So we’ve got all the aesthetics down, what could possibly go wrong, especially with Kudo Tsunoda and his crew working on the game? Well, the controls are slow and unresponsive, the kiss of death for a fighting game. And while I chalked this up to a steep learning curve at first, due to the usage of both analog sticks and triggers, as well as the face buttons, it is just not the same experience that Fight Night was. Here, you are battling frustration at every turn, whether it’s trying to kick a downed opponent while your kick goes into the air instead of the ground, hence leading to you getting pounded as your opponent rises, or missing the opportunity to do certain moves because an animation needs to run its course before you do something else.

An interesting aspect of the game is the use of the left trigger and the analog sticks to simulate the scratching of a record, which allows you to switch songs and trigger environmental explosions that can damage your opponents. But again, this has aspects which are frustrating in the best of times and simply unfair in others. In the later parts of the game, I actually got to the point where I was bringing up the optional health HUD, just to see why I wasn’t finishing my foes off. And what I saw there was that I was eliminating my opponent’s health, but simple strikes weren’t finishing him off. I needed to pull off a grappling throw or environmental attack to end the fight, though my opponent wasn’t forced to jump through the same hoops to take me out.

As mentioned earlier, the fights become long and drawn out chores once the initial novelty has worn off, with the face buttons virtually useless as you exclusively spin the right analog stick to land haymakers or spinning backfists.

Bottom line, after loving the first two Def Jam games, I was sorely disappointed by Def Jam: Icon. But with Tsunoda and his team still in the driver’s seat, I have high hopes that they’ll get it right with the next one, and renew my faith in the franchise.