TNA iMPACT! Reviews

  • BleakdestinyBleakdestiny191,142
    23 Mar 2009
    20 12 3
    The Following Review I Wrote For Destructoid.com's C+Blog's:

    I had actual high hopes going into this game, that should have been my first concern. Hype = mostly bad, especially 4 years of hype.

    Lets' start with the franchise product:
    TNA is a lack luster wrestling organization that takes a lot of cues from the WCW days by capitalizing on out of work 5 star wrestler acquisitions (I.E.: Kurt Angle, Booker T, and now Mick Foley). Owned by wrestler Jeff Jarrett, TNA's first match was in 2002, the company then consisting of mostly Indy circuit guys or people who didn't want to work for Vince McMahon. They also, contrary to belief used to have a 4 sided ring.

    Story:
    Top wrestler "Suicide" is beaten, bloodied, battered, brained, and any other bad word you can think of that starts with a ‘B’.
    Waking up in Tijuana, Mexico, you don't know who you are. Two half wit (probably half degreed) doctors inform you that they ALSO happen to be Plastic Surgeons and decide to fix you all better in a day and send you on your way. NOTE:I never should have swallowed the worm. You slowly work your way back up to the TNA roster making friends, enemies, and frenemies. All whilst eventually trying to help Eric Young from becoming LAX's bondage doll.


    Controls:
    Wow, the controls are SO unresponsive. I don't understand how games today can still be this ba- oh wait this game is made by Midway. Seems the only thing you can reverse is your opponent picking you up off the mat. Seemingly the A.I. can reverse everything and your mothers’ birth. The grappling "system" really seems to not be there, but instead replaced by “rock, paper, scissors”. Making you pull off random ass moves, that just gets reversed anyway.


    Graphics:
    Honestly all I can really say is that it looks like a late last generation Xbox game.


    Soundtrack:
    The ONLY music in this game is the 10 second Intro samples of the wrestler's


    Gameplay:
    My overall experience with this game was very dull. There are a lot of problems with this game. Very glitchy hit detection is one of the major problems here and the lack of any kind of stat progression. The lack of stat's is so heart breaking because the A.I. becomes so difficult at times, seeming like all their attack's do 5X more damage than yours.
    Only one arena in the game is of real life, and they all want to give off this false sense of reality that every one uses 6 sided rings. The only weapon in each arena is the steel chair. There also is no label anywhere in the game that reads "No Holds Barred", but yet there are no rules at all, not even a referee cared to show up in this awkward at best game. The main thing that always caused me to lose in this game was the lack of a rope break and/or the stat problem. The choice of up to 26 wrestlers is decent for a launch title of a franchise, (I understand there will be more through DLC.) but none of them are up to date. Sharkboy doesn't have his Austin gimmick, Eric Young isn't "Super Eric", hell Christopher Daniels isn't even "Curry man" in this game. The "Create-A-Wrestler" is so thin that every single person you make looks Mexican, there isn't even much of a move selection even after you unlock a lot of them.

    The Good:
    The game is atleast a rent for the easy acheivement's
    100GP just for beating Jeff Jarrett

    The Bad:
    The only BAD elements are probably the voice acting, they aren't good but they aren't ugly as well

    The Ugly:
    EVERYTHING
    angry
    1.0
    Showing all 3 comments.
    motley gunnerim hating this game so much right now, its hard to find any positives about it when the easiest difficulty is insanely hard, its great how your tag partner wont even get in the ring to break up a pin and you lose huh?
    Posted by motley gunner on 11 Feb 10 at 22:28
    ERIKDOTCOMGood review, but I wouldn't agree that it's as bad as you say.
    Posted by ERIKDOTCOM on 15 May 10 at 17:30
    GrandmasterALKi agree wid ERIKDOTCOM
    Posted by GrandmasterALK on 03 Aug 10 at 18:38
  • xxW0LFxx TFDxxW0LFxx TFD224,595
    09 May 2009
    13 7 0
    well this is my first ever review....so lets give this a go.
    Iv watched wrestling for years so a few years ago i bought SVR 2007,and that put me off wrestling games,i hated it and it's insane control system.
    But lately I'v been watching TNA impact and loving it,so i took a risk and bought the game...

    I was pleasently surprised.

    Lets start with the single player story mode:
    the game starts off with a new TNA superstar named Suicide who has risen quickly throught the ranks and become a crowd fave,( i wont spoil the story ) suffice to say you get stripped of that rank fast and wind up in a run down hospital in mexico where you get plastic surgery.
    Thus begins your adventure to get back up the ranks in TNA.

    Now the plastic surgery takes the form of the create-a-wrestler mode,which is the most dissapointing mode in this game.
    It is incredibly limited,you cant morph diffrent face and body parts,you can only pick from pre made parts and the clothing options are severly limited.
    you cant add diffrent layers of facepaint or tattoo's.
    And as a nail in the coffin for this mode,you cant even adjust your wrestlers height...

    But the game redeems itself in the gameplay,the control scheme is simple and easy to grasp but still has enought depth to keep you intrested.
    You'll be pulling off choke slams and german suplex's before you know it.
    However if you get out the ring it's lacking a bit,the occasional chair lying around and thats about it.

    The graphics are mixed,the ring,crowd and entrances look fairly bad,but the wrestlers themselves look photo realistic.
    Thought one annoying liitle fact,the wrestlers dont get full intro's which was massively dissapointing.

    The roster includes all your tna superstars plus a few unlockable characters that are unlocked through the game by earning style points,which also unlock new moves for your created wrestlers.

    Match variety is limited,your standard match,tag teams and free for alls plus a match type where a large x is suspended between four ropes,which the player must jump up to and climb along and then untie the x to win,it's an intresting match to play,and faithfully recreates it from TNA impact.
    3.0
  • Its just DaveIts just Dave222,950
    01 Nov 2010 25 Feb 2011
    9 5 1
    TNA iMPACT!... featuring the wrestling talent of the TNA roster.

    And that's where the excitement pretty much ends for this game. If you have played any other wrestling game, then the controls on this will feel very foreign, not well thought out, and at times, like the worst button masher there is. The health of your opponent's in story mode is unbearably horrific. It feels like you're going to break a controller every time you have to kick out of a pin. The online achievements aren't bad, but to obtain the most difficult ones online, simply a nightmare.

    TNA iMPACT!World Wide WrestlerThe World Wide Wrestler achievement in TNA iMPACT! worth 82 pointsPlay 25 ranked matches on Xbox LIVE
    has to be done in 1 sitting, you can't turn off your xbox and come back to it.

    TNA iMPACT!Planet JarrettThe Planet Jarrett achievement in TNA iMPACT! worth 60 pointsPlay against a real life TNA wrestler or someone who has.
    is a viral from this game, the problem is, in order to get the achievement, the person sharing the achievement has to be a TNA Champion.

    TNA iMPACT!Best of the BestThe Best of the Best achievement in TNA iMPACT! worth 474 pointsAchieve TNA Champion status on any Leaderboard.
    requires at least 100 wins in a certain game mode online, you can be champion in up to 5 different match types.

    I'd avoid this like the plague if I were you. Plain and simple.

    As of me writing this review, the leaderboards are still active so if you wish to go for the achievements, you can. Hopefully with the strong TA community behind you, you'll be able to achieve these.

    Best part of the game by far is the achievement for simply playing a match as Sting (Cover Artist and in my opinion, the greatest wrestler of all time). I highly recommend that you do as much of the game at once as possible, once you stop, you're likely to not want to touch this again.

    Ratings
    Gameplay - 1/5
    Story - 1/5
    CaW (Create a Wrestler) options -1/5
    Time to 100% - 25-50 hours, depending on your determination.

    Overall - 2/5 due to the servers still being up.
    2.0
  • KingOfWeightKingOfWeight267,328
    16 Nov 2010 16 Nov 2010
    6 4 3
    Surgeon General's Warning: if you suffer from high blood pressure, playing TNA Impact may be hazardous to your health and to the health of your Xbox 360 controller.

    TNA Impact is Midway's answer to THQ's popular series of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw pro wrestling videogames, but THQ doesn't have much to worry about: while Impact is more accessible than most Smackdown titles and has good production values, a skimpy set of features and gameplay modes ensure it will never rise above undercard status.

    Oh, and TNA Impact is often so frustrating you'll want to piledrive your controller through the floor. More on that later.

    Founded in 2002, the TNA (Total Nonstop Action) wrestling promotion has always been in the shadow of the WWE powerhouse, lacking the star-power and brand-name recognition of Vince McMahon's outfit. It's not too bad though, featuring some guys who used to be in WWE as well as performers most wrestling fans have heard of, like Sting. TNA also uses a six-sided ring.

    TNA Impact features a storyline: at the start of the game, your character, a pro wrestler named Suicide, wins the TNA championship after being told to take a dive. Because he didn't follow orders, Suicide gets worked over by a couple of thugs and is dumped in Mexico with a bad case of amnesia and the need for a new face, seeing as how his current one is all messed up. This is Midway's method of getting you to the character creation screen, where you can put together a new grappler. Unlike Smackdown vs. Raw, the Create A Wrestler options in Impact are quite meager, with not much to choose from in the way of body types, facial features, or clothing. You also can't create a lady wrestler; Impact is a boys-only club.

    With his new face in place, Suicide sets out to get back to TNA and discover who set him up. Impact's plot is dumbly amusing thanks to how all the characters in it take everything 100% seriously, seemingly unaware that pro wrestling is scripted; in wrestling parlance, Impact is kayfabe all the way. When Eric Young gets kidnapped and held hostage by LAX partway through the game, he is really kidnapped by them. No one ever breaks character.

    The early stages of Impact serve as a bit of a tutorial, showing you how the controls work, and to Midway's credit the controls are fairly easy to pick up, with the controller face buttons used to strike, grapple, and perform context-sensitive actions. By holding down the left bumper and pressing the face buttons, you can modify attacks. There are no multi-button/joystick combos to learn in Impact, so players can jump in and start throwing opponents around the ring right away. For some reason though, you have to furiously wiggle the left analog stick to break pins or shake off the cobwebs after being stunned instead of just mashing a button. It works, but it feels like the stick will break off at any second and in the heat of battle it's easy for your fingers to slip and disrupt the rhythm. Don't be surprised if you hit the controller's guide button a few times and lose a match because of it.

    Impact is also a bit picky about the position of your character when you want to perform specific actions: sometimes you'll want to climb a turnbuckle, but because you weren't perfectly positioned you'll slide out of the ring instead. Attempting to grab a downed opponent's leg or arm will often leave you grasping at air because you weren't in quite the right place when you pressed the button. Unlike the more methodical Smackdown vs. Raw, the action in Impact is very fast-paced and positioning flubs like this can be costly.

    When you are able to pull off moves in Impact, they're visceral-looking and very well-animated; if only there were more of them. There just aren't that many different moves in the game, and most of the wrestlers share the same ones. Basically, you'll be doing the same moves over and over, which makes nearly every match feel identical. Additional moves can be unlocked by accumulating style points in matches, but you'll need to grind out lots and lots of exhibition victories to get access to most of the good ones. Impact also doesn't let you preview moves on the character screen; want to know what the "Angel Wings" look like in action? You'll have to play a match to find out. The same goes for ring intros: pick one at random and hope you like it when you see it for the first time.

    Not only is Impact's move set limited, it also doesn't have certain types of moves, like grapples from behind or tag-team maneuvers. Trying to grasp an opponent from behind leads to an amusing animation of your character sliding around and grappling him from the front. At least the submission holds, where you clutch a limb and do a button-pressing mini-game to inflict more damage or make your enemy tap out, are fun to do.

    "Limited" is a good way to describe Impact, at least in terms of content: everything seems scaled back, from the movesets to the character creation tools to the gameplay types to weapons (chairs chairs everywhere!) and to the roster, where the fights against TNA stars like AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, The Motor City Machine Guns, Kurt Angle, and Samoa Joe are interspersed with match after match against random jobbers you don't care about. Impact doesn't even have an onscreen referee for you to beat up. The backbone of the game is actually solid, but the bones don't have enough meat on them. It seems like Midway spent a bunch of time creating the foundation and weren't left with enough time to add more content because the game had to ship.

    And what content is there needs to be unlocked before you can use it.

    Despite the lack of stuff Impact does manage to be fun at times, thanks to its accessibility; it's an easy game to get into if nothing else. But then you'll encounter the game's artificial intelligence, which will lead you to use swear words you never knew existed. Impact uses a countering system, where if you press the right bumper at the correct time, you can reverse an opponent's attack and inflict some damage on him. It's a good system, but the computer can counter as well, and much more successfully than you can; for every move you manage to counter, the AI can reverse about five. This leads to match after match where you're totally dominating the opposition but because they counter so well, you'll lose because an enemy will reverse your attack and clobber you. To make matters worse, counters can be countered, which means you'll be on the receiving end of even more crushing blows. Late in the game enemies have big health bars and lots of damaging attacks to dish out; combine that with at least half your moves being reversed and you'll likely become so enraged you won't be able to finish the game because your controller will be laying in a smouldering heap on the floor.

    So, Impact features cheap AI when you're fighting against it, but things don't improve when that AI is fighting on your side: at one point the plot dictates that you do a bunch of tag-team matches with Eric Young as your partner. Young will often just stand there doing nothing while you're getting your ass handed to you mere inches away from him. There will be numerous times where Eric can save you from a pin by moving half a foot, but he won't bother.

    If you want to play TNA Impact, invite a friend or three over and have them join in. Your sanity will thank you.

    Visually, TNA Impact is fairly good: the wrestler models are very nicely done, and they're animated well. Most of the moves look good too; Impact is much more fluid-looking than Smackdown vs. Raw. In-engine cutscenes (the game uses Unreal Engine 3) don't have the same level of sheen though; they look a bit crude when compared to the in-ring action. As an added bonus, the frame-rate is very good.

    The sound in Impact is decent: the combat noises are solid, and the voice-acting is alright, with TNA stars like Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett lending their voices and seemingly having a good time. The play-by-play commentary by TNA announcers Mike Tenay and Don West is very repetitive however, with the same few comments being heard over and over; it's not uncommon to hear the same phrase three or four times in a row. Music is sparing, limited mostly to a generic hard rock tune heard in the main menu.

    For those who are into that sort of thing, TNA Impact has multiplayer support for up to four people locally, and two players can go head-to-head over Xbox Live. Matches are easy to set up and look for online, but finding opponents is difficult.

    Achievement seekers will find 34 achievements and 1000 GamerScore points to track down in TNA Impact; finishing the game's story mode will probably net most people around 20 - 25 achievements. Others can be picked up by performing certain types of moves X number of times or winning matches with particular characters. There are also a few multiplayer-only achievements.

    Despite everything that's been written in this review, TNA Impact isn't a bad game at all; it's just stripped down a bit too much, and it can be infuriating to play. Smackdown vs. Raw is still king of the ring, but Impact is worth a look if you can find it cheap and have a few spare controllers laying around.
    3.0
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    2 6 1
    Do not play!!!!angry

    This Game is terrible if you have to play it RENT it i payed 3 dollars and i want my money back because

    GAMEPLAY: Controls are very terrible like if you try to counter it will not counter, the AI are way to hard even in the begining so you cant even have any fun.

    GRAPHICS: They are some of the worst graphics ever nothing ever happens to the characters when i obviously broke every bone in his body and looks as good as before plus really cheesy animation.

    ACHIEVEMENTS: Ok gamerscore very hard story related as i sayed above the games hella hard so would have to say gamerscore is gonna end up with like 300 to maybe 400

    So over all i recommend if you want a wrestling game get a WWE game one of the Smackdown VS Raw games is your best bet
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    3 7 0
    an okay game...but poor graphics and gameplay... this game is just about as realistic as halo playing this game reminds me of playing the original smackdown vs raw which is 5 years old, the control layout is weird and sometimes agrravating. the game doesnt have ful entrances and in create mode you dont even get to make your own entrance. The story mode talks alot about the championship titles and you even get title shots but it doesnt show any titles! a lot of people are exited to get this game but i would rent it before you buy it...