Brawling to the Beat

The Def Jam series of fighting games has enjoyed a long run of success, and with Def Jam: ICON™ marking the debut of the series on a next-gen console, developer/publisher EA Games has re-invented the series to better embrace its hip hop roots and its jaw-crushing fight mechanics.

It looks even better in motion.

Beat-Centric
Music has always been at the heart of the Def Jam games, but now it plays a central role in the fighting mechanics. The introduction of DJ control allows you to seize control of the music in the middle of a fight and use the beats to influence the outcome. For example, you can now scratch to the beat of the music mid-fight to trigger environmental hazards for massive damage.

What's more, your fighter is tuned to a specific song of your choice, and when it plays, you score a boost in both strength and speed. If your rival's song comes on, you can break out your DJ skills to flip the beat to your advantage.

Gamers can battle to the rhythm of their own
music, exclusively on Xbox 360.

Incorporating the music into the fight mechanics is a welcome addition to the Def Jam series, marrying the hip hop license and its raw tracks to the brutal brawls the game is known for.

Stylin'
Not everyone brawls the same, and with six unique styles, variety is the order of the day in Def Jam: ICON. More important than merely looking unique though, each style provides a different set of strengths and weaknesses to help you tailor your strategy. For example, Beatboxer fighters will give you an edge in scratching and grapples, but have less strength in counter moves, song flips, and recovery from high-powered attacks.

Build a Label
The single-player campaign in Def Jam: ICON is called Build a Label, and focuses more on the music than ever before. After proving your worth to music mogul Curtis Carver in a club fight, your custom-created character is tapped as an up-and-coming hip hop sensation.

Scratch for an explosive advantage.

Your duties initially fall to protecting the interests of the label by defending artists from stalker fans and aggressive photographers, but after a few short fights, you get a much more serious responsibility: Marketing hot new tracks from rappers like Ludacris, Big Boi, and The Game. With your success tied to both your financial acumen as well as your fighting skills, ICON creates a more involved and strategic game than ever before.

Custom Tracks
Gamers can battle to the rhythm of their own music, exclusively on Xbox 360™. Any song on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive can be imported by accessing the My Soundtrack feature. Even more impressive though, is the game's ability to time the environmental hazards in any level to the beat of any song. You can help this along by identifying the genre of the selected song, such as electronica, country, and so on.

Stable of Talent
While the songs themselves play a starring role, the premiere draw is, of course, the artists. Not only will you meet and work with many hip hop icons throughout your Build a Label career, but you can also unlock and play as top level talent like Method Man, Ludacris, Sean Paul, and Ghostface Killah.

Down and out.

Featurific
Games that undergo fundamental changes often have features stripped from previous versions, but not so with ICON. In addition to the revolutionary beat-based gameplay and the robust Build a Label campaign, you can also brawl online against friends and competitors via Xbox Live®. You can spend time acclimating to the new controls and fighting methods with training fights, or build a completely custom stable of characters using EA's F.A.C.E. technology.

Def Jam: ICON is at once familiar and unique as it stays true to the banging, hip hop presentation, gritty storyline, and raw music of the previous titles, while revolutionizing its core gameplay. EA's willingness to take a chance gives this series a fresh start for the next generation of gaming.

Article by Ryan Treit