TNA Impact (the game)

One of the joys of your masked hero hitting a birthday is that some things he wasn't expecting to get end up obtainable. With an increase of cash in the wallet and a trip to Best Buy, I came home the owner of Midway's mildly anticipated TNA Impact for my PS3. As Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 doesn't come out for another two months, I hoped that this game would cover my wrestling game jitters that usually pop up this time of the year.

If you've seen the commercials (and if you ever watch Impact, I can't imagine that you haven't), you know that the game is pretty. But the question is - how is the rest of it? I can say with confidence that it isn't bad. In fact, in the one day that I've owned it, I've had a pretty good time with it.

Before I get into it, let me just say that there are two great systems of wrestling games out there - the Smackdown system and the No Mercy system. Impact is not either of those, and I'm going to try to limit the comparisons to them as best I can. Fortunately, though, Impact is also no WCW Mayhem or Nitro.

The game is the first installment of what could very well be a strong franchise for TNA games. While the game lacks a certain polish and is limited in features, it provides solid groundwork that can be built greatly upon. After all, before there was No Mercy there was WCW vs. the World (go pick that one up for PS1 and enjoy). Impact balances between its strengths and weaknesses, and in the end, I think it leans into the good. So let's take a look at the game's strengths.

As said before, the game is pretty. The characters are beautifully rendered and each move with nice animation. The only animation I found myself questioning was Rhino's charge to the ring, which made him look like he had a stick jammed somewhere uncomfortable. AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal (in his Black Machismo attire) look especially excellent. The moves flow beautifully, and with a system that allows multiple reverses, the animation is near seamless. The Orlando Impact Zone looks exactly as it should and the crowd is fine.

I'm about 20% into the story mode and the voice-over work I've heard is excellent. Of course, besides generic characters, I've only heard James Storm, Kevin Nash and Jay Lethal, but all their lines are well done. The game's tutorial videos are voiced over by Lethal, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, and the only one that was rough to listen to was Styles, but that wasn't because of the voice acting. That's how he actually talks.

The story mode, thus far, has also been enjoyable. Of course, the basic premise is pretty cheesy (involving amnesia of all things) but it's easy to dismiss that aspect and think of it as a guy working his way up the ranks. In fact, why they didn't just take it that direction is beyond me. Anyway, the early stages have your character outside of the company fighting independent wrestlers (created wrestlers, much like in Day of Reckoning) which is a nice touch. Also nice (and frustrating) is that when you finally fight a TNA wrestler, they are substantially tougher than the indie guys. From what I've played, I can say that there have been better story modes (Here Comes the Pain) as well as worse (Wrestlemania XIX).

The game control itself is pretty solid, though does have a bit of a learning curve. Your four face buttons are punch, kick, grapple and action (roll out of the ring, climb turnbuckle), with the two top buttons for strong attacks and reverses, then the triggers being used for running and...uh...I honestly can't remember what the other one does. The strong button is more of a modifier button to be used in combination with the others. With the grapple button, it allows a tie-up, which can be pulled into a submission using the action button. This also will perform the finisher, if the IMPACT meter for your character fills. All finishers (that I have seen thus far) are done from a front grapple. Overall, it's a lot of combinations, but once you get down what you're doing, it's good fun.

The downside to the controls is that it seems that each control has one move associated to it, which severely limits your character's repertoire. My created guy will use tons of neckbreakers and DDTs before I have done enough damage to get the pin. Each character shares certain moves, which limits the individuality, save taunts and finishers. My biggest complaint, though, is the control for kicking out of a pin attempt - as in I can't kick out of pin attempts. If someone tries to pin me, I'm done. Every time. I'm working on it.

Other standard wrestling game features appear, but are limited in their expanse. The create-a-wrestler is quite disappointing, especially since the story mode requires that you use a created character. The only bio information for your character is the name - things like hometown, weight and height are missing. The costume selection is extremely limited and the colors range from bland to ugly. The face customization isn't too bad but the inability to adjust the scale of any of the body is greatly missed. In fact, two of the three available body sizes seem to make your character look out of shape. The 'athletic' build in particular has a bit of a gut and slight love handles. There is no cruiserweight-style body for those lucha-libre fans. The move selection, at my point, is horribly limited as all but the default moves must be unlocked by getting style points in matches. If nothing else, if gives a reason to keep playing exhibition matches after the story's done.

The other thing lacking here is game modes. While TNA prides itself on its ridiculous amount of stipulation matches, the game only has one-on-one, free-for-all (fatal four way), tag match and the Ultimate X Match (with 2 or 3 participants). No Six Sides of Steel, King of the Mountain, or even standard battle royal. Hopefully in future installments the other TNA staples will be added to the mix.

Finally, the roster. Of the characters initially available, most all of TNA is represented. Main eventers like Sting, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Booker T, and AJ Styles are present, as are the X-Divisioners like Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Shark Boy and Jay Lethal. I haven't unlocked them yet, but I know Kevin Nash is in the game and Petey Williams' finisher is unlockable, so I figure he is too. Brother Devon is initially playable, but Brother Ray isn't so I assume he too is unlockable. Even the rank and file is represented with the likes of James Storm, Robert Roode and Scott Steiner. It's really a good representation of TNA's talent. However, the biggest hole in the roster is the lack of the Knockouts. With the division really becoming the shining point of TNA, the lack of the likes of Gail Kim, Awesome Kong and even ODB is damaging.

Overall, I have to say I enjoy the game and even with what it's lacking, there's a lot to be enjoyed. In future installments, I hope to see defendable titles, better move sets, an expanded create-a-wrestler and others, but for what this one is, I'm not disappointed (as my expectations were pretty low to begin with). If nothing else, the bonus features on my PS3 copy gives five matches (two of which are recent exclusives) with past and present TNA talent including Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher (Grand Master Sexay), Scott Hall, Ron Killings (R-Truth), six current X-Divisioners in a six-man free-for-all and the entire Knockouts roster in a gauntlet match.

Not a bad buy, if you have the money to spend. If not, then save it and wait for Smackdown.