This is a fun over-the-top version of AKI's legendary wrestling engine with a bunch of playable rap artists in it. Some of the mat impact sounds from when a big move is landed is some of the most satisfying shit I've heard in a game.

What really fucks Def Jam Vendetta in the long run though compared to its spiritual predecessors or really any other wrestling game at the time is its severe lack of match types and create-a-wrestler. Hell, there isn't even weapons in this game despite the fact they're used at least twice in cutscenes in the story mode. Granted at least one of those times was a fucking glock, but hey it still counts.

It's still very fun playing an AKI wrestler at a much faster game speed with crazier moves, but even back then the lack of CAW just really bummed me out especially when other EA Big games were letting you create your own players. No cage matches too just doesn't make any sense to me in this setting, thankfully Fight for NY brought them back in some form despite it leaning more towards general street fighting. The story mode is also short and the game expects you to play through multiple times to unlock everything, which is pretty obvious padding. So yeah, I don't think the game will hold your interest terribly long. Pretty much a perfect rental back in the day.

I will give massive props to this game in that it helped me expand my music tastes a bit. It might surprise you but I was one of those "rap is crap" kids growing up and listened to nothing but metal and hard rock, so playing games like this was basically my gateway into other music genres.