Update!: 2 New Articles have been made about Def Jam Click Here to read them. 

A terrible crime has been committed, once again I say a terrible crime has been committed! What’s the crime? Murder. Who are the victims? Consumers and a Dynamic franchise. Murder weapon? Poor judgement. Who are the accused? A developer who felt he know better then the consumers and numbers. Gamers join me in the fight to bring back the good fight. Gamers this is the official request for the rebirth of The Def Jam fighting series.

It’s funny, ever since I started attending major, public, or exclusive gaming events, I always find developers who truly love playing video games. Just in case you don’t think that’s a big deal, trust me when I say just because you work for a Gaming company doesn’t mean you game. Anyway, no matter where I went one thing remains clear, when asked what is your favorite fighting games of all time Def Jam Fight for New York was always listed. Ask yourself this, wouldn’t it be cool if you could play a new Def Jam fighting game where Will Smith or Nikki Minaj were playable fighters? You could kick another player out the window of Russel Simmons’s pent house or how about the chance to smack around Justin Bieber with LL Cool J playing the roll of final boss? Sounds great huh?  Before I go further let me give you a quick history lesson in hip hop fighting games.

Shaquille O’Neal in a effort to further his brand was given a chance to have his own Mortal Kombat like game called Shaq Fu. A name given to him by the rap group, Fu-Schnickens. The problem with the game was that it was terrible. You could only play with Shaq and every challenger you played against had way more skills then you. The game was so bad that there are websites committed in having people send in copies to be destroyed. As far as Hip Hop fighting games this was a bad start.

(Special note: GamerFitNation’s very own Gregory Laporte is the only person I ever heard of, who actually liked Shaq Fu.)

For More info on Shaq Fu Click link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaq_Fu

Oh no you didn’t Shaq?! Unfortunately yes he did.

After the bad taste of having Shaq Fu in your mouth you’d think people would give up on the hip hop fighting game themes, but no they didn’t. Wu Tang: Shaolin Style entered the scene and received mixed reviews. Critics hated it, fans loved it or maybe they love the bonus of exclusive tracks, or maybe Shaq Fu was so bad there was no where to go but up. I don’t know, what I do know is in some tiny way this helped someone out there feel like having Method Man in a video game wouldn’t be so bad.

For More info on Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style Click link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu-Tang:_Shaolin_Style

Wu-Tang, Wu Tang, Wu Tang, Clan!

Which brings me to the reason you’re reading this article.  DEF JAM: VenDetta!

In 2003 some crazy S.O.B decided that another Hip Hop based fighting game was a good Idea. This Developer with the help of his newly found home boys RedMan & Method Man, told both EA and Def Jam “Ya either going to get down or lay down.”  After security beat’em down and threw them out the building both Def Jam and EA said ” Hey maybe their idea can work?” No, No, No, that’s just my imagination at work, but I wish things could have been that dramatic. Anyway, Def Jam: Vendetta, hit the scene and to everyone’s surprise it was actually a good game. With a large number of Hip hop artists, venues, create a character mode, different choices of fighting styles, super moves,  and great story how could you go wrong? Both Gamer and critics agreed that EA Big made a great game.

For More info on Def Jam: Vendetta Click link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Jam_Vendetta

Now was this a lucky moment? Or was this the start of something awesome? I think a sequel will tell us whether this was a fluke or not.

OMG They actually Did it!

In 2004 something spectacular happened. A new Def Jam Game came out and it was better then ever. Def Jam Fight For NY kicked in the doors of the main stream and rocked our worlds with even better gameplay, more hiphop stars, interactive environments, a more detailed create your own fighter and fighting customization. Even the story got better with Cali’s own Big Snoop Dogg being the big, bad, uhh well, DOG  at the end of it all. Come on, who doesn’t remember WC’s Blazin mode when he did the C walk then stab you with the West side Fingers. Everyone who has played the game can agree that Def Jam: Fight For NY was one of the best and fun fighting game they’ve played. What made it even better was that in 2007  EA released Def Jam’s: The TakeOver for PSP, which was basically a hand held version of Fight for NY. To us Gamers, there was no where to go but up, EA did something great, they took the old formula and improved on it rather than changing it.

For More info on both Def Jam: Fight for NY & The Takeover Click link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Jam:_Fight_for_NY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Jam_Fight_for_NY:_The_Takeover

Def Jam: Fight for NY and Def Jam: The TakeOver Came and took over.

After couple of years and a new generation of gaming consoles it was time for fans to get a new Def Jam Game. Now the bench mark was set – all EA had to do was improve the graphics, add hip hop stars we haven’t seen, more venues, and improved the game play, Why? because the games formula had nothing wrong with it, all they had to do was fine tune it. But Noooooo somebody had to say ” Let’s change everything and give it a fresh start!” Then Def Jam Icon was born, a shiny piece of diamond studded Doki. The only thing good about Def Jam Icon was that Anthony Anderson was the final boss. Don’t get me wrong the game looked good, but that’s it.  The guy behind it at the time Kudo Tsunoda general manager of EA Chicago actually said ” Instead of having some seedy underground fight club, where these famous Hip Hop artist hang out, and fight people, which never really made a lot of sense to me. The game revolves around building your own record label.” When he said this I had a bad feeling in my gut about Def Jam Icon.

First, what does a rapper fighting other rappers have to do with building a record label. My issue with some developers is that they feel some things have to make sense. In games and movies alike some of the best stories are told from the realm of the unimaginable. No one but Kudo cared about why Hip Hop artist where fighting just that they where fighting at all, but I could forgive that, if the game play didn’t change. So did it? Oh my goodness yes, but for the worst. From over the top blaze mode and a wide array of fighting styles, we got instead the same combinations of moves, a limited amount of characters, and a retarded music based game changer that you had to keep up in order to win the fight. Where’s the truly interactive back ground environment, and the bottles over the head we know and love?

For more info on Def Jam Icons Click link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Jam:_Icon

Wow it look’s so Shi– ugh, Shiny yeah that’s it shiny!

I love you EA I do, but our Def Jam series was murdered, and we deserve another one worth the weight of fight of NY. Guys, if you want good games you have to demand it! We pay about $65.00 tax included for horrible games sometimes, and instead of a refund. We have to turn it in to GameStop for a crappy $20 or $15. What’s even worst is when you love a franchise like Def Jam and you buy a game off the strength of the name and brand it was built on only to not get what you excepted. I’m sorry but no, Heck NO! I’m not settling. I know I want another, and better Def Jam title, Developers want it and more importantly you the Gamers want one. So I ask you to take this article and use it as motivation to Demand it. They can call it Def Jam: East vs West, South vs North, Fight for the industry they just need another. The Def Jam game series can be reborn if you tell them you want it.

Thank you for reading and heres some Blazin moves for ya:

Don’t Just Be Fit, Be Gamer Fit

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