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The Def Jam series continues to evolve with Def Jam: Icon.

I love seeing a game franchise evolve from one title to the next.  When the developer can take the game in bold new directions without discarding the meat of the game that originally made it fun, I more often than not applaud their efforts.  With this in mind, EA Chicago is deserving of a standing ovation for the continued evolution of the Def Jam series.

Def Jam: Vendetta was an interesting, if not perfect, title on its own.  Def Jam: Fight for New York took the concepts and formula (Hip-Hop stars like Ludacris, DMX, and others beating the snot out of each other with a mixture of fighting styles) and improved upon them immensely by removing the reliance on a wrestling theme, adding a slew of new characters and content, and providing interactive environments for the rappers to mix it up in.  Now Def Jam Icon (due out March 6) appears to have refined the formula even further.  A recently released Xbox 360 demo of the game (which will also release for the PS3) shows us just how much.

As demos go, Icon's is less than perfect.  We get a choice of only two fighters (Big Boi or T.I.), and a time limit that leaves us unsure of just who won the short match.  There is also no instructional information telling us just how to control these guys - and the control scheme is very different from that of any Def Jam game of old.

During the few short minutes of my first match as Big Boi against T.I., however, I forgot all of that.  If the end result is indeed anything like the demo (and with less than a month to go we can only assume that it is), Icon is destined to be a must play title.  The game is visually stunning, with character models and environments in stunning detail that is somehow both realistic and artistic simultaneously.  We've known for sometime that the backgrounds would seem "alive" by actually bopping and swaying in time to the music (I couldn't help picturing an old Disney cartoon when I heard this), but the only way to realize the cool factor of this is to see it in action.  It is very cool indeed.