TNA iMPACT Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 22nd September 2008

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We get into the six sided ring with this videogame recreation of TNA wrestling.

TNA iMPACT Details:

	Sports
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii
	Midway
	Midway

15+

Out Now

1-4

With the ever increasing popularity of TNA wrestling amongst sports entertainment fans it comes as no real surprise that the wrestling franchise has been recreated as a videogame. But what might come as a surprise is that despite a rather tongue in cheek story mode it’s actually pretty good.

The game only features three modes of play, exhibition, story and online matches. Exhibition and online matches allow you to fight opponents in a match up of your choosing whilst the games story mode places you in the role of a make believe wrestler who climbs his way to the top only to be viciously attacked and beaten unconscious after winning the championship belt. When he awakes he has no memory. He can’t remember who he is or what happened to him, but he does have an overwhelming urge to slam bodies into the canvas so sets out to become a wrestler. It may not be the best storyline but then again it doesn’t seem out of place at all in the world of sports entertainment. Playing through the games story allows you to unlock new wrestlers, and arenas to battle in. You can also unlock new moves and items to use in the games create a wrestler mode.

TNA iMPACT may not feature all the modes as its WWE rivals but the game does offer a pretty good range of match types such as Ultimate X, Falls Count Anyway, Tag Team and Free for all to name a few.

Despite the rather limited playing options on offer in the title when it actually comes down to the wrestling action it does prove to be quite enjoyable. Moves are easy to perform and various powerful moves can be pulled off through combinations of buttons and the left analogue stick. It’s a very easy system to get to grips with allowing you to perform a smooth flowing series of attacks on your opponent.

The game features all the hits and slams you would expect to find in any wrestling game, and also employs a nice submission system that requires you to press a series of buttons in order as they flash on screen. It’s a welcome change from the button mashing approach of similar games.

Another nice addition of the games fighting mechanics is the counter feature. This allows you to counter an opponents attack with a big blow allowing you to quickly regain your composure and the upper hand. Successfully pulling off a counter attack is relatively easy as it’s a simple case of getting your timing right when pressing the counter button. This is easily mastered once you know what to look for and again its testament to the games excellent control system.

On the whole AI controlled opponents provide a pretty good challenge, I found the best success came when using a range of different moves as they seem to become wise to you if you repeat the same moves over and over. However one frustrating aspect of the games difficulty is that in the story mode it can seem a bit random as you can progress through a series of matches quickly only to come up against a competitor who seems to be able to take the biggest beating only to come back and beat you time and time again, stopping you from progressing any further. It becomes highly frustrating at times as once you finally do defeat them you are able to rapidly progress through the story again. Also adding to the frustration is the number of load screens you have to sit through before you get to actually compete in a match. Simple matches require you to sit through three whilst tag team matches have five before the action finally starts.

Visually TNA iMPACT looks pretty good, character models feature a nice amount of detail and some of the biggest stars in TNA such as Kurt Angle, Sting, Christian Cage and Somoa Joe are all instantly recognisable. Animation is also top notch and the game moves very fluidly at a good pace and not once did I encounter any slowdown, no matter how chaotic the action became. Sadly not much attention seems to have been paid to the arenas, they seem a little bland and don’t really feature much detail. The crowd are ok but do look like a 2D poster at times.

Sound in the game is also pretty good, commentary is done in a TV styling whilst sound effects also add a level of realism to the games audio design. Voice acting in the games story mode cut-scenes is passable for the most part, however your character seems to have been over done with the macho dubbing he’s been given.

TNA iMPACT offers up a pretty solid playing experience with an excellent control system that’s very easy to get to grips with. The games main weakness is the lack of variety in match types and game modes which doesn’t do much for the games lasting appeal but fans of TNA and wrestling in general should find the game appealing.