Developer: EA Chicago
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

What you know about that?  I’ve been a fan of this series since it debuted a few years ago.  While it was first only for PlayStation owners, it soon moved to the Xbox and I’ve loved the series ever since.  It mixed a thing I’ve known my entire life with what I’ve played my entire life…hip-hop and games.  How could you go wrong with that?  I was controlling some of my favorite artists on the TV screen.  It was great.  There was nothing like laying the smack down on Snoop Dogg in Fight for New York.

Def Jam: ICON set out to continue giving fans of this particular music and genre a taste of the life so to speak right in their living rooms.  But this time it was going to be different.  If you listened to Episode #28 with Brian Hayes, you’d know that the fighting mechanics and overall direction of the game was changed in ICON.  Was the decision to move away from the gameplay and direction of previous titles worth it?  Well, dig in for more and find out.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

Def Jam: ICON is the 3rd game in EA’s hip hop fighter series.  ICON follows a young wannabe trying to make a name for himself in the music business.  Instead of being a young punk trying to survive the streets, you’re a young entrepreneur instead in the new Build-A-Label mode.  Your goal is to be the city’s top recording giant.  You’re recruited by the city’s top producer to handle a variety of things for his artists and even acquire some yourself.  You’ll eventually sign the likes of Ludacris, Young Jeezy and others.  Your job is to not only protect them with your fists if need be, but to also get their records/songs to the top of the charts.  You have to balance the fights, the marketing and ofcourse the ladies as you make a name for yourself in the music business.

It’s really interesting once you start signing the artists to your label because you have to handle key aspects of getting the song played, bought and on top of the charts.  You have to figure out how much money to dish out for airplay, marketing and merchandise among other things.  If you don’t put enough money behind your artist, then don’t expect them to go Platinum or even Gold.  The bad thing about the system is that once you settle on what to spend, there is no changing it.  So you can’t go back and increase your funding if you notice an artists isn’t selling well etc.  Beyond making sure their album is hot, you also have to deal with petty requests from your artists when they get in trouble or need to impress the ladies.  You have to keep them happy to some extent.   This not only goes for your artists but also for the women you decide to mix with.    It’s a pain but one you can deal with.

You start off in a beat down apartment but as the game progresses and you get some money in your pockets, you move into much better places.  The activities in each place remain the same.  You’ll have access to your emails, how your artists are performing, and ofcourse the stores to buy clothes or change your appearance.  Each place allows you to walk around to some degree and check things out.  There could’ve been more interaction though.  I mean if I’m getting all this money, I’d like to be able to buy some real estate or ya know improve the place.

Those of you who have played previous versions of Def Jam probably fell in love with all the “Blazing” combat and other signature moves.  Well that’s changed now.  You still have different fighting styles but you no longer have those combos and nothing is blazing.  It’s the first thing you’ll notice about ICON when you begin to play.  The fighting mechanic has been completely changed.  I thought at first this was a bad thing because I was set on how it used to be.  As with all change, people tend to frown on it but I was glad that I actually took some time to learn the new fighting system.

It seems that most developers are tagging the right analog stick these days for combat and ICON is no exception.  You can do a variety of back hand spins or roundhouse kicks with it depending on the direction you move it.  The face buttons are general high and low kicks or punches.  The LB and RB buttons are there to trigger the music mixes.  The strength of ICON is in its music which directly relates to the fighting system.  With each bass drop, the environment reacts and creates some sticky situations for either you or your opponent.  Once you learn the controls, you can trigger the bass just as you’ve tossed your opponent into the gas pumps.  This will cause an explosion and send the dude flying…flames and all.  To do this successfully you have to mix the RB buttons and the left/right analog sticks perfectly together.  Choose the right song and you’ll have quite a few moments to drop the bass on your opponent.  You also have to master the art of mixing.  During the fights, you can steal your opponents thunder by performing a successful scratch to where your music will begin to play instead of his. 

The battles in the game do get repetitive and none of them are much of a challenge once you learn the control scheme.  The beauty of battling though is that each one can be changed by using your own music.  So if you get tired of laying the smack down to a Paul Wall track, then pop your own in and do damage.  I was very impressed with the way the music was incorporated into the game.

Visually, ICON is incredible.  It makes good use of the Xbox 360’s hardware.  All of the artists are near perfect replicas of themselves.  The character models are hot.  The environments or arenas could have used a bit more interaction in them.  Each one has certain props to use so you can figure the stages out pretty quickly.  I would’ve preferred the entire arena to be interactive including the crowds but no dice.  How about a level builder where players could create their own venue to fight in?  It’s next-gen so why not?

The one thing that is done perfect is again the music and sound.  Def Jam: ICON continues with the hot soundtracks that the series is known for.  They did a great job with finding the right songs to play through the game with and that filters into the sound effects throughout the game.  The explosions, the punches and everything else were very well put together.  Even the voice work was impressive. 

Xbox Live Extras

You can take the fight to Xbox Live as the series finally includes online support.  I was happy to see this.  It adds a little bit to the game’s replay value.  There’s nothing like settling some East/West coast rivalry online.  It’s safer on Xbox Live right?

Conclusion

Def Jam: ICON was a solid redirection of the franchise.  It had its areas that definitely need improvement but the ground work for future titles is set.  Parents should pay close attention to the M rating on the game because there are profanities and other sensitive words being used throughout.  It’s the hip hop world and it holds true to the grittiness of it.  There are no bleeps or settings to block the mature language.  Other than that, I really enjoyed it.  It’s always fun using some of today’s hottest stars to beat the crap out of each other.