The ultimate hip-hop fueled fighting game, Def Jam Fight For NY challenges players to step into the shoes of a ruthless street fighter battling for control of the hip-hop underground. The game features an all-new fighting engine including weapons, interactive environments and five unique fighting styles that can be combined to form dozens of customized hybrid styles for the ultimate edge on the streets. Def Jam Fight For NY features more than 40 of the most well-known artists and personalities in hip-hop today, including Busta Rhymes, Carmen Electra, Lil' Kim, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, Sean Paul, Slick Rick, Snoop Dogg, and many more. * New Fighting Engine -- A new fighting engine challenges you to master multiple fighting disciplines, take advantage of interactive environments, and utilize dozens of weapons to make a name for yourself. * Three Times the Length of the Original Def Jam VENDETTA -- It's going to take more than 90 fights in 20-plus venues to win control of the streets. * 40 of the Biggest Hip Hop Artists and Celebrites -- Starring and music by the hottest names in hip hop from Def Jam and beyond -- look for appearances by Busta Rhymes, Carmen Electra, Fat Joe, Flava Flav, Freeway, Ghostface, Ice T, Joe Budden, Kimora Lee Simmons, Lil' Kim, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, Sean Paul, Slick Rick, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and many more. * Five Brutal Fighting Styles -- Master each fighting style: street fighting, kickboxing, martial arts, wrestling, and submission fighting. Combine up to three styles to create devastating hybrid-styles, complete with new "blazin' moves" to finish off your opponent. * 22 Interactive Venues -- From destructible environmental objects to rowdy spectators who like to "get involved," the 22 venues are the ultimate weapon. * Create-A-Street Fighter -- Build your own street-ready fighter and outfit him with thousands of pieces of unlockable licensed gear, tattoos, and even bling from the Jeweler to the stars, Jacob the Jeweler. * Represent Your Crew Online -- Join a crew and own the mean streets of NYC. Move onto the international stage and take on all-comers with online play for the PlayStation 2.
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FFNY was a product of astral alignment. Shittons of licenses, AKI at the height of their powers, EA willing to throw a ton of money at a single project in a pre-DLC world, and consoles that were just powerful enough to pull everything they wanted off. You will never see this game or anything like it again. Thank god it only took their second try to nail it.
You couldn't ask for better presentation. Everyone is either a truck-sized mountain of muscle, a shredded Bruce Lee-like, a model who moves like Catwoman, or Flava Flav. Blazin' moves are more "oooooh"-worthy than any Mortal Kombat fatality. Music is constantly blasting and it's good shit. The game looks great, especially on Xbox, with particular standouts being the fire ring and power plant. It's an insane look top to bottom but it never winks or nudges, this is 100% sincere 2000's cheese and it rules.
The game's systems are perfect fighting game rock paper scissors while leaving room for AKI's wrestling background to shine, resulting in a hybrid unlike anything else before or since, even when compared to Vendetta. The fact that it holds up competitively (admittedly with a banlist but there are like 70 characters here, chill) blows my mind. The KO system is a standout, as you can only land one when an opponent is weak and you either use the environment, a weapon, hit your finisher, or do a style-specific finisher (eg: wrestlers hitting a big grapple). It creates heaps of tension whenever health meters are in the red and means matches never, ever end boring.
I only ding this game half a star because the camera is a bit shit, though this is more true in 4p than in 1v1. You can still end up with a character positioned behind another and not really be able to see what they're doing sometimes. It doesn't matter often, but when it does it does.
For this last playthrough I intentionally didn't take wrestling or submission, which I'd never done, and I regretted it. Strikes in this game are effective, don't get me wrong, but turning someone's brain into jello and getting a KO for the privilege is my favorite feeling on this bitch of an earth. Still had a great time all the way up to throwing Snoop out a window yet again.
Shoutout to my fellow Bonecrusher Gamers.
Such a throwback to pure early 2000's vibes.
Also, has great catfights.
