A great port of a great game. The PSP really needed this one.
Cons: Story mode isn’t nearly as console version; It’s no the longest game; Hardly any cutscenes; Some dialogue isn’t very good; No more tag-team or 3 and 4 way battles
Def Jam: Fight for New York was a great game when it was released for consoles in 2004. EA has successfully ported almost the exact same game to the PSP with few compromises. In the end, Def Jam is a great portable game that anyone who enjoys fighting/wrestling should definitely play.
If you played Def Jam on consoles last year, the gameplay experience here will feel very familiar. But that’s only a good thing considering how great the gameplay was in the console versions. During a fight, you have a large array of attacks to beat your opponent down. You can punch and kick, use throws, use the environment, use weapons, and mount your opponents while they are on the ground. Punches, kicks, and throws are self-explanatory. Using the environment is a necessity if you want to win. You can shove your opponent into just about anything in the arena. Walls, speakers, fences, even the crowd and cars. After shoving them against something, you can grab them again and do some kind of crazy move where you slam their heads into whatever the object is. This is the main way you will knock out your opponent. Sometimes, people in the crowd will give you weapons. Weapons do a ton of damage, and are very useful. Mounting your opponent is new to the PSP version. If you have ever watched a UFC fight, you know exactly what I am talking about. You can jump on your opponent and break his face with you fists. The main single player mode in Def Jam is the story. Basically you are an up and coming fighter in the underground. Which means to get your rep up, you got to beet the crap out of a ton of other fighters. After you get done creating your character, you are off to earn money and respect. There are 5 different fighting styles in the game. You can choose from street fighting, kickboxing, wrestling, martial arts, and submission styles. Although you can only use 1 at the start, you can eventually learn up to 2 more. You can upgrade your stats and learn new fighting styles buy using development points. You earn development points by winning fights. You also earn money by winning fights. Money is used for customizing your character with new clothes, jewelry, tattoos, and new hairdos. Even though there aren’t many items at first, the more you play, the more items you unlock to customize your character with. There is actually a ton of customization items once you unlock them all. You can pretty much make any kind of character you want.
The only problem with story mode is that there isn’t much of a story. And it’s pretty short. I finished it in just under 7 hours. This is disappointing, considering that Def Jam on consoles had a great story. Here, every once in a while you get a comic book strip-like scene where something happens and it explains why you are fighting. But other than that, all you really get is that there is a turf war, and your caught in the middle. Which means you need to take over all of the areas in New York. Brooklyn and Manhattan are examples. Each part of NY has 4-5 different environments you fight in. Eventually you will start taking over these environments. When you take over every environment in a city, you can earn new “crew” members. This is another new addition to the game. When you start earning new crew members, you can play as them instead of your created character. This is a great feature, and helps keep the game fresh. After taking over all of NY, you have an extremely anti-climatic fight against Crow. (Played by Snoop Dogg.) And that’s it. After that, it’s over. You can earn money by doing matches, but that’s it. Other modes include exhibition and wireless play. Wireless play runs good, and can be really fun. The graphics in Def Jam are pretty amazing. The character models look fantastic. The animations look great as well. It looks nearly identically to the PS2 version. The characters might not look quite as sharp, but it looks pretty damn close. The game runs great, with a consistent frame rate. (Unlike the console version.) Clipping issues are usually pretty prevalent in games of this type, but there is barely any in this game. The environments look great, and are exactly as they were on the console versions. Overall, this game looks pretty amazing. It’s definitely a graphical showpiece for the PSP.
The sound isn’t too shabby either. The soundtrack is pretty good. It’s (obviously) made up of a ton of rap songs, most from artists featured in the game. The only gripe I have about the sound is that almost all of the great voice acting from the console version is gone. It’s really unfortunate, because the voice acting was the high point of the sound in the console version. The sound effects are great. Especially when you are slamming your opponents face into a stone wall. The sound is good, but without the voice acting, it doesn’t stand out as much as it did.
Overall, Def Jam: Fight for NY: The Takeover is a great game. Any fan of this type of game should definitely give this one a try, as it’s one of the better games on the PSP.