20 Years Later: Still Need More Def Jam
On this website, we’ve spoken a great deal about the Def Jam games – to the point that former Def Jam Recordings president Kevin Liles even tweeted out a screenshot from our article, hinting at an impending new game in the series. Two years and twenty days after Vendetta released, though, we still don’t have anything new from Def Jam yet! I guess we’re still here beefin’ now Kev! Plus, your post didn’t really credit us at all? Double beef!
At this point, fan demand for a new entry in the series or at least a remake/re-release of both Def Jam Vendetta and Fight For New York is undeniable. Petitions, rappers and other celebrities have voiced their desire to see something happen with regards to Def Jam franchise return; yet we still don’t know why that hasn’t happened yet – and perhaps never will. Nonetheless, the fact that we haven’t seen another Def Jam game in years is an absolute tragedy.
The initial two Def Jam titles seemed like the ideal pairing, taking AKI Corporation’s successful wrestling engine from WWF No Mercy and merging it with hip-hop culture. Vendetta featured superstar rappers such as DMX, Ghostface Killah, Joe Budden, Method Man and Redman engaging in some of the most over-the-top wrestling moves ever shown in video games.
Fight For New York took things even further with Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Fat Joe and others as featured artists in its sequel. While wrestling influences may have felt less prominent here than in its predecessor, you could still suplex someone or make them tap out to an armbar with ease. Plus there were some Mortal Kombat-esque stage fatalities as well – it was truly awesome!
Unfortunately, EA decided to experiment with the formula too much with Def Jam: Icon, the third game in the series, ditching its iconic gameplay for a combat system borrowed from Fight Night which didn’t quite work out as intended. A sequel was planned but ultimately cancelled and Rapstar followed as an attempt at copying Singstar which led to lawsuits over incorrect song rights – they didn’t possess any!
At present, it appears that AKI Corporation has rebranded to Syn Sophia and is focused on arcade titles and Nintendo Switch ports, while EA appears to have prioritized UFC when it comes to combat-based games. While a new Def Jam game or port of the old ones seems unlikely at this time, that wouldn’t stop someone else from creating some form of spiritual successor in the future.
Will Def Jam ever release another album? While it appears unlikely, they haven’t stopped themselves from hinting at an impending new one in recent months. Eventually though, all this tease must lead to something tangible; otherwise fan excitement over a potential re-release will quickly turn into bitter resentment.
