It’s been a while since I’ve had the joy to put a fight game in my console, more exactly it dated from Dead or Alive 3. Def Jam Vendetta didn’t have any problems finding the way to the dvd drawer of my PS2 and immediately showed to be a good test for the subwoofer of my dolby surround system.

Reason for this is the fact that Def Jam Vendetta is the first game that Def Jam Records has released in conjunction with Electonic Arts. You won’t be surprised to learn that this game is filled with pounding hip-hop tracks and a surrounding that looks very similar to the hard American rapper world which we of course only know from TV and movies. To make these surroundings as real as possible, several different rappers like DMX, Ludacris, Method Man and Ghostface Killah have entered the digital world and gave their voices and movement for creation of this game. Enough crap about the backstory, time to check out what EA has on offer with DJV.

The intro-sequence is pretty retarded in my humble opinion and hasn’t lasted towards the end. Luckily this hasn’t much to do with the qualities of a fight game. Thanks to the extremely hard soundtrack you’ll immediately get into the mood to kick some tough guy’s ass. My experience has already learnt me that it isn’t a bad thing to check out the tutorial of a game before starting on the real deal. Unfortunately seceral sections of the tutorial only have movies with explanation and interactive training is absent. Now, I’m far from an idiot (Fragland does not want to be associated with this remark – ed.) but after checking out the first 7 movies I couldn’t manage to recollect the buttons of the second movie anymore.

There’s 3 ways for action: StoryMode, Team Battle en Survival. Logically, StoryMode will lead your through a story where you have to get passed several enemies while Survival just gives you one opponent after another to bash into the floor. Team Battle is the mode you need to check out to be able to play with several players. The nice thing on Team Battle is the variation in game types, you can bash in Free For All, 2on2, 1on3, etc etc.

When you’re capable of kicking some ass in one of the 10 arena’s, the fun just doesn’t end. The animations are nice, the controls work good (after a couple of reruns of the tutorial) and this only says one thing: that controller is going to be hurt… especially when you know that over 1500 moves are present for testing on your opponents. This number of 1500 is of course divided over all possible characters ;).
It’s a bit hard to describe the fighting itself but the game makes me think of a crossover between a Wrestle-game and Tekken as the speed of play is slower than with games like Tekken. You’ve always got more than enough time to prepare your moves.

Mutha fok ... time for downpoints. Although there aren’t any major flaws present, I still doubt Def Jam Vendetta will be played a lot by me after writing this review because for some reason you don’t get enough motivation to keep playing. This doesn’t mean it isn’t a good game – without a doubt I’ve spent quite a bunch of hours enjoying it – but it does miss the continuous challenge you need to keep coming back.

<b><u>Conclusion</u> :</b>
Fight lovers will definitely enjoy this game although you don’t have to expect a Tekken sequel. The co-operation of Def Jam Records and the many artists make this game very interesting for the fans and lovers of hiphop and rap, but the downside of such profiling is that gamers who detest the genre will not be attracted to this game. If fighting/wrestling with rappers seems nice for you: Buy it ! If you’re looking for the new Tekken though…