Def Jam Hints That New Fighting Game Could Be Coming Soon

The boys at Def Jam are once again teasing the existence of the fourth entry in their iconic series of fighting games. Emerging during the PlayStation 2 era, both Def Jam: Vendetta and Def Jam: Fight for NY are heralded as classics of their time. Players went up against a murderer’s row of hip-hop artists in a lengthy story mode that featured authentic voice work throughout. The games were published by Electronic Arts and developed by AKI, the makers of the best wrestling games of the previous generation. That engine carried over into the first two Def Jam games, riding on the waning success of sports entertainment.

The mixture of professional wrestling and larger than life hip-hop personalities was unique, and the franchise’s popularity spawned similar concoctions like the legendary cult classic, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. By the time the third game in the franchise came around, the mixture was deemed unfitting, and Def Jam: Icon emerged with gameplay inspired by developer EA Chicago’s work on the Fight Night franchise. The game had a unique system where the background music shifted along with the action, but such novel concepts didn’t make for a successful game, and the franchise has remained dormant ever since.

Recently on Twitter, Def Jam Recordings cheekily claimed that “the streets were calling out for a new entry in the franchise. Posting a screenshot of a character select screen from the PS2 classic, the company then stated that it would have a special announcement when its Twitter follower count hit one million or higher. In the comments below the post, some players are posting dream rosters featuring far too many rappers for any one game to contain. Others would be happy with a remaster of the original Def Jam: Battle for NY in the same vein as the recent revivals of Tony Hawk and Crash Bandicoot.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the company has teased a continuation of its video game legacy. Back in the Summer of 2018, the company posted several teases on Twitter, including a poll asking who players might want on the cover of a new Def Jam entry. There was excitement for the game returning then, but nothing came of it other than some promotion for the official Def Jam Twitter account. Those with long memories might see this as a similar stunt just a few years removed.

Would a new or remastered Def Jam game work in 2020? Undoubtedly yes. The two PS2-era games are classics for a reason, and players who sampled them as a child are now grown enough to put out the cash for a return to a nostalgic favorite. However, the truth is that the developer of those games is no longer in the fighting/wrestling business, and publisher EA would likely scoff at the returns for a hip hop fighting game when compared to another new Star Wars moneymaker. Worse still, if Def Jam Recordings were to try to forge ahead with something new, it would likely be a mobile title, a situation that would fail to please anyone. It’d be great to be proven wrong, but Def Jam seems like on franchise that will remain in the past for the time being.

Source: Twitter

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