Def Jam: Fight for NY

The gameplay is expanded from the original game, which was primarily a wrestling game. Fighters can choose one, two, or three of five fighting styles. The fighting styles are Streetfighting, Kickboxing, Martial Arts, Wrestling and Submissions.

Additionally, Def Jam Fight for NY emphasizes the use of the game's various environments and the surrounding crowd to cause damage. Tossing the opponent against barriers gives fighters an opportunity to inflict massive damage to their opponent by slamming them into the wall headfirst, ramming a door or gate in their face, or using other features of the environment. The crowd will shove a fighter back into combat if he is thrown into them or gets too close, sometimes holding a fighter and leaving them open to attack. Some spectators carry weapons, and will offer them to the fighters, or even attack a fighter if they are held by a nearby onlooker.

Momentum is gained by successfully performing moves, countering, and taunting the opponent. The rate at which momentum is gained is affected by the fighter's Charisma stat, which like other stats varies between fighters. Created fighters can set their own charisma with a combination of clothes, tattoos, and jewelry; the more expensive, the better. A fighter with a good set of clothes, extensive tattoos, or laden with jewellery can often fill their momentum meter in just a few moves.

When the momentum meter is full, a fighter can activate it, which results in a Blazin' Taunt. In this state, the fighter is said to be "Blazin", and can pull off a Blazin' Move, a powerful and brutal attack personalized for each character. A created character can learn every single Blazin' Move in the game, but can only have up to four usable at any one time.

Though the game focuses on mixed fighting styles, the only way to win a fight is through Knock Out or Submission. A character can be made to submit by putting them into submission holds until the health bar of a single body part is depleted.

Knock Out is achieved through a unique health bar used in the game. Health is composed of two bars, the first bar representing a fighter's consciousness and ability to fight (Displayed as an opaque light green), while underneath it is the fighter's physical wellness bar (Displayed as a semi transparent dark green). With every hit, a fighter's consciousness will fall quicker than his/her physical wellness. However, whenever a fighter is not losing health, their consciousness meter will recover up to the maximum current physical wellness. When a fighter's consciousness is lowered to a very low point, the entire health bar will turn red. This indicates that the fighter is in danger of being knocked out. Knocking out an opponent in danger requires the use of strong hits, Blazin' Moves, and environmental moves such as slamming an opponent into the wall, or achieving a double team move with a crowd member, or using a weapon (like a pipe, a bottle, a wooden bat, a shovel, etc.). It is possible to knock out an opponent by beating down their health while their physical wellness remains very high. As a fight wears on, physical wellness will eventually fall low enough that when a fighter's consciousness recovers to the physical limit, it is still too low to turn green. This is sometimes known as permanent danger, meaning a fighter is permanently in danger of being knocked out.

Additionally, each fighting style has a unique way to knock out opponents in danger: streetfighters can attack with a strong punch; wrestlers can perform a strong grapple; kickboxers can complete a kick-combo; submission experts can force the enemy to submit with grapples; and martial artists can perform flying attacks.

The game takes place immediately after Def Jam Vendetta. D-Mob (Chris Judge) is arrested by NYPD cops Starks and Jervis and placed in the back of their cop car when an SUV hits it, causing it to flip over on its back. D-Mob crawls out of the wreckage and boards the SUV as Jervis catches a glimpse of the suspect before passing out. He later describes his appearance to Lauren. The suspect becomes the game's protagonist, nicknamed "The Hero".

Taking D-Mob back to his safehouse, the Hero is introduced to Blaze (Method Man) and Sticky Fingaz, and is conscripted into D-Mob's gang. The Hero builds a reputation for winning numerous fights and clubs for D-Mob, and is given his own safehouse. The Hero also hooks up with one of four female fighters (Cindy J, Kimora Lee, Lil' Kim and Shawnna), after getting into a fight with their boyfriend, Nyne. After winning a match against Ice-T, D-Mob's crew are approached by his rival, Crow (Snoop Dogg), and his crew: Magic, Crack, and Trejo. Crow announces he's accepting fighters in return for more cash, losing D-Mob several clubs and fighters. Later, Carmen Electra and the Hero take notice of each other, getting into a fight with his girlfriend. The winner becomes The Hero's new girlfriend with mixed results.

Moving against Crow, D-Mob then arranges a match for Blaze to go up against Crack, but Blaze loses. After the Hero beats many of Crow's fighters, Crow proposes a winner-take-all match between Crack and D-Mob's "best man". Infuriated that the Hero was picked over him, Sticky storms off and later joins Crow. After the Hero wins a match against Crack, he, Blaze, and D-Mob celebrate in D-Mob' limousine, where the Hero is given a pendant and welcomed into the family. Crow's gang then attempts a drive-by shooting, causing a crash. Uninjured, The Hero chases them to a subway station, where he fights and potentially kills Trejo. while the rest escape. Returning to the limo, a critically injured D-Mob gets the Hero and Blaze to leave him behind as police arrive.

Following D-Mob's arrest, Blaze, the Hero and their remaining crew, beat many of Crow's fighters and take back several clubs. As his empire is chopped away, Crow makes multiple attempts to intimidate and convince the Hero into joining his crew, to no initial avial. Soon, Crow resorts to kidnapping The Hero's girlfriend, blackmailing him to retake all the clubs he has earned for D-Mob, or else she'll kill her; Crow further threatens to kill her if the Hero tells anyone the real reason he switched sides. After the Hero is forced to win back Crow's clubs, turning his friends against him.

When the Hero wins a final match against Doc, a distraught Blaze angrily takes D-Mob's pendant from The Hero. After which, Crow tells The Hero he has one final task for him, having him taken to a scrapyard, where Blaze is brutally beaten by Magic, with the Hero ordered to kill him. The Hero refuses, turning against Crow's crew, with Crack and Magic overpowered by both Hero and an injured Blaze. Beaten, Magic tells The Hero that his girlfriend is being held at an abandoned factory, and that Crow intended to kill her anyways. The Hero and Blaze reach the factory, where Sticky is keeping the Hero's girlfriend hostage. Sticky sets the building on fire, and is killed in the ensuing fight with the Hero. Escaping with his unconscious girlfriend, The Hero and Blaze decide things have gone too far, and set out to confront Crow.

Confronting Crow at his penthouse, The Hero is supported by the remainder of D-Mob's crew, having his name cleared by Blaze. As a fight breaks out between the crews, the Hero corners Crow, getting into a brief standoff with him. With Crow's remaining henchmen turning against him, the Hero initially decides that the cowarding Crow is not worth killing. However, Crow attacks him in a rage, and the ensuing fight ends with the Hero throwing Crow out a window to his death. Having cleared his reputation and overthrown Crow, The Hero then takes a minute to reflect as Blaze gives him back his pendant.

There are features exclusive to PS2 and Xbox that are missing from the GameCube version. The player is restricted to having one voice for the main character - as opposed to the six found in other versions. Eight of the 28 available music tracks are missing. The GameCube's hardware lacks the light blur effect that permeates on the characters and arenas. Furthermore, certain 3 or 4 player arenas have reduced crowds due to the minidisc space limitations.[1]

Josh Holmes, the producer from EA Canada wanted to improve on the already well received Def Jam Vendetta. The research they've done shows that veteran gamers were familiar with the game control system yet new players were intimidated by the complexity that's been used since WCW vs. nWo: World Tour that first appeared on the N64. The team decided to simplify the controls and make them more intuitive: "We found that straight one-on-one fighting tended to get stale over time, no matter how polished the fighting engine was". The team added secondary elements like crowds, weapons and interactive environments for the player to use as a weapon. Lastly, Holmes went on to say that individual players prefer to use their own tactics, so different classes has been implemented in unique ways to achieve a KO: "The overall focus of the fighting system is fun, over-the-top action rather than a simulation of technical fighting".

Also the create-a-fighter mode, a feature lacking in Def Jam Vendetta, has been incorporated into the sequel as a part of the Story Mode. Holmes explains that with other successful fighting games, the convention of a sequel is to add complexity to the control system, multiplayer focus to the exclusion of all else, shallow single player, limited character customization and having a gameplay that's skewed towards the hardcore gamer: "Probably the most common that's typical in fighting games like the first game is that it's empty and devoid of people. Inevitably, there's nothing going on except it's just you and your opponent. So they turned the concept on its head by filling the gap to make the fighting game more interactive and less predictable in order to keep it fresh and accessible for beginners and veterans alike".[2][3]

The game received largely positive reviews. GameSpot and IGN gave it a score of 8.7 out of 10 and GameSpy and X-Play gave it a score of 4 out of 5.[25] GameSpot's Alex Navarro praised the game for improving nearly every aspect from its predecessor, including the new fighting styles, character creation, and interaction with weapons and environments. Criticism generally befell on the game's camera view and frame rate issues that are found in all console versions. Additionally reviewers mentioned that the game is laden with a lot of profanity, though it works within the context of the game. Aside from the frame rate, reviewers praised the game's graphics, with both IGN and GameSpot calling them "impressive".[13] GameSpot later named it the best GameCube game of September 2004.[26] It received runner-up positions in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Fighting Game" and "Best Licensed Music" award categories across all platforms.[27]

Maxim gave it a score of eight out of ten and said: "Should the lyrically challenged feel left out, you can create your own brawler outfitted in ice courtesy of celebrity bling supplier Jacob the Jeweler. Better to look good than to—ow—feel good".[22] The Sydney Morning Herald also gave the game four stars out of five and said that "the fact that it's got the deepest story ever seen in a fighter simply adds to the realistic feel of the brutal combat within".[23]

• Official website
• Def Jam: Fight for NY at MobyGames