- "The Fight Begins"
- —Game's Tagline
Def Jam Fight For NY: The Takeover is a fighting game for the PlayStation Portable. The game is a port of Def Jam: Fight for NY. In addition to nearly all of the features seen in the original game, The Takeover includes new dirty moves, four new venues, and 68 playable characters.
Story
The game's story is a prequel to the events of Def Jam Vendetta. However, the game uses many of the same situations and characters from Fight for NY, which is the third game in the series, chronologically. You still play a nameless up-and-coming gangsta brought into the world of underground street fighting after rescuing one of the game's personalities from trouble with the police. However, instead of D-Mob being freed from police custody, like in Fight for NY, it is tattoo artist Manny who is saved from corrupt police officers. Manny takes you to O.G., your "mentor", who instructs you in how to fight to gain control of (take over) the five boroughs of New York City. Eventually, O.G. is murdered by the hands of Crow, leaving D-Mob to step in and use you as his number one fighter. Ultimately, it is revealed that D-Mob was using you to take over the five boroughs, controlling New York City's underground, and that he was going to leave you to take the fall, leading police to your exact whereabouts. After defeating D-Mob in the story's final battle, a one-on-one fight at the 125th Street Station, you decide to leave the underground fight scene for good. It is safe to say that, since this is a prequel story, D-Mob recovers from the fight and, with nobody in New York to stop him, builds his empire that is seen in Vendetta.
Character creation is still the same as Fight for NY. Just like in the original, only male characters can be created. You still create your character using the same type of police sketch-artist system. A new addition is choosing your character's home town from one of the five boroughs of New York City. From there, the game flows similarly to Fight for NY, featuring many of the same fighting arenas and shops with which to upgrade your character's clothing, jewelry, hair, and fighting moves.
The story is no longer told through fully voiced cutscenes. For The Takeover, certain events are narrated by Manny. The story also progresses through text and messages received on your character's sidekick communicator.
Also, since the game uses many of the graphical assets seen in 2004's Fight for NY, it does not reflect physical changes seen in some of the celebrities featured in the game. For example, Busta Rhymes, in the role of Magic, still has his dreadlock hairstyle, which he cut in late 2005. Also, Ludacris still has his cornrow hairstyle, which he would cut in the summer of 2006.
Gameplay
Gameplay remains largely similar to Fight for NY. You still base your character's fighting style from among a pool of five different fighting styles:
The game's new features also allow it make other fighting styles depending on the ones that are chosen such as Capoeira, Jeet Kune Do and Drunkin Boxing.
Changed features from the original Fight for NY
Some new features have been added to the fighting engine.
- Before fights, characters may be able to hit or otherwise effect their opponent before the fight actually begins, giving them a slight health, weapon, or position advantage from the start. Also, a new mount maneuver has been added, allowing the player to mount fallen opponents and punch them while they lie on the ground. The player also has the ability to execute a submission from this position if the submission style was learned. To counteract abuse of this maneuver, the grounded player may throw dirt in his opponents eyes, temporarily stunning them. A reversal, causing a switch in position, is also possible. Plus, using a finishing move (ex. a Blazin' Move) can KO an opponent, if it reaches Danger before the final blow.
- New venues such as The Bunker, Terminal Offload, The Dead End and The Barge have also been added to the game.
- A new blazing environmental move have been added to The Barge allowing players to throw their opponents overboard.
- The Martial Arts stance animation is replaced with the stance used for Capoeira.
- Suspect, who was an unlockable in Def Jam Fight for NY, is absent in the takeover.
- Circuit announcers, DJ Enuff and DJ Felli Fel are not heard during matches.
- Matches such as Free for All , Team Match and Inferno Match are absent possibly due to size capacity.
- Blazin' themes and loading screen theme are also absent from the game.
- Some fighting arenas are only set to their second stage. For instance, 7th Heaven is set to the Club DTP setting and Hunt's Point Scrapyard is set to After hours despite their names.
Crews
The crews in The Takeover are split into 5 different boroughs. The player can choose which crew to be apart of during the customizing sequence. O.G. will be the leader of whatever crew you join. Your Crew's territories are marked by map pin colors. After reaching a certain point in the storyline, when you become the new O.G., you will be able to recruit members to your crew. You can recruit up to 15 members before taking on Crow. House, Pockets and Snowman are automatically added to your crew.
Staten Island Crew
- Blaze (O.G., if you didn't choose this crew)
- Bo
- Comp
- Doc (Second Man)
- Erick Sermon
- Flava Flav
- Ghostface Killah (Lieutenant)
- Trick
Hoods/Territory: The Barge, The Bunker, The Dead End, and Terminal Offload.
Map Pin Color: Blue
Brooklyn Crew
- Bone Crusher
- Bubba Sparxxx (Lieutenant)
- David Banner
- Fam-Lay
- Lil' Flip
- Ludacris (O.G., if you didn't choose this crew)
- Meca
- O.E.
- Scarface (Second Man)
Hoods/Territory: The Babylon, Club 357, The Pit, and Red Hook Tire Co..
Map Pin Color: Black
Manhattan Crew
- Crow (O.G., if you didn't choose this crew)
- Crack (If you choose this crew)
- Cruz
- Ice-T (Lieutenant)
- Mack 10
- Nyne
- Warren G
- WC (Second Man)
- Xzibit
Hoods/Territory: 125TH Street Station, Club Murder, Red Room, and Seventh Heaven.
Map Pin Color: White
Queens Crew
- Capone (O.G., if you didn't choose this crew)
- Dan G
- Freeway
- Joe Budden
- Memphis Bleek
- N.O.R.E. (Second Man)
- Rome
- Sticky Fingaz (Lieutenant)
Hoods/Territory: The Chopshop, The Heights, The Limit, and Syn Energy Power Plant.
Map Pin Color: Yellow
The Bronx Crew
- Crow (O.G., if you choose the Manhattan crew)
- Crack (O.G., if you didn't choose the Manhattan crew and this crew)
- Crazy Legs (Second Man)
- Elephant Man
- Sean Paul
- Skull
- Slick Rick (Lieutenant)
- Solo
- Trejo
Hoods/Territory: The Foundation, Gauntlet, Gun Hill Garage, and The Terror Dome.
Map Pin Color: Red
Dragon House Fighters (Non-Joinable)
Hoods/Territory: Dragon House
Map Pin Color: White
Goofs/Glitches
- Magic has Nyne's blazin' yell.
- Doc has Blaze's blazin' yell.
- Santos uses the Let's Dance blazin' move instead of his Filipino Pride blazin' move from Def Jam Fight for NY.
- Lil' Flip fights in the Tang Lang Quan Martial Arts' style instead of his Capoeira fighting style in Fight for NY.
- Based on the in-game's text messages in story mode, Baxter appears to be running the Syndicate Urban Streetwear store. However, the game still uses Snowman's dialogue when purchasing items.
- If using the smooth voice for your character, one of his fighting intros uses the gruff voice instead of the smooth voice.
- Sometimes, when defending an area you've taken over in staten island, Lil Flip will be the one attacking even if he's in your crew already. If you choose Lil Flip to defend the arena, there will be two Lil Flips fighting eachother.
An example of the Lil' Flip glitch.
Reception
The game was met with positive reception, as GameRankings gave it a score of 79.03%, while Metacritic gave it 79 out of 100.