The Game
'Def Jam: Icon' is the third game in this beat'em up series and it was released in March 2007 by EA. It was released on both the Playstation 3 and the XBOX 360. The unique feature of the Def Jam series is it's roster which features actual Hip Hop acts.
Characters
Something ... Read review
Music is Your Weapon:It's a struggle to the top, and you'll have to fight every step of ... more
the way. Sign the hottest artists and release hit songs to become a hip hop mogul, but always watch your back, trust no one and do what you got to do to get there. If you make it, you'll be an Icon.DJ Controls:Use the left and right sticks like turntables to add beats, switch songs, and make music your weapon. Control the music to control the fight!Musically Charged Combat:Beats trigger interactive hazards all around you - us the living environment as a weapon to defeat your opponents.True Style:Dress yourself in the hottest gear as you fight with or against hip hop's biggest stars, including Big Boi, The Game, Lil Jon, Ludacris, T.I. and more.
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MUSIC IS YOUR WEAPONIt's a struggle to the top, and you'll have to fight every step of the ... more
way. Sign the hottest artists and release hit songs to become a Hip Hop mogul, but always watch your back, trust no one and do what you got to do to get there. If you make it, you'll be an icon.MY SOUNDTRACK: Load your MP3S into the game to drive the action just like any of the 26+ featured songs - give yourself an unlimited arsenal of hazard-triggering tunes.MUSICALLY CHARGED COMBAT: Beats trigger interactive hazards all around you - use the living environment as a weapon to defeat your opponents.DJ TURNTABLE CONTROLS: Use the analog sticks like turntables and take on the biggest stars including Big Boi, The Game, Lil Jon, Ludacris, T.I. and more.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:Out of stock
Advantages: Great roster Disadvantages: Poor longevity
...The unique feature of the Def Jam series is it's roster which features actual Hip Hop acts.
===Characters===
Something I really credit Def Jam for this year is getting a great roster of Hip Hop artists, in past editions they where heavily concerned with primarily using Def Jam recording artists to brawl with, but since they have expanded beyond this, it opens many more opportunities for the audience. I have to list ... ...Anderson, Melyssa Ford and the Def Jam founder himself, Russell Simmons. Apaart from these, there are also a selection of generic characters who you will bump into during the course of the fun story mode. Unfortunately all of them are new, so none of the decent characters of the past such as Teck, Pockets and Nyne haven't come back.
As you can see they went all out and the only name I couldn't relate to was the Reggaeton artist, Tego, ... more
The Game
'Def Jam: Icon' is the third game in this beat'em up series and it was released in March 2007 by EA. It was released on both the Playstation 3 and the XBOX 360. The unique feature of the Def Jam series is it's roster which features actual Hip Hop acts.
Characters
Something I really credit Def Jam for this year is getting a great roster of Hip Hop artists, in past editions they where heavily concerned with primarily using Def Jam recording artists to brawl with, but since they have expanded beyond this, it opens many more opportunities for the audience. I have to list all of them to display the broad range we have this time around. Here they are:
Big Boi Bun B E-40 Fat Joe Ghostface Killah Jim Jones Kano Lil' Jon Ludacris Method Man Mike Jones Paul Wall Redman Sean Paul Sticky Fingaz T.I. Tego The Game Young Jeezy
As well as celebrities such as Anthony Anderson, Melyssa Ford and the Def Jam founder himself, Russell Simmons. Apaart from these, there are also a selection of generic characters who you will bump into during the course of the fun story mode. Unfortunately all of them are new, so none of the decent characters of the past such as Teck, Pockets and Nyne haven't come back.
As you can see they went all out and the only name I couldn't relate to was the Reggaeton artist, Tego, who I hadn't heard of, apart from this I had all of these on my iPod and I would consider to be amongst my favourites in the Hip Hop and rap world. They took people from all three coasts of Hip Hop (yes, including the third coast of the Dirty South), and even our own Kano and stuck them altogether, so you get to fight the most well-known names, and if they aren't there you can always create them.
Gameplay
If you expect to find gameplay as the first two installments of this beat'em up, then you may be disappointed because it has completely changed how you play. Just when I thought they were advancing the complexity of the fighting in the game with weak and strong grapples with four potential options to slam or strike from here. Instead they have gone back to basics where you can strike as usual with the X, triangle, square and O, then your grapples (initiated with the analogue in the opponents direction) are reduced to four throws or throwing your opponent across the scene.
You cannot use weapons in this game as you could in 'Def Jam: Fight For New York', but you don't need them with this game, because you have to know where you are when you brawl as in each location. As they have decided that since the stars of the game are all musicians, why not make the game all about the tunes. I say this because they have made this a main focus of the gameplay where fighting is concerned as certain objects in the scene will act as a potential weapon to you whenever the track hits a big bass hit. This may cause the car wash to spontaneously attack you at the petrol station, a car to whip you with a donut, or the fireplace to explode at your apartment on the drop of the hard beats. The effect of this will lead to a maximum amount of damage being dished out.
Another new gameplau feature is the ability to act as a DJ to the trak which is playing, before each bout you choose a track and if the other player's track is on as you fight, you act as a DJ by spinning the invisble records in order to mix it into your track. I only bother doing this if I am more familiar with my track so I know how the beat goes. Another feature which expands from this is being able to scratch the track to an appropriate point, such as when the beat is about to drop. I find this quite hard to achieve, so I tend not to perform this action too often, but it is easy to pick up and play apart from this.
The more realistic and street game removes the HUD (Head-Up Display) from you, meaning that you are unaware how much damage you have been affected by. I feel that it makes it more fun as you are unaware when you will suddenly lose the fight, the only warning you are given is when the screen becomes discoloured, and your character's stance is a lot weaker. This means that it will only take a couple of big hits to end the fight (meaning that the far fetched finishing moves have been completely removed).
Venues
The game has moved on far from the days where some bouts where fought in rings and battle arenas, Def Jam are taking it straight to the streets in this one and so appropriate locations are available for you to fight in. There are venues for you to fight in including clubs, apartments ,and even the BET 106 & Park studio, each of which have their own unique interactive components such as fireworks in the studio, blasting bass from the speakers in the club and a swinging safe in the apartment.
The game is less realistic than in the other games in many different ways. When you throw your opponent, they are likely to go about 10 metres away. Also because the game relys on your ability to remain aware of your surroundings, some things like fire don't appear to have the appropriate reaction from the character or damage to the fighter.
Although it doesn't add to the realism, you see that the background dances to the beat throughout each song and for most locations it seems out of place, but when you are in the club, it's good to see especially when the crowd do a jump-shot every time Jim Jones' "We Fly High" comes on and he calls out "Ballin'".
Graphics
As this was the second PS3 game I purchased, I was still stunned by th visual quality of the games, but this one in particular has very realistic and clear graphics. All of the characters look amazing and exactly like their counterpart, so I have no complains here. The effects are great as your character's body and clothing is damaged appropriately as the fight goes on. Somethings, such as the fire could be improved in some areas as it only actually burns things like coats and not T-shirts, but I can see why they didn't want to have people burnt down to their underwear.
Music
With the extravagant roster which we have, most of the artist's most popular songs are found on here, these are mostly ones which fit in with the new feature of the game of fighting to the beat so that on each beat drop the scene reacts and some older tracks, such as M.O.P.'s "Ante Up", had to come on here to add to the hyped-up heavy songs which fit in with a fighting game. You are likely to know the majority of these tracks if you are a fan of Hip Hop (or not), so you aren't likely to be dissapponted by the song choice, but I was quite annoyed that I was having to overplay some of my favourites to the point where it annoys me o here them.
Build A Label
This is the new story mode for Def Jam and it tells the story of yourself, a homeless man who gets discovered by an aging Hip Hop entrepreneur, who aids you along the way to success in building a label and managing your artists, which will get you into countless beefs. So it continues from here...
There are many twists and turns to the story as you get involved with mulitple girllfriends all at the same time and you have to worry about spending wisely on clothes when you also have to pay for things like air-play of your artists tracks and keeping them happy whilst they are with you by fighting people they have trouble with and paying for their travel costs and things like this.
To criticize it, it only takes three days to to complete this mode, but it is certainly entertaining while it lasts. To make you want to do it again you get to customize your character by getting ice, tats and brand new rags(with brand like Phat Farm, Jordan and Adidas available).
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is a fun beat'em up which allows you to play as the best Hip Hop artists around. It isn't as typical as fighting games like Tekken or even WWE SmackDown!, because in this one, you fight to the beat, so if you're got no rhythm go home. The story mode has a great tale to it which I find to be quite fun and it does allow you to take a variety of paths as you strive for success in the music world. I found this game easy to play and a lot of fun, but as some things such as 4-on-4 bouts being removed, the variety is restricted so you find yourself bored quite easily after you have gone through 'Build A Label'.
Advantages: good graphics and hip hop music Disadvantages: might not be played by every body and too niggaz life.
Well I wont say that this is a mistake bye but I bought this because of the delay of my favorite beat em up which is the tekken game mode. I think that the tekken dark resurrection made a lot of delays before hitting the market. Not only tekken other beat em ups have delayed a lot.
I have gotten the game already so I have to stick to it in order to make out new things from the game. I have no other alternative and luckily, I am a hip-hop fan so ... ...quite some time because of the hip-hop music. Not that the fighting game technique is that fantastic but the hip-hop nature of the game.
In some cases, I even allow my enemies to bit the hell out of my head just to listen to the hip music but the reason is this, you don't have t access to the music unless there is combat.
I wont just advice any pal to go get this game. Well here in uk, hip hop is not that accepted so if you know that you are not ...
apatra 11.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Def Jam: Icon (PS3)
Advantages: graphics and sound are great Disadvantages: slow, no feel of control cliche and cheesy
I can't say I expected much from this game, mainly because I follow underground hip hop and hate most of the comercial music that most of the artists on the game make. Secondly a load of rappers fighting each other is just a bit sad, look at me i'm such a hard man rapper e.t.c.
Ignoring all this I decided to play the game as if it was just a straight out fighter. The graphics I have to say are stunning the sound is also good, interactive backgrounds ... ...Unfortunatly for me this is where the excitement stopped, the fighting is very wooden and quite slow. Combinations are preset to pressing the same button repeatedly. Pressing one button won't always give the same result, will it punch or kick who knows? This is how it feels anyway, you never really feel in control you may as well button slap.
There are story modes but they seem to just be changing clothes e.t.c and then fighting people with cut ...
zyndol 01.07.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Def Jam: Icon (PS3)
Advantages: GOOD SOUNDTRACK Disadvantages: GAMEPLAY; VARIETY OF MOVES;
...are the stars of the Def Jam Record label then you move on to fight!!
Graphics aren't that good but the music is great as it's all pretty new Hip Hop music which appeals to me but then there's the gameplay!!
That's when it gets ugly!! There are very few moves to use when you are fighting which is very poor for a fighting game, it's very slow and you don't have a health bar, you have to guess your health by the background colouring which I found ...
danielfudge 28.03.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Def Jam: Icon (PS3)
Advantages: listen to ur own music, graphics, real characters, get real life clothing, Disadvantages: have to go to main menu or w8 to kill urself if u wanna restart match
This game is well addictive. I've only had it a couple of days but its the only game i keep playing. A good point about the game is that it is not a repetitive game and you need to keep using different moves to try and win. The objective of the game is to become an ICON to do this you have to sign artists and keep them happy, by keeping them happy they produce songs for you which then you advertise and stuff trying to make as much as money as possible ... ...costs you money, so you have to spend money to make more money. You keep artists happy by doing their objectives sometimes its spending a lil do' on em or sumtime sortin out der problems by knocking uda ppl or artists out. Graphics are so good and all the charcters look real. Some of the famous characters involve T.I , The Game, mike jones, fat joe (using a cheat to unlock him) and theres loads more. You can also create your own characters to fight. ...
ajay_p1 28.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Def Jam: Icon (PS3)
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Advantages: Addictive gameplay. Disadvantages: Not enough gameplay time!
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EA Chicago is delivering star-stunning action and bone breaking beats as players live out the life of a hip hop mogul, going from rags to riches. Incorporating hip-hop culture into every aspect of the game, DEF JAM: ICON will deliver the intensity of a no-holds-barred street fight but with style and rhythm. Music will effect how players fight in each venue and environmental interactions and hazards will become a key strategy to staying alive.