Having revolutionised sports games with titles like SSX Tricky and Freekstyle, EA Sports Big has now turned its attention to the wrestling game genre. You won’t find any big name wrestlers in this title — what you will find is big name rap artists. The story is explained in the opening title screens; according to the narrator, rappers used to sort out their differences in street brawls, but now they’ve taken to the underground fight club circuit to defend their honour and make some cash while they’re at it.
Def Jam Vendetta offers plenty of quick and painful combat in its Battle and Survival modes, but the basis of it all can be found within the Story mode. This mode conveys a clichéd (but entertaining) plot filled with fictional fighters, Def Jam recording artists reinvented as wrestlers, and female groupies willing to fight to be the girl at your side.
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At the start of story mode you are given the choice to fight as one of four different characters. After you select a character, you immediately receive a text from your best friend, Manny. Manny has injured himself in the wrestling ring, and as he is severely in debt to the head of the underworld, Dmob; he needs you to represent him in the ring so that he can gamble and make enough money off your wins to clear his debt. The story is further complicated by the fact that your ex-girlfriend is now Dmob’s main squeeze!
You start by fighting your first few bouts in a low-rent club against equally low-rent fighters such as a dungaree-wearing redneck and the bling-bling pimp. As you win and move through the ranks of fighters, you graduate to more upmarket fight clubs and have to face off against some rap/hip hop big names such as Ludacris, Ghostface Killah, N.O.R.E and Method Man. It takes more than mere button mashing to beat these guys; to advance any further than these levels will take lots of practice and patience.
The control system for Def Jam Vendetta is easy to learn but will take time to master. Soft attacks and grapples are performed by tapping a button; harder attacks and grapples require the button to be held. As with all wrestling titles these moves will easily backfire if you haven’t timed them right. Your opponent will always have a defence or crippling counter attack ready if you haven’t picked the right moment to strike. Once you have managed to wrestle your opponent to the mat, you can then try to weaken him or force a submission from him by twisting one of his limbs into a painful hold. As you successfully perpetrate moves against your foe, your ‘Blazin meter’ begins to fill. Once you have filled this meter, you have a limited amount of time to perform a special move that will hopefully knock out the victim. These moves are over the top and humanly impossible to perform, but nevertheless spectacular to watch.
As you move through story mode and achieve some success, you will eventually be approached by some charming young ladies who wish to be your beau. You can take control of these girls to fight in catfight wrestling bouts, the eventual prize for these contenders being — of course — you. If you treat your lady right, she will reward you by allowing you a glimpse of her modelling portfolio! If you let your lady down she will kick you to the kerb, like the hound dog that you are.
At certain points of the story mode, you take part in tag team bouts to make some extra cash on the side. At times you will be ambushed by other wrestlers, forcing you to take part in a battle mode bout. These parts of the game (like the modes) aren’t as much fun or as good as the core one-on-one parts of the game. There is generally too much happening on the screen at once for the camera to do your player justice. It can be very frustrating to find yourself being beaten to a pulp by a much weaker opponent simply because he or one of his cohorts is standing between you and the in-game camera, completely blocking your view of the action.
The animation of the fights and the rendering of the combatants are excellent. The different arenas that you will fight in are equally good. However I was surprised to notice that the crowds of spectators watching were often crudely rendered — looking positively two-dimensional at times. While the in-game action will generally keep your eyes focused on the action directly in front of you, it does cause moments of irritation when you do notice these badly drawn fans. As you would expect from a collaboration with a music publisher such as Def Jam, the soundtrack is excellent and 100 per cent hip hop. However, it is disappointing that you can only hear the full versions of tracks on the screens in between battles, rather during the battle itself.
The game is enjoyable and I’m certain that fans of this type of game will be delighted with it. However, it does lack some of the features that you would expect from a top wrestling game. There is no facility to use props such as chairs or tables to beat your opponent with. There is no cage fight, no option to create your own wrestler and sadly there is no option to customise the rules of each bout. It is a good game, but it is missing so many features that are standard with its competitors that it fails to shine the way it should.
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