TNA Impact! Review

TNA Impact! tries to bring new life to the wrestling game genre, while giving a throwback to the old school wrestling games. TNA wrestlers AJ Styles & Samoa Joe helped in game development, trying their best to help the designers make the game realistic.

The engine is definitely the selling point of this game. The game incorporates the fast, high flying antics of TNA well. The game plays very smooth with only a few hiccups. Such as, not being able to hit a person while they are climbing up the turnbuckle. If their wrestler isn't completely done with the animation of climbing up top, then your hits won't effect them.

The controls feel very natural to a wrestling game and are easy to pick up and learn. The game uses button pressing mini-games to do different things while playing. A timing one for reversing moves, a joystick waggling one to wake your guy up after getting knocked out. The submission mini game is a "See who can push these three buttons the fastest" mini-game. Ultimate X matches have another timing game, where you have to push a button just as the line crosses a certain spot on the meter when you are trying to grab the X. I know all of that can sound confusing, but it really comes naturally as your playing.

The story is pretty average. It's a generic story about your wrestler fighting to rise to the top. As you go through the story mode, it gets progressively difficult, even to the point of frustration near the end, as they seem to reverse everything you throw at them.

There is much more fun to be had in exhibition. Exhibition has a decent variety of match types including a single one on one bout, tag team matches, three way brawls, and TNA's patented Ultimate X Match.

You start off with 17 characters unlocked, and another 14 available that you have to unlock by playing through story mode, and earning Style Points. Midway has also announced that they will be offering characters via downloadable content. The only two announced so far, are Curry Man and Petey Williams.

Every wrestler essentially fits into one of the 3 fighting styles, Brawler, Grappler, or High Flyer. Each wrestler in those categories pretty much has the same moves as the others in that category, with a their own unique finishing maneuver tacked on.

This game is lot more fun if you have a few friends to play with. The computer AI can be pretty ignorant, and you can quickly learn how they are going to respond to certain situations, as they usually do the same thing every time.

Overall I say if your a big wrestling fan and have a few friends to play with, this is a pretty good buy. If not you might want to wait for the next installment for them to fix the AI and maybe add in some more content, such as more wrestlers, moves, and match types.