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.
| Review Scoring Details for TNA iMPACT! |
Gameplay: 6.5
What started out as an original fighting game ended up feeling like a mellow Smackdown Vs. Raw clone. Moderately fun but the fun doesn't last.
Graphics: 8
The wrestlers look great, minus their expressions (which are rather lifeless). Backgrounds are colorful and flashy with a lively (though not always impressive) audience.
Sound: 5
Not the best or most engrossing soundtrack in the world, the voice acting is a bit cheesy, and the commentary is typically pointless and non-specific.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Whether you're a fighting game lover or Smackdown Vs. Raw player, TNA iMPACT! won't be much of a challenge for those who have some experience. And what about those who have no experience at all? They'll master it in a month, give or take a week. While a month might sound like a long time for an action game, it is very short for a fighting game.
Concept: 7
NQNA: Not Quite Nonstop Action.
Multiplayer: 5
Four local, two online. Not very deep.
Overall: 6.5
TNA iMPACT! has a great license and great characters, it just doesn't use either of them correctly.
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