Full Review

5 May 2007 - "Guns don't kill people Rappers do" as the song goes, is pretty much the concept of Icon, a music beat-em up on the PlayStation 3 from EA.

Through a series of complicated levels and even lengthier cutscenes and loading bars your task, if you can be bothered is to beat up fellow gangsters to the tune of the latest break beat tunes using the bass as well as the high-notes to get your point across.

Sounds confusing doesn't it? And in practice it is. There might be a practice level, but with no tutorial or help to ease you into the game you'll be as lost as we were as to what to do.

Maybe, and just maybe, as a white married man with a 1-year-old daughter living in the leafy English countryside I wasn't the best person to review this game, but having battled with gangsters before in classics like GTA, skated my way to victory as Tony Hawk or fought the forces of evil in Lego Star Wars I would like to think that I would have got Icon.

Those who do manage to understand what is going on will probably love it with wellknown rappers (although I hadn't heard of any of them) the premise is to build up a music label via a series of fights (who says violence doesn't pay?) to be crowned king of the block.

Those with a short attention span can opt for a versus mode with plenty of different fight options so you and a friend can be confused together.

VERDICT
Short and not very sweet, Icon is the epitome of all that most people my age hate about the gangster culture.

Yes I am sure that to some punk ass kid this is the bee's knee's, but for anyone who is old enough to remember NWA, or MC Hammer for that matter, this is just plain awful.