My favourite game ever! (Def Jam Fight for NY (PS2))

Member Name: wastingtime

Product:	Def Jam Fight for NY (PS2)
Date:	03/10/08 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gritty and disturbing

Disadvantages: The taunts, everything else is spot on

I'm not sure how relevant this game is, as it's an old game on an outdated console, but I wanted to review it because in my opinion it's the best game I have ever played, seriously. This game was actually a sequal to Def Jam: Vendetta, a game that a friend and I became massive fans of also.

The principle is the same as any basic fighting game, you have a character, and you have to beat lumps out of other characters, but this game worked in so many other ways. If you know your music, and as I write this review I know one member especially will know the recording label of Def Jam. In the world of rap it is huge and has some of the biggest stars in the industry signed to them.

The idea was different in some key areas, fighting games had been around for donkeys, going back to stuff like Tekken and Streetfighter, but the big thing about those was each charcter had something special about them - for instance you could shoot ice or flame, or you'd have a charcter who could slap you when you were nowhere near him. DJ FFNY was gritty, the charcters had nothing special about them, and their finishing move might have been a bit unrealistic, but they were possible.

The idea of the game is that you leave where the last game finished, don't worry about this though, it has no real impact on the game itself and it certainly doesn't affect the enjoyment level. You are a streetfighter, fighting in clubs and other other pre-arranged arenas - your main boss is D-Mob who was actually the end bad guy in the previous game, and you are in a violent turf war with Crow (Snoop Dogg) for the underground fighting leagues clubs and the respect of the other fighters.

This seems like as good a time as any to mention who stars in this game, a lot you will of heard of, a lot you won't. Not all are rappers, for instance Omar Epps who you can now see in House and Carmen Elecktra.

Crows Crew

Bless
Bone Crusher
Bubba Sparxxx
Busta Rhymes as Magic
Carmen Electra
Crazy Legs
Danny Trejo as Trejo
David Banner
Elephant Man
Fat Joe as Crack
FAM-LAY
Havoc
Ice-T
Lil' Flip
Lil' Kim
Mack 10
Omar Epps as O.E.
Prodigy
Sean Paul
Slick Rick
Snoop Dogg as Crow
Warren G
Xzibit

D-Mobs Crew

Christopher Judge as D-Mob
Capone
Freeway
Kimora Lee
Ghostface Killah
Ludacris
Memphis Bleek
Method Man as Blaze
N.O.R.E.
Redman as Doc
Scarface
Joe Budden
Shawnna
Sticky Fingaz as Sticky
WC
Flavor Flav
Erick Sermon
Comp

All the voices are in fact done by the celebrity in person which gives the game a good edge, and each has abilities which relate to their size and character, but I will go into this in more detail a little bit further down the line.

The reason why I first fell in love with this game was because of just how good the graphics were, I know things have moved on and we are on the next-gen consoles, but for me this game really pushed Playstaion2 graphics to their peak, and it is the reason that I could still quite happily play the game now. It added some extra things in as well, you could now use your surroundings to your advantage. The crowd aren't happy to stand there and watch anymore, they have come to see a fight, and god damn it they are gonna get one, whether they have to be the ones involved or not. You could now push your opponents into the crowd, and this would end up with various things happening, if they had a weapon in their hands, like a pool cue or a beer bottle, they would help you along by smashing it over your opponents head, friendly people huh? They may also hold your opponent, this means you have a second or two to approach your struggling foe and do a special move which the crowd member may also help you with. Or if you do not make it to the person in time the crowd member would push your enemy back into the fighting area and you can use the momentum to do a different special move.

Items can also be gained from the crowd as well, depending on the arena your in, for instance, as I mentioned, if you are in one of the clubs then you can expect beer bottles and pool cues, if you are at one of the outside fighting arenas then you might find such things as crow bars or pieces of timber. Apart from the beer bottle which breaks instantly you can use each item three times before it is too damaged to use; but as you can imagine, the pain this can inflict can often be the sealing up of a match. The object of the game is to know out your opponent, so if their health bar is suitably low using something like this can be the end of them.

While I am on the subject of graphics and such, I would like to say the attention to detail on the charcters is wonderful, not only before the fights but during them, if you are going to be in a street fight it is likely you are going to get a bit bloody, and this is represented in the game - the more damage you do to your opponent the more they will look like they have been run over by a train (I use those choice of words because on one level you can actually make your opponent get run over by a train, good times). This just goes to show how detailed the game is, and their are other things on each fight area that can be used to your advantage as well, like coke machines, where obviously your can throw your opponents head into the front, pool tables, used when they are recovering sitting next to it to put your foot through their heads and other various things.

As I mentioned earlier each character has their own 'tag' lines if you will, this helps to get into the game, especially if your into your rap music, and may I suggest, if you have no love for rap or fighting games to stay well clear ;).
Each character will deliver a line before the fight, and if they win, one afterwards, the only shame of this being is that each character only has one phrase for both. I have played on this game for something like 400hours, completed the single player mode about five times and battled for hours over a few beers with my friends. The point of this being, other than the fact I am sad piece of work, is with having just one line each, that can be a bit annoying. If they had done two or three it would have been better, but this is the one bit of the game that gets a bit tedious.

When you first start the game you will have to choose which fighting styles you want to use, you can then train your fighter to be able to incorporate three of the five, these styles are:

Street Fighting
Kickboxing
Martial Arts
Wrestling
Submissions

Each fight type will allow your character to pull of different moves, my least favourite was submissions, a player could ruin your flow and grab an outstretched arm and slowly begin to break your pain barrier! Each part of the body, from neck to legs could be used against you in submission moves, it also didn't help that I was pants at pulling them off.

The best way to win a fight on this game was to fill your 'blazin meter', what this meant was when you had been attacking your opponent for long enough then you would 'blaze', if you could get your opponent to stand still long enough you could pull off your finishing move which would a sick and twisted way of doing your opponent in. Note though that one blaze does not neccesarily mean you have won, I have had fights before where it has taken up to four to finish someone, that tends to be the bigger and stronger fighters who don't seem to get hurt as easy.

As you progress through the game you can develop your character, for instance you can use your skill points to develop your body, making you faster, stronger or a new finishing move, the finishing moves become available when you have defeated the person they belonged to. You can also make yourself prettier to your supporters, to do this you can get a hair cut, but a load of bling, change your clothes and get tattoos. The reason you want to do this is the better you look the faster you will blaze!

Some of the things that happen in this game really make you cringe, and Im not talking about low blows, although even that can bring a tear to your eye, Im talking about getting a piece of burning timber thrown into your face, or being thrown out of a high rise block through the window. This game is rated 18 and it is rated that for a reason, truly not suitable for kids this one. However for the big kids out there who still have PS2's, I would suggest you buy this, it has never got boring to me and I truly think it is the best game I have ever played and not even up my normal lines.

As I mentioned before though, if you are not into fighting games, give it a miss, if your not into rap music then don't worry, it isn't essential - it would help if you had some basic enjoyment but it certainly wouldn't ruin the fun of playing for you.

Chris

Summary: If you have a PS2, get this, its wonderful!