Def jam: Icon is fun.
It’s got a simple, smooth and responsive control. When combined with its methodical pace, it makes for a very tactical game of attack and counter attack. It reminds me of Powerstone, all its countering moves, blocking then exploiting, leveraging the environment.
The stages environmental effects are pretty amazing. At various times you’ll be slugging it out among cities being shook apart, penthouses engulfed in flame, and skyscraper roofs. All self destructing in perfect sync to the music.
It’s got a fun strategic layer of financial management that’s part strike commander and part playboy: the mansion. You gain and retain artists through “combat resolution”, which in this game means the stage fights. These artists, on their own, spew a single that you promote with your bankroll. If it does well, you have more cash to finance and produce reality tv-shows and repair trashed hotel rooms.
There’s some story and it’s fairly indecipherable, though it does add a very genuine alien-ness to the atmosphere. Fighting it out with all these crazy, slouching dudes with star wars bounty hunter names like E-40 and T. I, there’s a definite science fiction vibe to it if you cross your eyes a little.
It’s got roughly the same character creator from fight night 3, and a shallow shopping RPG. For some reason dragging the controller to the corners in the face maker always creates the most interesting characters IMO. Sadly this tends to make my characters look almost identical between games that let you customize your avatar (Frog faced white dudes with bleached braids: fight night 3, saint’s row, now icon).
I chuckled when I leveled to “producer” on the icon chart, which was right above “hustler” but not quite “hit maker”.
It’s got a simple, smooth and responsive control. When combined with its methodical pace, it makes for a very tactical game of attack and counter attack. It reminds me of Powerstone, all its countering moves, blocking then exploiting, leveraging the environment.
The stages environmental effects are pretty amazing. At various times you’ll be slugging it out among cities being shook apart, penthouses engulfed in flame, and skyscraper roofs. All self destructing in perfect sync to the music.
It’s got a fun strategic layer of financial management that’s part strike commander and part playboy: the mansion. You gain and retain artists through “combat resolution”, which in this game means the stage fights. These artists, on their own, spew a single that you promote with your bankroll. If it does well, you have more cash to finance and produce reality tv-shows and repair trashed hotel rooms.
There’s some story and it’s fairly indecipherable, though it does add a very genuine alien-ness to the atmosphere. Fighting it out with all these crazy, slouching dudes with star wars bounty hunter names like E-40 and T. I, there’s a definite science fiction vibe to it if you cross your eyes a little.
It’s got roughly the same character creator from fight night 3, and a shallow shopping RPG. For some reason dragging the controller to the corners in the face maker always creates the most interesting characters IMO. Sadly this tends to make my characters look almost identical between games that let you customize your avatar (Frog faced white dudes with bleached braids: fight night 3, saint’s row, now icon).
I chuckled when I leveled to “producer” on the icon chart, which was right above “hustler” but not quite “hit maker”.
