Short-lived makes it a no buy, but a great game anyways.
User Rating: 8.7 | Def Jam: Fight for NY PS2
Def Jam FNY is a great game that suffers from a short but sweet story mode. Luckily, the story mode is actually pretty good when it comes to voice acting, and whether or not it's actually fun or challenging. The story's cliche, but you will be surprised to see what these myraid rap stars have in talent, which is, well, acting. Everyone plays very well, along with your own charcter. Speaking of your character, the ability to make such a detailed character is great. It's possible to make a recreation (Or a close one) to yourself, not only that, but you even choose the small details, from your nose shape, eye shape, what types of lips you'll be talking crap with. Even voices, which come as a slight let down, considering they don't sound but act well. It's even worse when the you made has a voice that is completely different from you. But the voice won't matter much, considering the lines your character make aren't so nesscary otherwise. The story line in general is cliche, as I said. Two gangs, one leaning towards good, other towards evil , are on a club war. You do all this and they do all that. Plain and simple. Fortunately, the actual voice acting doesn't suck. And the story goes on smoothly, carried from fight to fight by some words. Even weirder is how they didn't make all the fights seem completely forced. Although, the storyline is 8-10 hours long, maybe even shorter, depending on how you play it. It'll likely last you 2 weeks, obviously no game that's really really worthy of fifty-bucks. Sure, a rental's nice, but it's possible to beat the entire thing in that week Blockbuster gave you. The gameplay and graphics are great, though. With a simple but likable combo system, it's easy to start loving it quickly. And the graphics/animation capture the actors and your character greatly, especially with the soft-light blurr thing they made, giving the game a smooth look. Sure, framerate issues, but they don't happen _too_ often. Too. If you haven't noticed, too. The other issue is it's difficulty. I'm a pretty crappy player when it comes to games at a hard difficulty setting, but honestly. I completely owned the game's hard mode, I actually changed it to hard mode mid-story, and STILL slid through the game. It's definetly no real challenge. Altogether, short-story, bad, can't buy a week's worth game, can you? For fifty bucks? Shhhnnnaaawwww. But the game is worth some money in EVERY OTHER FREAKING ASPECT. So, simply, pay 35.99 and buy the damn thing, just don't pay the half-hundred. 
