Def Jam Fight For NY Preview

Street fighting, martial arts, submissions, wrestling, and kickboxing.  You won’t see these fighting styles get mixed up too often, but when they do you know you’re in for something spectacular.  Def Jam Fight For NY combines those five fighting styles for a fighting game that doesn’t feel like a fighting game.  It doesn’t feel like wrestling either.  It feels different, yet familiar, and that feels good.

Remember the Tekken tech demo that Namco unveiled long before the PlayStation 2 was released?  It showed two fierce fighters battling it out while dozens of spectators watched the action.  They’d cheer, throw things at the fighters, and get involved if they felt like it.

Def Jam Fight For NY in action.

That demo seemed like just a dream.  “The PS2 isn’t powerful enough to do that!” they said.  I believed that.  I didn’t want to, but no game developer had been able to do it, so what else could I think?

Def Jam Fight For NY is the first game to realize the dream.  During a street brawl in seedy area, onlookers watch closely as you make your move.  They’ll cheer on either party just as long as someone’s going to get killed.  They came for the blood and that’s what they’re going to get.

Should you or your opponent get tossed into the crowd, they’ll push you back into battle immediately.  Most games would use an invisible wall to separate the crowd from the fighters – but not Def Jam Fight For NY.  During these moments the crowd animation and character interaction is superb.  The fighters almost into the crowd as if they had a lack of control over their actions, just as real humans do when they stumble.  Watch closely and you’ll see that every spectator is doing something different.

This appears to be true of all the game’s levels.  The demo was short (extremely short!), but another arena was introduced, one that pertains to the game’s story mode.  During this particular battle your enemy has prepared a nice kerosene circle for you to do battle in.  He’s holding the main character’s girlfriend hostage.  When you barge in, looking to save her, he throws his lighter, setting the ring on fire.  The only way out is battle him and…but can you finish him off before it’s too late?

Jump kick!

Throughout the battle you can see the girlfriend squirming in her chair, trying to break free (she’s been tied to the chair and is slowly being surrounded by flames).  This is no time to mess around, but it’s not the time to panic either.  You’ve must take him down and get out the flame out of there!

Saving the girl ends the demo.  You get a brief movie sequence, showing her being taken out of the burning building before it can collapse.  Then the game tells you about all the cool features the final version will have, like five fighting styles, several fight venues, and 40+ hip hop artists (including Busta Rhymes, Redman and Carmen Electra, who is apparently there just because she’s hot).

One really cool feature that will be available in the final version is a four-player battle mode.  Given the interactivity of the environments you can bet that’ll be pretty intense.  Also coming in the final version is a create-a-fighter mode, with thousands of pieces of unlockable licensed gear.  I’m not familiar with Jacob the Jeweler, but it’s said to popular among the rich and famous.  You can unlock some bling from there as well.

From the taste I got out of this demo, I’m pretty certain this will be another one of those, “Aw crap, I have to stop and go to work?” kinds of games.  EA sure has a way with addictiveness.  The king of realism is quickly becoming the king of arcade-style action.

Look for Def Jam Fight For NY to hit stores next week.  If you’d prefer not to fight the competition for a copy, don’t wait – reserve yours now.