Some people believe that the professional wrestling industry only exists for unscrupulous television executives to make money by glamorising violence and presenting it in an entertaining way (I guess these people have never heard of rugby).
Like its real-life counterpart, wrestling games have had its share of detractors over the years. The nineties even saw an increased interest in traditional one-on-one fighting titles like Mortal Kombat and Tekken to the cost of the wrestling ones.
Admittedly, a few wrestling titles were released that should never have seen the light of day. Admittedly, every genre has its share of bad games but wrestling has had to put up with more than most.
In some cases, developers are fighting a losing battle to keep up with the ever-increasing soap opera that is professional wresting. One of the problems developers are faced with is creating titles that almost religiously keep to the moves and characteristics of the professional wrestlers they depict.
This realism is not a bad thing but as wrestlers seem to change their signature moves and character traits on an almost weekly basis, you get a situation where the game inevitably is out of date to what you are seeing on television.
Rapping wrestlers cometh
Electronic Arts (EA), in conjunction with Aki, has gone a different route. Instead of developing yet another wrestling game that tries to follow the trials and tribulations of professional wrestling, they have released Def Jam Vendetta.
With Def Jam Vendetta, EA has worked closely with Def Jam Records to offer a wrestling title that features twelve artists from the well-known hip-hop label. The benefit of this is that each artist has been motion-captured and has provided some of their songs for the soundtrack.
These wrestling rappers (or should that be rapping wrestlers?) include Method Man, DMX, Redman and Ghostface Killah. While this might seem like a strange and potentially disastrous combination, Def Jam Vendetta certainly breathes fresh air into a stagnating genre.
It features three game modes (battle, story and survival) and four match types (single, tag team, free for all and handicap).
As with other fighting titles, the player needs to progress in the story mode to unlock new fighters, uniforms and venues. Essentially, you pick one of four wrestlers and get to improve his character traits by spending your hard-earned victory money on several skills.
Beware the scorned girlfriend
An interesting twist in this mode is the introduction of girlfriends. Through winning matches, your wrestler will grab the attention of several women who frequent these matches.
Once you get a girlfriend, you get to unlock her gallery with more pictures of her being unlocked the further you progress. However, should another woman approach you, you need to choose between the two. Inevitably, this choice leads to a brutal wrestling match between the two that proves the female of the species is more deadly (and sadistic) than the male.
While story mode is entertaining, its replay value is limited since choosing different wrestlers do not change game play all that much.
The survival game mode pits you against all the wrestlers in the game in a "play until you lose" scenario. While fun, the lack of being able to save during the competition means that it quickly becomes tedious.
The jury has reached a verdict
The real fun comes in when you play Def Jam Vendetta against your friends. In true GameCube fashion, you can play the game with up to four players. With other human players, it is easy to lose track of time and become immersed in the mayhem on screen. This is especially true in the more frenetic game modes like tag team and free for all.
Sadly, a major annoyance when playing against multiple opponents is the fact that your wrestler seems to target on to one specific opponent and constantly tries to face that opponent. This becomes even more frustrating when the opponent has been pinned and you are left running around trying to wrestle the remaining fighters. Thankfully, your wrestler does adjust after a while.
When all is said and done, Def Jam Vendetta remains a worthy addition to any fighting enthusiast`s collection. The excellent graphics and the inspiring soundtrack combine well for a nice gaming experience.
While the replay value is fairly limited once you have unlocked everything the game has to offer, the multiplayer aspect does make up for this to some extent.
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