One of the most puzzling absences from the Xbox roster has to be Def Jam Vendetta. EA didn’t have an exclusivity agreement with that game, as it released on PS2 and Gamecube, and it’s gritty, mature themes, and hip-hop influence would have been right at home on the Xbox. The Xbox also seems to be the most in want of a quality wrestling title. The Raw series is, arguably, the worst of the WWE console bunch, and the less said about the Legends of Wrestling games, the better. Salvation has arrived in the form of Def Jam: Fight for New York, a game that easily wrests the title of best Xbox grappler away from the meager competition. Where does it stand in the much broader fighting game category?

Story:

Def Jam: Fight for New York picks up right where Def Jam Vendetta left off. D-Mobb, the villain from the original, is getting hauled off to the state pen, when a truck full of street thugs take out the police car transporting the nefarious gang leader. Among those thugs is your character, crafted from scratch though probably the coolest create-a-fighter interface ever seen in a videogame. Yep, you’re working for the bad guys now… kinda.

In the main thrust of the game, the story mode, your protagonist, a noob in the New York’s underground fighting scene, has to earn the respect of D-Mobb’s crew, and help them take turf back from rival gang leader Crow (played by the surprisingly sinister Snoop Dogg). Along the way, you’ll knuckle up with the toughest fighters, played many of today’s biggest rap stars… and Bubba Sparxxx.

Gameplay:

As stated before, Fight for New York employs the AKI wrestling engine, made famous in the N64 hits WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy. While the fights very rarely take place in the squared circle, DJ:FFNY is very much a wrestling game at heart. Attacks consist of punches, kicks, grapples, weapon strikes, and finishing moves. There are no pins, because, honestly, nothing takes the wind out of a thug-fight more than the winner mounting the loser. No, the only ways to win a match are by knockout, submission, or, on certain stages, ring-outs.

There are five different fighting styles in DJ:FFNY; Street Fighting, Martial Arts, Wrestling, Submission, and Kickboxing. Each character is proficient in one style, but can learn a little bit of two more, creating some pretty cool “fusions”. While each style has different stances, strikes, grapples and counters, the real distinction is in the KO ability. You see, while DJ:FFNY incorporates a lifebar, no one goes down to a hip toss. When your opponent’s life bar hits its bottom fifth or so, he reaches “Danger” status. At this point, you must perform a weapon attack, crowd double team, environmental attack, or a “Blaze” finishing move (more one a few of these in a bit) to finish the match. However, each fighting style affords you one other, sometime more convenient option. Whether it’s a Street Fighting haymaker, a Martial Arts wall attack, or a Submission… uh… submission, your fighting style can be the difference between a win and a loss. While some style-specific KO’s are easier to pull off than others, you’re never really in a pickle if you think you’ve chosen the wrong one… at least in story mode, where you can choose other styles to compensate for weaknesses inherent in each one. Even in regular one on one contests, no one style overpowers another. The different styles in DJ:FFNY are about as well-balanced as any other fighting game on the market right now.

Now for the actual attacks themselves. Weapon attacks… well, they haven’t changed much form the days of the N64, which is a bit of a disappointment. In fact, one could say they’ve lost a bit of variety. No grapples, no special attacks- knocking out a guy with a weapon is usually no fun. The crowd double team and environmental attacks are pretty similar. Just throw or knock your opponent into a crowd, barricade, wall, or jukebox, and grapple again to see the usually brutal results. While definitely impressive, they pale in comparison to Def Jam’s “Blaze Attacks”- finishing moves in a league of their own. Consisting of about three or four linked attacks (presented cinematically in one-on-one matches) each more impressive, outlandish, and vicious than the last. Just about all of them are beyond description (actually, in this case, competent description), but this much must be true- these moves were definitely created with the input of rap stars.