TNA iMPACT! (PS3)

...those not in the know, TNA is the "other" wrestling company, with WWE. The difference is that TNA features a 6 sided ring and more of an emphasis on high flying, technical wrestling rather than chiselled physiques and storylines. The company was started in 2002 by Jeff Jarrett (a former WWE wrestler), and in 6 years has grown to such stature that it has a worldwide television audience and some of the biggest names in the business such as ...
...couple of years. Since TNA wrestling signed a national TV deal with Spike a few years back the company has had aspirations to release a video game. So now we have a massive 2 different wrestling games on the next-gen market, will there now be some serious competition?

Well, sorry to fire off my verdict early, but no. If you buy this game looking for Smackdown vs Raw but with better moves, more wrestlers and more sides to the ring then ... more

For those not in the know, TNA is the "other" wrestling company, with WWE. The difference is that TNA features a 6 sided ring and more of an emphasis on high flying, technical wrestling rather than chiselled physiques and storylines. The company was started in 2002 by Jeff Jarrett (a former WWE wrestler), and in 6 years has grown to such stature that it has a worldwide television audience and some of the biggest names in the business such as Sting, Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash. Everyone up to speed? Jolly good.

This game has been in the pipeline for a good couple of years. Since TNA wrestling signed a national TV deal with Spike a few years back the company has had aspirations to release a video game. So now we have a massive 2 different wrestling games on the next-gen market, will there now be some serious competition?

Well, sorry to fire off my verdict early, but no. If you buy this game looking for Smackdown vs Raw but with better moves, more wrestlers and more sides to the ring then you're only get a third of what you want. This game has a lot of bugs and frankly, does nothing to live up to the huge hype it got in the last 6 months. However, it may not be all bad. I shall break it down bit by bit.

THE GAME

The game revolves around the story mode. You are Suicide - an unstoppable wrestler who has fought his way to the tippy top of the company. But after refusing to take a dive for the championship, he is beaten beyond recognition and dumped in Tijuana. You rebuild your wrestler a la Robocop and then start back at the bottom wrestling in small villages to work your way back up to the top.

As for the rest of the game, you have exhibition matches and an online mode. There are only a handful of match types (one on one, tag, falls count anywhere and Ultimate X (where the aim is to retrieve an X suspended above the ring by two crossed wires). So choices are a little spartan but the story mode takes about 5 or 6 hours to complete and you can always set up your own matches online or in conjunction with the current TNA wrestling product.

GRAPHICS

Whilst the graphics aren't as polished as they looked in previews, they are still excellent and the wrestler models look far less plastick-y than their WWE rivals. Having said that, on some of the close ups the created wrestlers can look a bit pixellated. But all in all it's a good effort, and it all looks marvellous in HD.

My biggest gripe is a sizing issue. All the wrestlers are exactly the same size. So when you have a supposed 6 foot 10 behemoth such as Abyss in the ring with a smaller wrestler such as Christopher Daniels and they look exactly the same size, it just kills any sense of realism.

SOUND

The voice acting is really rather good for the most part. Kevin Nash saves the story mode with his typically glib attitude, and the rest of the wrestlers do their part just about ok. The storyline itself is a little far fetched but kudos to the TNA crew for making it semi-believable.

The commentary goes for function rather than storytelling. Mike Tenay will call moves and that's about it. You won't be hearing tedious anecdotes about the combatants in the ring.

GAMEPLAY

This is where TNA shows both its best and worst points. In the run up to the release of this game, Midway boasted that they had motion captured over 1000 wrestling moves. Upon loading up the game you will see that there aren't even 100. Sure, the 100 that are there are incredibly well animated and feel very nice and solid to pull off, but it's yet another example of a PS3 game not living up to the hype.

In the ring, the game feels like a fresh of breath air. The animations are amazing, the moves are easy to pull off and while you don't have many moves to use, the real time collision detection means you can be far more creative in the ring. With practice you could even invent your own little wrestling sequence, rather than sit there and read a book, cure cancer and walk the dog while you wait for long, drawn out animations. Most moves can be reversed with the R1 button and require perfect timing. Also, moves can be reversed several times, which makes for some exciting in-match moments.

The Ultimate X match is also good fun. You shimmy across the rope to the X in the centre. This brings up a mini game where you have to stop the arrow over the green marker. Each successful attempt fills up a little gauge and once it's full, you fall to the ground with X in hand as the winner. Having said that, it can sometimes degenerate into you and your opponent just taking turns to kick each other off the ropes - TNA uses a stun meter and unless your opponent's stun meter is full, they'll get up pretty much straight away. Also, while there is a little body icon to show which body parts have been damaged, the wrestler will show no ill effects, so attacking the legs is not going to make your opponent move any slower.

Finishers are nice and easy to put off. As with the competition, you fill up your "Impact" meter and once full, you simply grab your opponent and press circle to deliver a finishing move. More often than not, these finishers end with you automatically pinning your opponent, which may not sit well with those sadists who like the beating to continue after the finisher has been delivered.

There are one or two flies in the ointment. First of all, the learning curve in story mode is way off. When fighting some of the more established stars, you will find that they can damage you far more quickly than you can damage them and unlike any wrestling game I've ever played, you cannot adjust your created wrestler's stats - in fact you don't even have stats.

Secondly, the game is littered with bugs. I performed a finishing move on my opponent, only to have them magically vanish into thin air and then reappear behind me, stood up and fit as a fiddle. Also, the loading times in create-a-wrestler mode are utterly atrocious. Oh, and it takes 20 minutes to install the game when you first start it up. I've not seen loading times like that since my old Commodore 64.

And whilst on the topic of create-a-wrestler, you really are limited as to what you can do. The range of options is probably 20% of what you get on Smackdown vs Raw, and because you can't adjust physique and height you're basically just playing dress up with the same figure.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Well, if I'm honest, £40 is a bit on the steep side for this game. It doesn't feel like a big game. You do get 6 TNA matches to watch as well as behind the scenes stuff which fleshes the disc out a bit, but compared to the millions of wrestlers and moves the public were promised, it all feels…a bit empty.

VERDICT

I've been pretty harsh on the game in this review and none of my complaints are unjustified. The presentation is off, there is a total lack of depth and the fact that Midway admitted before the release of this game that they knew it wouldn't stand up to Smackdown vs Raw just makes me feel a little cheated. When you buy a game you want to think that the developers took great pride in making it and believe it's the best it could possibly be.

However, I'd still recommend it because it's…well, fun. Yes it has glitches and compared to Smackdown vs Raw it has no features or depth, but the pick up and play gameplay is just good fun. It feels perfectly weighted and unlike any Smackdown vs Raw game you will find yourself impressed with the moves YOU pull off, rather than just plodding through pre-set animations. Also, because the action is so fast and unpredictable, it's a riot to play with friends.

To put it simply - if you want an in-depth wrestling game with a ton of moves, customisable features and huge story mode, go for Smackdown vs Raw 2008 (especially since I think it's coming out on Platinum soon for £20). But if you just want a wham, bam, thank you ma'am, mile a minute funfest with no real depth to it, go for TNA.

And of course if you buy it and decide you don't like it, you can always use it as a part exchange for Smackdown vs Raw 2009 which is due out in November, and looks to be easily one of the best wrestling games to ever grace a console. 

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