have used a lot more elaboration as they are an excellent idea – I’d like to be able to do more than just switch songs and trigger environmental hazards, though.
The game does have some interesting play modes. While I’ve mentioned the solo match, there’s also a versus match (both where you can use your own music) and other match types that only permit certain moves. The meat of the single player experience, though, is in the Build-a-label mode. In this mode, you’ll create a fighter using EA’s F.A.C.E. system which is actually really nice. However, there’s one major problem here – I couldn’t create a huge guy. Sure, I could make someone that was pretty muscular or make a character with a slight beer gut, but I couldn’t make a really fat guy if I wanted to. With some of the more well-known rappers being, well, really heavy, this would have been a nice little feature to include.
Instead of just being a straight story mode, Build-a-Label puts you in the shoes of a producer and has you managing a roster of talent to try to make money and eventually achieve Icon status. As you play through the actual story, you’ll do favors for rappers and help to fight off paparazzi or off-duty cops in an effort to get them to sign with your record label. Once you’ve got them under your banner, you can eventually produce CDs, with the goal of getting them to go multi-platinum. This part of the game is important since gaining a higher status as a producer unlocks more and improved fighting styles. Another element of improving your “status” as a producer are the various clothes you can wear. There are regular suits, heavy jackets, t-shirts and polo shirts you can wear along with a whole mess of accessories. More expensive stuff means a better status, but buying that nice looking stuff can end up being bad in the long run since you might not be able to push the next CD your artist brings out as well. I actually enjoyed the story mode – rap focus and all. While some parts were out there, it was an overall solid and enjoyable story.
Overall, Def Jam Icon is a mixed bag. While the environments, sound effects and music are some of the best that I’ve seen in a next-gen game yet, I can’t say the same thing for the fighting system that seems to lack variety. Sure, you can pick from different styles, but you still don’t have many moves when you actually get in the game. Not to mention, some fighters are ridiculously difficult to beat while others are complete pushovers – and this is really late in the game, too. Icon is still worth a purchase, though, if you have a friend to play with and a variety of music to use. If you’re just in it for the story mode, though, it is a rental at best since the fighting system isn’t too terribly deep. Def Jam Icon is a game that presents some interesting control ideas and excellent graphics while taking a major step back in the meat of the game – the fighting.
