April 1st marked the 20th anniversary of Def Jam Vendetta, and it maintains a passionate following after all these years. The game featured wrestling mechanics and a cast featuring rappers signed to Def Jam Recordings, and that combination appealed to a lot of people. However, it seems that the game’s ending nearly saw a major change immediately before its release. In an interview with Time Extension, former EA producer and designer Josh Holmes and Vendetta art director Daryl Anselmo revealed the background story. Apparently, it all stemmed from EA Canada executive Don Mattrick, who took issue with the use of a gun by the villain D Mob.
“Don was adamant that there could be no gun in the game and wanted usto replace it with a knife or a lead pipe or a baseball bat. I was onthe verge of losing my sh*t because we were under deadline and none ofthose ideas made any sense,” Holmes told Time Extension. “Stan[ley Chow] was the reasonable one (he was my boss at the time)and was trying to be diplomatic but then Don said, ‘There are no guns inhip hop’ and I absolutely lost it.”
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Anselmo went on to tell Time Extension that Mattrick cooled down after a few days of tension, and the game was released without any last second changes. That likely came as a major relief to the game’s developers, and it seems the gun’s presence didn’t bother players. In fact, Def Jam Vendetta went on to be a pretty big success for EA, spawning two sequels.
Unfortunately, 2007’s Def Jam: Icon marked the last new game in the franchise. That hasn’t stopped fans from sharing their hopes for a follow-up, or even a remaster of the existing titles. Rapper/actor Ice-T has similarly made it known that he’d like to see the series return, but EA has shown no indication that it ever plans to bring back the series. For now, fans will just have to hang on to their copies of the original games!
Are you surprised that Def Jam Vendetta nearly had a last minute change? Would you like to see the series return one day? Let us know in the comments or sharedirectly onTwitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
