Reviewed: November 8, 2004
Reviewed by: Mat Houghton

Publisher
Electronic Arts

Developer
AKI Corporation
EA Canada

Released: September 20, 2004
Genre: Fighter
Players: 4
ESRB: Mature

8
8
9
8
8.0

Supported Features:

I was wrong. While this game is mostly an advertisement for the Def Jam label and their lesser-known artists, in addition to various clothing labels, there is actually a pretty good fighting game at the core of it. Throw on some pretty good tunes, a very in-depth fighter creation interface, some RPG elements, urban attitude, and enough bling to satisfy even the gaudiest of tastes, and you have a surprisingly addictive game with enough content to keep you coming back.

I’ll admit, from what I described above this doesn’t sound too interesting. It’s just a fighting game that’s fun but a little light on content. Well hold on, as I mentioned before there are some RPG elements. First off your fighter is, in story mode at least, your fighter. The story begins with an unknown man (you only see his feet) “releasing” the leader of a street fighting gang from the police. By releasing I mean hitting the cop car he’s in with an SUV. After that one of the detectives is sitting before a police sketch artist who asks him to describe his assailant.

What follows is you can either customize your own fighter or select one of the randomly generated ones. Not only are there a whole slew of options at this point (including hair, beard, eyes, skin color, ears, head shape, voice, nose, and height and weight) but as you progress through the game you can unlock more ways to individualize. What is really impressive though is that after you’ve created your fighter he then appears in every cinematic in the game as you either created or altered him, and with the voice you gave him.

So you have a fighter, but you can’t fight yet. What to do but prove yourself to the crew in the gym. First pick a fighting style (kickboxing, street fighting, martial arts, or submissions), and don’t worry about it you can have up to three, then finish the quick tutorial, get paid by the boss and then it’s time for some fun. There are basically two different things to do in the game: go fight in bars and clubs, cleaning out all the fighters and then challenging the “boss” of the club – you beat him, you win the club for your side – or go shopping.

The fighting aspect as pretty much already been talked about, but there are more than just one on one fights. There are tournaments that happen throughout the game, either free-for-all four-on-four matches (yes, if you have a multi-tap that does mean you can play four on four PVP), some team matches, and also special events such as the catfight, the subway fight, or the demolition match. While they all operate under the same fighting engine there is enough variation that you don’t get bored.

The shopping is where you get to have some fun after beating a man’s head flat with a lead pipe. Here you can get tattoos and haircuts, buy clothing and jewelry, and go to the gym and get yourself… “diesel”, I’m told is the correct word. As mentioned above the new you is used in every following movie, and the options to buy aren’t just five t-shirts of the same shape but different colors. You have a full range of hair and clothing and chains, from the Kid n Play Eraserhead to the zebra print Capone hat with feather to the diamond-studded ankh you can be dressed to kill in no time. Also you do have a wardrobe that holds all your old clothes and things for those times when you’re looking for that retro style.

The gym is where you spend the development points won from your matches. You have five stats to work; upper and lower body strength, speed, toughness, and health. The point costs get pretty prohibitive in the upper ranges (15,000 for that last block) but they keep you in enough points that you aren’t often overmatched, that is if you spend wisely. Also you can buy your two additional styles and more blazin moves (these last are mostly “flava” but after you see “Foot for Breakfast” you’ll understand the temptation).

As far as plot goes, it’s pretty loose. The scripting for the cut scenes is pretty good, but the little nooks and crannies just aren’t filled in. This is the point where most reviewers will go into their closet, get out their soap box and start going on and on about disparaging racial image of the game, etc., etc., and bore you senseless with their preaching. All I’m going to say is yeah; you could see it that way, objectification of women, gang activity, and vilification of blacks. If you want to see that you can. However I’m only going to say three things.

One, this is a video game, not reality and it’s only social message is that I’m a bigger nerd because I can kick your ass at this game. Second, the whole game is advertising for Def Jam Records and their artists who already portray that image. Third, just get off it. If this were held in a fantasy setting with the exact same story no one would say word one about it, even if all the characters were black.

Yourself, you look pretty good in all of your various incarnations, and there are plenty. You can be anywhere between 6’6” and 250+ lbs. and 5’10” 180 lbs. Not only that there are about eight variations at least for any particular body feature that all come together really well. The clothing, jewelry, tattoos, and hairstyles all look pretty good together though some hairstyles do have a bit of a clipping issue with some clothing options but it’s nothing too glaring.

While the main characters are very well fleshed out the crowds tend to be a little flatter and more geometric. This isn’t too terrible because most often they’re in pretty deep shadows, but at the beginning of any fight they do a few establishing shots of the bar and then it’s very noticeable.

The bars themselves are very individualized. You’ve got wrestling arenas, cage matches, strip club, a biker bar, and a rooftop lined with barbed wire just to name a few. What makes them stand out though is the environmental attacks you get. Most often you just get the usual ones, but slamming a guy into a jukebox and having it shatter is most pleasing.

So the characters and the settings look good, but this is a fighting game, and the most important thing is the fighting. The animation is right up there with not only smooth motion and a vast array of fighting styles (watch out for Flava Flav), but more importantly a good understanding of wind up and of when to stop the action to make things look like they hurt.

There aren’t really a whole lot of effects in the game aside from camera work and throwing a color wash over the image. Those that are included work well though. When you bend a wrench on someone’s head it looks like you hurt him, as when you pound someone through a wooden wall or break a fluorescent light on them. There is a fire match, but that’s nothing too special as far as looks go.

The only real complaint I have about all of this is the camera. With the way this game is set up you get basically a bottom to top view of the arena that only really changes centering and zooms in and out. It works almost perfectly except for two things. First if you’re at the top of the ring and your opponent is near the bottom (he’s nearer the camera and you’re behind him) it’s nearly impossible to judge distance for you while the computer just makes that neat calculation and you end up on the ground.

Second, the free for all matches, because you can potentially have four people playing at the same time, set the camera a little too far back so the whole ring is always in view. In the regular matches you get a much closer view so it’s easy to get a little distracted and again distance judging kind of goes out the window. I don’t see how they could have fixed these issues based on what they were trying to do, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.

The music is light on the big names, I think only one track from any big name (Snoop, Ice T) and then one or sometimes two from the little guys. You only get a clip of any one tune that really captures the groove of the song, but it’s enough and they rotate them often enough that you don’t get bored with any one track.

The effects also come through well, mostly to emphasize brutality. There are a slew of crunches, smashes, shatterings, and other various impacts that most often just make you shudder in sympathy pain. The crowd usually makes a good amount of noise and any random lines thrown out during the fight are usually audible in the surrounding din.