Def Jam: Icon

XboxAddict

The game’s music system puts game audio in a brand new light, making it an integral part of the action. The whole game seems to course in line with the music in a synergy that hasn’t been done, but definitely should be replicated.

GameZone

A great entry to the series, combining a fluid control scheme, pulsating environments, and cool simulation features for the most comprehensive Def Jam title yet.

Console Gameworld

DJ controls are surprisingly fun.

PGNx Media

ICON successfully combines the label-management career mode and surprisingly deep fighting. This, coupled with great graphics, interactive environments, and a killer soundtrack, make ICON an easy game to recommend.

Armchair Empire

Spinning a new tune for the franchise, Def Jam ICON’s incredible graphics, a really fresh gameplay innovation, great hip-hop soundtrack, the ability to play to your own “beats” and solid online fighting come together in (Bone, Thugs-N) harmony.

Planet Xbox 360

While the “DJ beat” system is not all it was cracked up to be, the deep story mode, destructible environments, and kick-ass soundtrack polish out the game quite well.

GameSpot

Def Jam: Icon plays well enough, but it really shines thanks to its crazy story mode and healthy roster.

Official Xbox Magazine

Fight for NY was a critical success, so EA has taken a curious risk by remixing the game's features and flow. [Apr 2007, p.84]

Team Xbox

In the end, Def Jam Icon is more like a bump-n-grind slow jam instead of the club banger that it should have been, but it still deserves merit.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine

Icon is a fun ride, but it's got some pretty deep shoes to fill. It is fun and the music features are pretty cool, so give it a look. [Apr 2007, p.46]

Pelit (Finland)

A beat 'em up that is both pretty and a lot of fun with interesting music-related gameplay ideas. The controls are a bit too complicated for a beat 'em up, though. And where has the 4-player game gone? [Mar 2007]

GamePro

But as pretty as the game is, and as great as the soundtrack might be, the game's real draw lies in the eight amazingly detailed rumble locations. [Apr 2007, p.83]

AceGamez

There are some minor drawbacks, but with its innovative fighting style, thumping tracks and visual excellence, Def Jam: Icon offers some fresh new school flava that you really have to savour with your neighbour.

Game Informer

After a while, the recycled environments and repetitive battles start to feel like a chore rather than a reward. [Mar 2007, p.96]

AtomicGamer

While the environments, sound effects and music are some of the best that I’ve seen in a next-gen game yet, I can’t say the same thing for the fighting system that seems to lack variety.

Gamer 2.0

Hip-hop fans will almost certainly have one hell of a time with this game, with the focus on building label and the extensive soundtrack.

Game Revolution

Building a Label isn’t deep, but it’s fun and silly, the engine makes for some nail biting fights, everything looks great, and the musically-timed catastrophes are worth the price of admission alone.

The New York Times

While Icon is the best looking of the Def Jam games, the combat system isn’t quite as entertaining, dropping the previous games’ over-the-top wrestling moves for more straightforward street fighting. It’s not a bad system, but it’s just not as wild and entertaining.

Xbox World Australia

For me, there's too much 'on paper' that is wrong with this game – the music, the characters, the clichés, the lack of options and lack of variety. Yet, in practice and in spite of all this, I did enjoy Def Jam Icon.

Gamer's Hell

Overall, DEF JAM ICON is a decent game, although a little disappointing in that the story line is unaffected by your actions and decisions throughout.

MS Xbox World

There is no doubt that Def Jam Icon is a fun game that is easy to play and full of neat ideas for a fighting game. However due to the lack of depth and variety to the game play means you are left with a basic brawler that simply looks very nice.

GameDaily

Too bad the slow-as-molasses combat (and too-savvy computer-controlled opponents) keep this fighter from rivaling classics like "Tekken," "Street Fighter" and "Soul Calibur," but the innovative use of music, as both an aesthetic and a weapon, adds depth.

WHAM! Gaming

Fantastic visuals, a decent plot and an interesting music-based fighting system are hampered by some tacked-on non-features, iffy controls and a thinner roster of rappers. Bring back Lil Kim!

Official Xbox Magazine UK

It's just a pity there isn't as much variety in the fighting as there is in the outfits, as we could've been looking at an even higher score. [Apr 2007, p.91]

IGN

Weak fighting moves, a lackluster story mode and inconsistent game mechanics complicate what would otherwise be the evolution of the franchise.

ZTGameDomain

The Xbox 360 version of the game lets you import your own music, but besides only being able to use your music in one game mode, the game just doesn’t do a very good job of bumping the background to your music.

GamerNode

The move towards the slower paced boxing style of Fight Night was an interesting concept, but everything else in the game screams wrestler. The combination just doesn't work well.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

Like the previous Def jams, Icon can't decide what kind of game it wants to be. [Apr 2007, p.88]

Play.tm

The whole thing feels like something of a work in progress, full of interesting and potentially brilliant ideas that somehow just fail to live up to their billing.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Even if you don't own every Ludacris album, watching the rich environments rattle to the music is reason enough to give this a play. Just don't expect much depth from this beat 'em up.

1UP

This one's fun, no doubt about it, and the way the beats bang the environment is a must-see. But its lack of fighting depth definitely keeps it on the casual tip.

Play Magazine

There's no way to imagine these fights as anything but someone's absurd rap fantasy that was somehow shoehorned onto a fighting game. [Mar 2007, p.53]

Worth Playing

Def Jam: Icon is undeniably stylish, sporting wondrously surreal next-gen visuals and bumping the latest and greatest of mainstream hip-hop. But for all its flash, the fighting engine disappoints, coming off as sluggish and unrefined.

GameTrailers

Despite a few different fighting styles, matches tend to play exactly the same way no matter what environment you’re in or who’s doing the fighting. It’s like an album where every song sounds the same.

GameSpy

For anyone who feels like hip-hop is more than the soundtrack to the suburban mall thug experience, the game is really a disservice to a rich culture that involves more than misogyny and violence.

Cheat Code Central

While the visuals are amazing, the game just doesn't deliver as well in the fighting as it should.

G4 TV

Icon is serviceable, but it’s not something you’ll be spinning in your disc tray for very long.

VideoGamer

The DJ system is unique and intuitive, the visuals well polished and, even with my rock/punk roots, the soundtrack is a commendable mix of uncensored beats. Nevertheless, the broken fighting mechanics and sluggish pacing are enough to keep this game from reaching true icon status.

Extreme Gamer

It’s strange that EA Chicago responsible for the amazing Fight Night series couldn’t capitalize on the Def Jam series.

Kombo

This isn't fun, this is sloppy. Fights devolve into senseless button and stick mashing, and often lead to a lot of controller throwing moments.

360 Gamer Magazine UK

Stylish it may be, but ICON's core mechanics are simply too slack for us to recommend it to anyone that wants to splash out on a decent fighting game. [Issue #23, p.55]

Edge Magazine

Thanks in no small part to the slavish love of motion capture over more manageable keyframe animation, the fights in Icon are sluggish, crude and practically underwater when it comes to control. [Apr 2007, p.79]

Eurogamer

ICON may look the business, but it falls down in that most crucial of areas - it makes fighting a chore rather than an enjoyable experience.

X360 Magazine UK

It's just about throwing people at stuff. And it's dull. [Issue 18, p.78]

Xboxic

This game feels more like "Fight Night: Street" than a next-gen Def Jam game, regrettably. All we ever wished for were new moves, new fighters, better graphics and online and EA gave us all that but in the process they broke the main thing that made this series interesting in the first place; the fighting engine.

GameShark

The controls are slow and unresponsive, the kiss of death for a fighting game.

GameCritics

Even if I couldn't set my love for the series aside for this review, I'm sure that Def Jam Icon's problems are so clear and inarguable that even if I'd never played any of the previous titles I would have rated it exactly the same.

Gaming Age

The controls are a bit sluggish and sometimes unresponsive.