Here we are, standing in front of a mirror in our pants. We're looking fine. We've got enough bling wrapped round our neck to make a novelty skipping rope, and just beyond our crib Ghostface, Ice T, Joe Budden, Lil' Kim, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, Sean Paul, Slick Rick, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Elephant Man, Busta Rhymes, Carmen Electra and just about all the other live and kicking R&B stars are queuing up to crack our skulls open with a lead pipe. Hell, we wouldn't be surprised to see Tupac and Biggie kicking up a Thriller vibe and shuffling down the street waving about a detached limb or two.

Def Jam Fight For New York is one badass sonofabitch game, a wrestling title melded with the best bare-knuckle action and all-out fat-tongued trainer action you can squeeze on a disc. It's a fully customisable scrap, and once you enter the various arenas there's every chance you'll either come out ruler of the NYC underground or in easy to manage, bite-size pieces.

Once you've designed your fighter (the range is near limitless, with thousands of goodies, jeans, trainers, tops and haircuts to unlock), you unleash his kicky-punchy-headbutty fury on the stars. Henry Rollins (your personal trainer) teaches you up to three combat disciplines from street fighting, kick boxing, martial arts, wrestling and submission fighting, which you can then blend together to form your own hybrid moves and styles. Build up enough wins, using enough variety in your attack, and you'll be rewarded even further with new killer moves and a greater array of cloth to stick on your already weighed-down hangers.

You can tell Def Jam stems from the world of WWE thanks to the co-operation between EA Canada and wrestling specialists AKI, as the fighting (especially the four-man brawls) feels more Hulk Hogan than Soul Calibur - but it's the slower, more deliberate pace that gives Def Jam its appeal. You can feel every rib crack, every bone splinter, and see every expression as smashed bottles work their way into facial tissue. It's nasty, but it's beautiful too, having taken the concept of the wrestling genre and mashed it up in such a way so as to be accessible to us heathens who don't know a clothes line from a handshake.

Stylistically, Def Jam is a crippling blow to lesser contenders. Lighting, motion capture, fabric textures, facial mapping - the whole shebang is frighteningly intimidating, and sucks you in like a backstreet harlot. You'll feel real ripples of dread when the likes of Ghostface step into the fray, especially since you don't know what fighting style you're up against. It's all about improvising with the scenery (heads through jukeboxes do the trick), thinking quickly about laying the best moves on your enemy, and working through a surprisingly thorough and involving campaign mode.

The fact that every R&B star has lent their voice talent to the game only serves to highlight the obvious; Def Jam Fight For New York has been lavished with attention and is all the better for it. Now that you've read the review, why not pop in the exclusive playable game disc and take a look for yourself? While the demo is rated 15, it should be noted that the final game will in fact be rated 18. It's as fun as it as violent. Word!

1. More than 35 real-life stars all motioned-captured, face-mapped and lending their own voices to the blend make it super-realistic.
2. The mix of fighting styles mean you'll constantly be replaying to find your favourite method of putting someone down.
3. Stunningly realised, the environments, effects and licensed music make this into one hell of a hip-hop head hammerer.
4. Fully customisable characters, from the rings on their fingers to the tattoos on their backs. This is what it was like to own a Barbie!
5. The slower speed at which the fighters smash each other may put some off, but WWE fans should lap it up.

A thoughtful and well-constructed brawler that isn't scared to offend - and is all the more intimidating for it.