EA scrapped the famed “No Mercy” engine by AKI, and started from scratch with this latest Def Jam game. EA’s Chicago studio is poised to produce a whole new kind of fighting experience. Gamers will literally fight to the beat of the music. Not only that, but the environment will throb and pulsate with the melody of the background anthems. Yet if that’s not enough, there’s more than just the standard soundtrack to make an impact on the fighting. Keep reading, I'll explain it all below.

After the success of the first two Def Jam games, EA has decided to try something completely different with the series. Thankfully, the biggest gaming publisher in the world has decided to experiment with an entirely new concept within the fighting genre. With all the Tekken wannabes collecting dust on retail shelves, it’s refreshing to know that fight-fans will have a different kind of fighting game heading their way. Taking bits and pieces from the Fight Night Round 3 engine, EA’s developers are changing the focus of the fights from the face buttons and moving things over onto the two analog sticks. All the details have yet to be exposed on how the control scheme will work. However, it has been revealed that the analog sticks will vary attacks ranging from light and heavy punches and kicks; depending on how the analog sticks are moved will depend on how the corresponding move is executed.

But the real treat and trinkets of Def Jam: Icon resides in its music thumping gimmick that moves the fighting arenas. Literally, everything within the environment is intricately linked to a comprehensive equalizer that measures data from the music currently playing, and sends it back to the game data. This results in every aspect of the game’s atmosphere to react and respond according to the data being carried back from the equalizer. So when heavy beats drop, or certain instruments chime in, the environments, the fighters, and everything on-screen will rhythmatically respond to the music. Windows on the buildings will crack, gas stations will explode, and buildings will crumble...all to the beat of the music. Sound ambitious? Darn right it is.

EA could be taking a big risk implementing such a drastic feature into a fighting game. But then again, it is Def Jam; the same game that had DMX flinging opponents by the leg, back and forth and around his head while taunting them with profane language. Nevertheless, the game isn’t entirely catering its musical gimmick to the hip-hop society. The Xbox 360 and PS3 version will receive custom soundtrack options that will allow gamers to import any kind of music into the game. I’d love to see Ludacris and Snoop Dogg battle it out while fighting to the rhythm of Shania Twain’s “Feel like a woman”.

Fighting fans can look for Def Jam: Icon to hit store shelves in 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.