Video Game Review: Def Jam Vendetta

Release Date: April 1, 2003

Consoles: Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube

Publishers: EA Sports BIG

Developers: AKI Corporation

It has been a while, hasn’t it? That could mean a lot of things. The last time I updated this. The last time I had played this game. To top it off, the time when this game out. It has been two decades. Oh, yes, do I have memories of when I first heard about this game and also played it.

To give a history lesson, I remember back when I was in high school. I was in 11th grade at the time and reading Entertainment Weekly and finding something about this game and wondering “huh?” I wasn’t sure what to think, except that it was a fighting game and it had rappers. Then I remembered that Wu-Tang game that came out in 1999, which I didn’t play until later (I really should cover “Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style” someday, maybe soon). This was also when licensed video games, whether they are based on movies/TV shows or even related to celebrities, didn’t have the best reputation. I recall that there was a Britney Spears game, which I didn’t play until much later, but at that time, I had read that it was decent in the gameplay sense. I did say that I played it at some point and did kind of enjoy it.

Back to this game, when I saw a commercial for it, I found that it wasn’t a fighting game, per se, but rather a wrestling game. On top of that, this was also developed by AKI Corporation, the same team behind those wrestling games for the Nintendo 64 like “WCW vs. NWO: World Tour,” “WCW/NWO Revenge,” “WWF (later WWE) Wrestlemania 2000,” and “WWF No Mercy.” When I found out about it, I was like “oh, I can be on board with this.” Being both a hip-hop head and a wrestling fan, I knew I would be right at home with it. Being that I also had played those aforementioned games, there was no way I wasn’t going to try it.

I didn’t play it until the summer of 2003. I was in summer school at the time, going into 12th grade. A friend of mine offered to let me borrow it, which I accepted and ended up loving the game, enough that I asked for it for my birthday not long after. Because I had wanted to do a post on this game (and the sequel, which I will do soon), I knew I had to go back to it, and man, it still holds up and I get a warm sense of nostalgia from my teen years while playing it.

So with all of this being said, let’s get right to the review.

With this game featuring rappers, it’s no secret that this game has a hip-hop theme to go with it. This game featured 12 hip-hop artists who were on Def Jam Records at the time this game was made. You had the likes of Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, N.O.R.E., Capone, Keith Murray, DMX (RIP), Scarface, WC, Ghostface Killah, Joe Budden, and Funkmaster Flex, who was mainly a commentator for the action and was also an unlockable playable character. Funny thing about Joe Budden, this game was how I found out about him. I had no idea he was a newly-signed artist when I found him on the game’s website back then, and then his debut self-titled album came out a couple of months after this game’s release. I remember I became a fan of his. This was also still before Slaughterhouse was formed, as well as way before he had his podcast.

However, it isn’t just rappers in the game as there are also fictional characters created by Electronic Arts in it. Not a bad thing by any means. You can’t have everyone in the game be a celebrity, right?

So with the inclusion of rappers, there had to be some songs of theirs on soundtrack, right? Of course. I noticed that there were a few songs from DMX in this game, as well as a couple of other songs that happened to be on the soundtrack to 2003’s “Cradle 2 the Grave,” which was released around that time. Also, a lot of the artists had songs on the soundtrack, with the exception of Ludacris. His song “Saturday (Ooh! Ooh!)” was supposed to be on it but didn’t make the cut. Then again, Christina Milian (who voiced a prominent character in the story; more on this in a bit) was supposed to have a song on the soundtrack but didn’t end up being in the game. Then you also had songs by Public Enemy, Onyx, and less-than-well-known and possible then-up-and-comer Comp.

While the songs are played during the menu bits, during the fights, the songs’ instrumentals play, which add to the atmosphere of the game. As for other things in the sound department, the voice-acting was fine. There really wasn’t a lot except some dialogue in cutscenes and pre and post-match quotes from the fighters. Plus, Funk Flex’s commentary was decent as you would hear him spout lines when a move is done.

The visuals were cartoony as they were done by EA Sports BIG, whom had done some games like “SSX” and “NBA Street” at that point. The game’s maps for the fight venues were designed well and it was also interested to see some spectators in the crowd, as well as fully-developed NPC models during the cutscenes.

The gameplay is where the game truly shines. As I had said before, the game’s wrestling engine was the same as those Nintendo 64 wrestling games with the grappling system being a key element to deliver on offense. Controls also apply here as this game has an attack button and a grapple button. Of course, there are other buttons such as to block/counter, to run, among other things. So if you tap attack, you deliver a weak attack. You hold down the attack button, you deliver a strong attack. You tap the grapple button and push either attack or grapple (in various directions), you deliver a weak grapple move. You hold down the grapple button… you probably already have an idea.

Like the old N64 games, you have various ways to win the match, whether it’s by pinfall, submission, or knockout if you use a “Blazin'” move. Okay, in the older wrestling games, you always got the “SPECIAL” blinking on the spirit meter to hit your finishing move. The thing about the the spirit meter in those games was that in depended if you were low on health or momentum or high enough and the higher you were, the better chance you would win. In this game, however, you have two meters: one is the momentum that depending on your stamina and charisma and when you increase, you’ll get to “Blazin'” mode, while there was also a health meter. When you’re “Blazin’,” you could hit one of two finishers depending on where you grapple, whether it’s in front or from behind. If your opponent is in “Danger” on their health meter, then you win by KO.

Now let’s get to the big part of the game – the story.

The intro of this game gave you an idea on what to expect here. It’s not really a deep story, but if you play games from the PS2, GC, and original Xbox era, there really wasn’t a whole lot of depth to them, especially some from the early-2000s (like 2001-2003 or 2004 at the latest).

So basically, you play as one of four heroes of story mode, whether it’s Briggs, an ex-Marine, Proof, a superbike racer, Spider, probably a street hustler, or Tank, a Japanese rapper. It doesn’t matter who you play as because the story plays the same for each protagonist, and none of the heroes actually speak during the game. You are a disgraced fighter in the underground fighting world. An old friend of yours needs your help because he is high in debt with a crime boss named D-Mob. However, the hero sees an old flame, Angel (portrayed by and modeled after Christina Milian), in the process, who just so happens to be with D-Mob. Of course, you fight people to move up in the ranks, some of whom are famous rappers (at least at that time). Somehow you meet some women who can become your girlfriend and they can engage in cat fights. Of course, with this story not being so deep, Angel somehow rekindles her feelings for you and then at some point you fight D-Mob. The end. Deep, right? Didn’t think so.

Did I mention that each of the girlfriends has photo galleries and if you choose to be with one of them during story mode and then she ditches you, you can unlock all of the pictures? Oh, don’t worry, the ladies were modeled after real-life models, so the pictures you see are actually them, not their character models. Here’s proof:

While on this subject, I know that you could stay with whichever girl you choose, or you could move onto another. It really doesn’t matter, though, because it’s obvious who you’ll end up with at the end. Anyway, I recall seeing two cutscenes, whether it’s your character staying with your woman after winning. Or if you choose another woman and win. However, I had read in the instruction manual and strategy guide that there are other results, whether it’s you choose to stay with your woman and she loses, or you choose the other woman and she loses to your current girlfriend. Each result has different reactions, but I had never seen the latter examples until very recently when I found videos on YouTube. I had even thought of experimenting them on my own. Good thing I found those videos.

Another thing I should mention is that the Japanese version of this game has two Japanese rappers in that version. They are Dabo and S-Word, both of whom are real-life rappers. They replaced Ghostface and Capone, according to the Def Jam Wrestling wiki. They also had songs in that version of the game. While I have seen how these characters played in that version, I don’t think I would have my PS2 modded and have this version imported just to see for myself. I don’t think it’s worth it, but hey, never say never.

Wow, I went on for a little longer than I thought. Well, being that this was one of my favorite games from my teen years (and still might be one of my favorites now), I knew that I had a lot to say about it. I would definitely put this on my Top 5 of favorite wrestling games for the PS2. I could be biased because this game mixed my fandoms of hip-hop and professional wrestling and it worked (now I must review John Cena’s album). I may still like this game and it would probably rank highest if the sequel after this wasn’t much better.

That’s right, now I need to get to “Def Jam Fight for NY,” which was, in my opinion, a superior sequel.