Def Jam: Icon (Xbox 360)

Graphics: 9/10

This is easily the highlight of Icon, everything from the characters to the environments are absolutely jaw-dropping! All the rappers from Method Man, Lil Jon, Young Jeezy, E-40 are spitting images of themselves. The various venues through the game such as Penthouse, 106 & Park, Gas Station, The Club all feature stunning visuals! Graphics are obviously what EA's attention were strictly focused on during the making of the game, and it definitely shows!

Icon is heavily based on music, during the gameplay you'll see the environment bounce up and down to the beat of a song. After first witnessing it, I was completely blown away by that feature its definitely a nice touch.

The explosions, sparks and all around pizazz that occur in all 8 (yes, only 8) of the destructible environments, certainly makes the other sour notes of the game easier to swallow.

Gameplay 4/10

Gameplay is obviously the most important factor in practically any game and sadly this is where the game fails miserably at. For starters, the fighting system is very much what I'd consider lacking in most basic fundamental area, and that it has absolutely zero depth!

The game is shallower than a mud puddle. All the matches consist of very slow moving rappers that can barely fart straight, let alone toss a punch. I swear it feels like you're fighting deep underwater during some of these fights.

Not to mention the game has very unresponsive controls, which is incredibly frustrating at times! Oh, and did I mention the fighting is controlled "partially" by the right analog and d-pad control stick?! Which the AI gladly seems to take advantage of during matches, thanks to the new horrible control scheme. Oh, and did I mention the fighting is controlled by the analog and d-pad control stick? Seriously, what on earth were EA thinking when they implemented these controls?

I know they thought in their minds they'd just steal Fight Night's controls and possibly have a successful game. Did they honestly think that would work well with a fighting game? Either way, the game boils down to your "favorite" rapper using incredibly repetitive, stiff movement as they lay waste to another mainstream rapper. None of the fighting styles that each rapper uses doesn't really play a factor into the game, cause all the controls and responses are exactly the same.

For instances, if you toss a kick to your opponent they'll either stumble backwards, or end up flying back as if they're in some low-budget action film. That's for practically any movement you do, even punches have the exact same result. As for the throws, (which look very wimpy) are controlled by the right analog stick, you'll just grab them and toss them into the nearest environmental hazard. You can use the d-pad to execute 4 different throws, all of which are fairly lame looking, wouldn't impress anyone who've played previous Def Jam games.

Overall 6/10

I Strongly feel that EA has ruined a amazing series. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll rethink the direction they're taking Def Jam and bring it back to its roots. If they don't decide to do this, then they might as well kiss any Def Jam purchases from me in the future, goodbye! Right now, I wouldn't recommend anyone to purchase this game, my suggestion is just to rent it and move on or wait for the price to drop.

its a great game. it has a lot of celebratis and cool music plus you can use the analog stick as dj turntables to control the fight woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This game is a disgrace to the original 2 def jam games. The fighting system has been changed completely and is VERY VERY slow.