TNA iMPACT! – 360 – Review

Total Nonstop Action. That’s what the “TNA” in TNA
iMPACT! stands for. It implies that the game you’re about to play is one of
extreme entertainment – a fighter on overdrive that doesn’t take slow for an
answer. If not that, then surely its title should embody the very essence
that permeates the TNA franchise, a wrestling group that is known for its
intense, expertly choreographed battles and unique Ultimate X competition.

Upon its unveiling last October, it appeared
that TNA iMPACT! was set to achieve all of the above. It wouldn’t just be a
licensed wrestling game – no, this was the game to crush Smackdown Vs. Raw,
stomp on it like Christian Cage and choke it like AJ Styles. Speed wasn’t a
concern because TNA iMPACT! played faster than any other wrestling game
available.

Fast-forward to September 2008, the moment
when the game was finally released. Featuring a small but respectable lineup
of play modes, TNA iMPACT! comes with Standard Match, Tag Team, Free For
All, Ultimate X, Ultimate X FFA (1 vs. 1 vs. 1), Submission, Handicap (1 vs.
2), FCA Match (falls count anywhere), and FCA Match Tag, along with a story
mode that focuses on a fictitious star-in-the-making, Suicide. The dialogue
isn’t good (cheesy voice acting makes it worse), and neither is the premise.
But the presentation is very clever.

Just before Suicide’s battle for World
Champion, two masked men bust into the locker room and demand that he takes
a fall. Being the tough, does-whatever-he-wants kind of guy that he is,
Suicide pretends to listen but scoffs after the two men leave. He goes ahead
with his own plan – to win the fight – and earns the new title. Later that
night, the masked men catch up with him and all but rip his face off.

Enter the game’s clever moment: Suicide’s
face is going to be reconstructed and you get to play doctor. This player
creation feature isn’t nearly as robust as those featured in EA’s sports
games, but it’s good enough for a story mode (not so good elsewhere though).
Now you’ve got to work your way back to the top. As a new version of
Suicide, you’ll enter low-level matches that’ll make him miss his days as a
champion.

Without having last year’s press-only demo in
hand, there’s no way to judge the two for certain. But if my memory of that
great experience is correct, the final game is actually slower than the
first playable build was 11 months ago.

From a wrestling perspective, and perhaps
when thinking about the competition and the gamer you’re trying to reach,
this might have been a wise move. TNA is pretty fast, but this isn’t a sport
that’s known for speed, not even when pre-choreographed. If the developers
were seeking realism, or hoping to appeal to fans of Smackdown Vs. Raw, slow
may have been the way to go.

But as a part of the fighting genre (which
wrestling games very much are), speed is crucial. It’s not only vital to the
first time you play the game – faster and more exciting games tend to
invigorate us more than those that drag – but also to the long-term replay
value. In that respect, TNA iMPACT! seriously erred.

Variety is another area that can make or
break a fighting game. The most perfect combat system in the world means
nothing if every combatant controls the same. Likewise, you can’t make a
good game out of 30 fighting styles if none of them are fun to utilize. On
that note, TNA iMPACT! leans toward the first approach, minus perfection. It
has a solid (albeit flawed) combat system that encourages players to execute
a series of grapples, jump attacks, ground assaults, and the familiar Irish
Whip. One special finishing move is applied to each wrestler, which is
stellar.

What’s not, however, is that the variety ends
there. Individually, most wrestlers feel the same. The basic move set lets
you grab (Y button), kick (A), punch (X), counter (RB), run (RT), and modify
(LB). The B button functions as your action command, allowing you to pick up
weapons, tag in a teammate, climb onto the apron, and so on. When combined
with a modifier, attack buttons yield other types of assaults, but that’s
about the end of your move set.

Each wrestler has access to the iMPACT!
(finishing move) meter, which is filled by attacking and unleashed with a
simple button tap after getting your opponent in a head hold. On the
opposite end, players also have to worry about their stun meter filling
every time they are hit. Once full, your wrestler will be stunned and unable
to move or attack. To get out of this mess, quickly push the left stick back
and forth until the negative effect wears off. This mechanic is also used to
get out of a pin.

Reversals are an exercise in following the
on-screen commands. During a submission hold, two button sets appear on
screen, one for each player. If the wrestler being held enters the correct
code, he breaks free; if the wrestler doing the submission enters the right
code, he inflicts more damage. It’s a crazy system that just might have
worked 15 years ago when we didn’t know that fighting games could do better.
In today’s world, it merely feels like a mini-game collection.

Wrestler animations differ slightly, and
their aesthetics are wonderfully close to the real TNA stars. But toss them
into the virtual ring and they become clones of each other. More often than
not, your opponent will defeat you with the same moves you used (or intended
to use) because that’s all that is available to him.

This could be intentional – in hopes of
reaching the broadest audience possible, the developers may have wanted to
avoid making a game that was deep and potentially offensive to players that
don’t want to dedicate any amount of time or skill to the experience. But to
everyone else, especially diehard TNA fans, this could be the reason they
aren’t playing this game for many years to come.