10 Video Game Developers Who Killed The Franchise They Were Handed

9. EA Chicago - Def Jam

Overblown gangster personalities and wrestling were a match made in heaven, and following the mighty Def Jam Vendetta, Fight for New York remains one of the best wrestling/fighting/brawling games AKI have ever put out.

Game mechanics were perfected as slams and melee attacks landed like shotgun blasts - the only thing topping off the sheer satisfaction of crushing someone's skull with a leaping tombstone piledriver being environmental finishers and weapon takedowns. In a way, it would be impossible to top such a career-best release, but after a three year wait, Def Jam ICON reared its head.

In some ideas meeting gone wrong, this notion of Def Jam needing to be "more insane" translated into the "level itself being a weapon". Controls and movement became sluggish as you now had to trigger buildings to shake or cracks in the pavement to off your opponents.

In short, it missed the mark by an entire universe, blowing a whole in the good ship Def Jam and leaving it to sink while the rest of EA watched from the shoreline.

Grim.