Boxing Street Wrestling

More hip-hop stars, more fighting styles, a much deeper story mode.

More hip-hop stars, more fighting styles, a much deeper story mode, and a big, fat M rating are the name of game in Fight for NY. No doubt, this is a more brutal, bloody, and foul-mouthed effort than last year's game, but this emphasis on mature content is backed up by great gameplay and an incredible atmosphere, effectively trumping Vendetta in every way that matters and making for a game that should appeal to hip-hop fans and Street Wrestling game players alike.

Essentially, each of the fighters in Fight for NY draws his or her individual move set from one to three of the game's five fighting styles, including kickboxing, Street Wrestling, martial arts, wrestling, and submissions. All these styles are translated through what is, in essence, the same basic gameplay engine Vendetta used, but with a much, much higher emphasis on learning the styles and moves of your opponents. The varying combinations of each style of fighting make trying to predict how each fighter will attack fairly difficult for at least your first couple of fights, thus forcing you to observe each fighter and how he or she works.

Likewise, as no two fighters fight exactly alike, the controls from fighter to fighter vary a bit. Fundamentally, fighting is still rooted in the same weak and strong strikes and grapples of last year's game, but the way each attack works depends entirely on your fighter's style. If you have a guy who has a background in kickboxing and wrestling, and you've put your opponent into a grapple, you'll perform some manner of slam move by pressing one of the attack buttons and unleash a fury of grappling strikes with the other

Similarly, if you switch out kickboxing with submissions, that second attack button will throw your opponent into a submission-type maneuver. This same methodology translates into strikes, as the kind of striking styles your fighter uses will directly affect how strong his or her strikes are, as well as how lengthy his or her combos will tend to be. Plus, allotted styles dictate what kinds of moves a fighter can use to KO an opponent, so a fighter with a wrestling background will be less likely to KO an opponent with a strong kick than he or she will be with, say, a strong power slam. There's a surprising amount of depth here, to be sure.