The games in the series (well, up until AKI Corporation bowed out prior to 2007’s Def Jam: Icon) were wrestling-based brawlers, combining strikes and environmental hazards with AKI Corporation’s finely tuned grappling mechanics to create a combat system that was, for its time, dynamic and brutal.
Pro Wrestling, But Make It Hip-Hopįor the uninitiated, back in the early ‘00s, AKI Corporation, a company that specialized in wrestling games - and was probably best known for developing the impeccable WWF No Mercy - teamed up with Electronic Arts to release a series of fighting games based around then-contemporary hip-hop culture that would become the Def Jam series of fighting games. And why not? It’s an attractive proposition, being able to market to fans of everyone involved, instead of just one specific niche, and that’s why all these big companies are trying to one-up each other with their next huge project.īut despite their huge budgets, impressive character lineups, and beefy marketing teams, none of these crossover events, past, present, or future, will ever come close to the brilliance that was 2004’s Def Jam: Fight for NY. to that horrific commercial where all of the other brand mascots show up to mourn the dead Peanut Man and celebrate the terrifying baby that crawled out of his corpse, huge corporations are trying to take advantage of fan loyalty by orchestrating these massive, ambitious crossover events.
Of course, there has always been a rich history of crossovers in the history of TV, movies, and video games, but in this new, strange, late-capitalist world where a total of three or four companies have divvied up the rights to seemingly all of our favorite pieces of entertainment, a sort of crossover arms race has developed.įrom The Avengers to Suicide Squad to Super Smash Bros. “The most ambitious crossover event of all-time.” The claim was so ubiquitous in the marketing for Marvel’s The Avengers: Infinity War that it has since become a meme.