A literal beat-em-up: Def Jam Icon’s Kudo Tsunoda speaks

Were you wondering why the game seemed so slow on the gameplay video for EA’s Def Jam: Icon? An interview with Kudo Tsunoda, the game’s executive producer, gives us gamers and hip-hop beatmasters something to think about.

One thing he mentions is that the story is also different from the previous games. This time, your character is out to take the music industry by storm, to turn himself from an unknown rapper into an iconic member of the hip-hop community, so to speak. Why that leads you into a fight at a beat-up gas station, though, is beyond us.

As to the slow gameplay video, one could say that it’s because the game is capped at 30fps, but one of the gameplay mechanics for Def Jam: Icon might also explain why it didn’t seem as fast as what we’re used to in the fighting series, and why it might actually be a good thing. Tsunoda says that they’re trying to do something to revolutionize the fighting genre through this game by making the environment more in tune with the hip-hop setting.

“Everything in the environment animates and is driven by the beats of the music playing during the fight,” he says. For instance, the in-game hazards activate according to the beat of the music, so by forcing your opponent to be in the vicinity of a given hazard during a beat, you can use the environment and the music to help you win over your enemies. The DJ Turntable Control scheme also adds to the beat-based nature of this brawler, as you can use your right analog stick to literally “scratch” the in-game music and trigger environmental hazards yourself by making new beats.

He also mentions three other important things about gameplay here. First, fighting is meant to be made a little more interesting by making your attacks all based on your left analog stick input. Combine that with right analog turntable control, and you could potentially be doing some interesting stuff while fighting. Second, this will be the first entry of the series with actual online play, so you can expect actual hip-hop battles from across the word (I WANT A LEADERBOARD!). Lastly, your game isn’t strictly hip-hop, as you can import your own music into the gameplay for some Frank Sinatra beatdown action. As Tsunoda says, “This big difference with importing music in to Def Jam: Icon is that the music does not just play over the gameplay – it is the gameplay!”

Sounds like a literal beat-em-up to me. Expect the game to hit your PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles in March 2007.

Were you wondering why the game seemed so slow on the gameplay video for EA’s Def Jam: Icon? An interview with Kudo Tsunoda, the game’s executive producer, gives us gamers and hip-hop beatmasters something to think about.

One thing he mentions is that the story is also different from the previous games. This time, your character is out to take the music industry by storm, to turn himself from an unknown rapper into an iconic member of the hip-hop community, so to speak. Why that leads you into a fight at a beat-up gas station, though, is beyond us.

As to the slow gameplay video, one could say that it’s because the game is capped at 30fps, but one of the gameplay mechanics for Def Jam: Icon might also explain why it didn’t seem as fast as what we’re used to in the fighting series, and why it might actually be a good thing. Tsunoda says that they’re trying to do something to revolutionize the fighting genre through this game by making the environment more in tune with the hip-hop setting.

“Everything in the environment animates and is driven by the beats of the music playing during the fight,” he says. For instance, the in-game hazards activate according to the beat of the music, so by forcing your opponent to be in the vicinity of a given hazard during a beat, you can use the environment and the music to help you win over your enemies. The DJ Turntable Control scheme also adds to the beat-based nature of this brawler, as you can use your right analog stick to literally “scratch” the in-game music and trigger environmental hazards yourself by making new beats.

He also mentions three other important things about gameplay here. First, fighting is meant to be made a little more interesting by making your attacks all based on your left analog stick input. Combine that with right analog turntable control, and you could potentially be doing some interesting stuff while fighting. Second, this will be the first entry of the series with actual online play, so you can expect actual hip-hop battles from across the word (I WANT A LEADERBOARD!). Lastly, your game isn’t strictly hip-hop, as you can import your own music into the gameplay for some Frank Sinatra beatdown action. As Tsunoda says, “This big difference with importing music in to Def Jam: Icon is that the music does not just play over the gameplay – it is the gameplay!”

Sounds like a literal beat-em-up to me. Expect the game to hit your PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles in March 2007.