Def Jam Icon is a bit of an old game for the Xbox 360, but we recently got our hands on this title and decided to give the wheels of steel a beating and a review.

Presentation and Graphics: The game is visually appealing and the characters, which span from Big Boi, E-40, The Game, Ghostface Killah, Jim Jones, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Method Man, Paul Wall, Redman, Sean Paul, Sticky Fingaz, T.I., Young Jeezy, etc. all look spot on. The environments are semi interactive in that you can throw people in to the background and make it explode, catch fire, or whack your opponent. The damage that is visible on the characters as the fight goes on is pretty good as well; nothing beats seeing a rapper get his ass beat and has black and blues. 3 of 5

Sound and Music: This game has no lack of soundtrack, you have a great lineup formtop to bottom that sounds great and is integral during fights, the song you choose gives you bonuses to damage as long as it plays and makes the environment explode with the bass. You can also import your own songs from your HDD in order to play those while fighting. The voice acting is pretty decent also; I am pleased to say that there is no lack of sound here. 4 of 5

Gameplay: The game for me lost a lot of points in this category. For those of you that are used to the previous incarnations of Def Jam this one will seem slower and clunkier, and also less wrestling intense. The striking mechanic is very similar to Fight Night where different movements on the right stick pull off different moves and grapples. Most of all the game becomes very frustrating especially on Hard since the computer will whoop your ass and exploit the environments as much as possible. The environments almost overwhelm the game at times and landing strikes or moves become useless when you can just toss an opponent into some fire for a lot more damage. I was a bigger fan of the old grappling/wrestling mechanic and was very frustrated by this new style, which made me ultimately stop playing. 2 of 5

Online: The online play was very smooth and there are many achievements you can grab online, unfortunately I was plagued with problems at the end of matches where my system would freeze and I would get a DNF (Did not finish) as a result. Not sure if others had similar problems, but this killed the online experience for me. 3 of 5

Lasting Appeal: Def Jam Fans will take some getting used to the new mechanics and gameplay, but the career mode is very deep and actually fun. The Build a Label (Career mode) offers a deep experience where you can manage artists, soundtracks, chart hits, clothing lines, crooked cops, girlfriends, the whole nine yards. Playing through the career mode and then having some local multiplayer with buddies will keep you busy for a few. 3 of 5

Final Word: Def Jam was put together nicely and offers a lot unfortunately the gameplay itself is where it goes wrong. This is a shame since they got many elements right and the most fundamental one was lacking.

Overall: 3 of 5

1 = Not worth the bandwidth.

2= Demo is enough, not worth your money.

3= Game is good, depending on the price, seriously consider picking it up.

4= Worth your money. Should provide some good times for quite awhile.

5= Buy the game. Lock your door. Pick up a case of beer. This could take all night.