• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness: Benedict Cumberbatch, Xochitl Gomez and Rachel McAdams as Steven, America Chavez and Dr. Christine Palmer

      REVIEW: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is Sam Raimi’s Sam Ramiest movie in ages!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 7, 2022
    • Full Metal Jacket: Vincent D'Onofrio

      Full Metal Jacket is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 5, 2022
    • Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: Jude Law as Albus

      REVIEW: Fantastic Beasts 3 (The Secrets of Dumbledore) is a gloomy sequel with little pizzaz

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 18, 2022
    • Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Sonic voiced by Ben Schwartz

      REVIEW: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Best video game film yet?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 9, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Turning Red: Rosalie Chiang as Meilin

      REVIEW: Turning Red is a bizarre take on puberty

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 13, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis Presley

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1954-1955)

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 27, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Riverdale S06e14: Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge

      Riverdale S06E14 Review: Venomous – Spider-Woman?

      By Salome G
      | May 16, 2022
    • The Flight Attendant S02e06: Sharon Stone as Lisa Bowden

      The Flight Attendant S02E06 Review: Brothers & Sisters – Compelling

      By Salome G
      | May 14, 2022
    • Big Sky S02e17: Bernard White and Vinny Chhibber as Veer and Jag Buller

      Big Sky S02E17 Review: Family Matters – Ends in blood…

      By Salome G
      | May 14, 2022
    • Star Trek Picard S02e04: Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc

      Star Trek Picard Season 2 (not a review but a rant)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 10, 2022
    • Riverdale S06e13: The gang

      Riverdale S06E13 Review: Ex-Libris – Percival being Percival

      By Salome G
      | May 10, 2022
    • The Flight Attendant S02e05: Kaley Cuoco as Cassie Bowden

      The Flight Attendant S02E05 Review: Drowning Women – Cassie!

      By Salome G
      | May 8, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
    • ROH Proving Ground 2009: El Generico aka Sami Zayn

      In buying ROH, AEW has a chance to redo history (the right way)

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 14, 2022
    • Cody Rhodes Tnt Title Belt 220720

      Cody Rhodes is gone from AEW. What does that mean for wrestling?

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2022
    • WWE Royal Rumble 2022: Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman

      WWE has two options for WrestleMania 38’s main-event. Both suck

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 31, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Riverdale S06E14 Review: Venomous - Spider-Woman?
    • The Flight Attendant S02E06 Review: Brothers & Sisters - Compelling
    • Big Sky S02E17 Review: Family Matters - Ends in blood...
    • Star Trek Picard Season 2 (not a review but a rant)
    • Riverdale S06E13 Review: Ex-Libris - Percival being Percival
    • The Flight Attendant S02E05 Review: Drowning Women - Cassie!
    • Latest Comments

    TNA iMPACT Video Game Review

    By Fletch
    | September 23, 2008
    Video Game Reviews
    This page contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Learn more

    3 Years ago, we learnt that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling were starting to produce their own video game, much like WWE have been doing since time can remember. With over 3 years of development going into this inaugural title, and the assistance of avid gaming fans and TNA Superstars such as Samoa Joe and The Phenomenal One, AJ Styles; this game cannot possibly even contemplate failure. Can it?

    Tna Impact Video Game Cover

    Sadly, despite all the hype, all the build-up, and the aforementioned 3 years of development time and input from TNA stars, the game falls several miles short of what fans, and gamers alike were expected, or should have been given. And it’s not just in one area the game comes up short, it’s almost every possible area.

    Having purchased the game, well traded in for Burnout Paradise and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground; a decision I now greatly regret; I quickly popped the game with much excitement and anticipation, into my 60gb PlayStation 3 console at home. A couple of fancy screens popped up before a beautiful promo trailer came up, featuring TNA clips and some heart wrenching music. Then the main screen popped up, and I was prompted to install some files onto my hard drive. No big deal, lots of Blu-Ray games use this system to shorten loading times and keep valuable files on the disc.

    30 minutes later, I was still waiting for the game to finish installing. Having read through the manual several times over, I was now ready to play one of the most anticipated wrestling games of the last few years. Finally, we get to the main menu. The usual options listed, Exhibition matches, Story Mode, Online, Create Mode, Extras, Options. Picking the extras menus first, a nice little addition to the disc was the inclusion of 5 full TNA matches, 3 of which being from yesteryear of the company, featuring guys such as Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett and Brian Christopher. The other two billed as TNA Game Exclusives. A nice touch.

    Tna Impage 1

    So then on, to playing the game. I opted for an Exhibition match first. The roster pops up, and the flow between the menus really is seamless and well animated. And then the disappointment began to hit. Half the roster was blacked out, needing to be unlocked through the games story mode. Thankfully, many of the Main Event stars such as AJ Styles, Sting, Kurt Angle, Booker T and Christian Cage were all available to start with. So having picked Christian to take on Shark Boy, I awaited.

    Jeremy Borash at the start of matches, after a loading screen, introduces us to the iMPACT Zone. Then another loading screen, before an 11 second entrance of Christian Cage, not even him making it down the length of the ramp, that was it. And then another loading screen, and then the 11 second intro of Sharky, before yet another loading screen. In fact, the game is marred by the sheer amount of loading screens. For a game that took over half an hour to install on my hard drive, to cut loading times, sadly it did little to reduce the sheer amount of screens that I would have to endure.

    Tna Impage 2

    Upon finally starting a match, the visuals are stunning, Well the in-ring visuals. The crowd are much in the same vein as of the old SmackDown games, limited animation and occasionally blackened out entirely. The trouble with the graphics is there’s no difference between a standard TV and an HD TV. Having played the game on both in my home, I can honestly say that my shoddy old 21 inch Television plays the game at the same visual standard as it does on my 40 inch HD Television, There’s no 1080p resolution available, but then arguments can be made that the last SmackDown on PS3 didn’t have that available either.

    The sounds, Mike Tenay and Don West rarely speak. And when they do, it’s some inane ramble about nothing to do with action, or one of the most stupid outburst’s heard on commentary. Mike Adamle is turning in his non-existent grave. Lines such as “Oh-No! The Irish Whip” often make you cringe. The sound of the moves into the ring is impressive, but the wrestler’s groans all sound the same, there’s no difference between wrestlers.

    Tna Impage 4

    In fact, the only difference between any of the wrestlers on the game are their looks, entrances and finishers. Each guy on the roster comes fully equipped with pretty much the exact same moves list. They have the same reversals, the same animations, same AI and pretty much nothing to differentiate between each roster member. You could forgive Midway for this overlook, but thousands of animations were recorded for the game, by AJ and Joe, and the game has been being produced for over 3 years. Yes. 3 years. Even for a first time outing, this is unacceptable. The SmackDown games for years have offered us grapples from behind, finishers from different positions, different weapons, even grapples from the ground facing down, but TNA having seen all those games and complained of the stranglehold that WWE games had on the market, cannot even take a leaf from the positives of the SmackDown series and borrow them. There is just so much missing from the actual gameplay that we are offered in other games, that it spoils the experience.

    The control system is very simplified. And with this, comes a much less robust and in-depth moves list. Many people hate the current SD vs RAW control scheme, but that control setup allows for much more moves to be assigned to each wrestler than this cut down control system does. Not that there are that many moves you could assign anyway. The reversal system is badly flawed, and seems rather hit and miss. The premise is that you can reverse nearly any move, but from playing the game, I can tell you that 9 times out of 10, the button just doesn’t react and you’re left getting the crap kicked out of you until it decides to work.

    And then comes the story mode, with an integrated Create A Wrestler. Now the actual basis of the story, is excellent. You play Suicide, a supposed former TNA Wrestler. Suicide was undefeated, and went on to win the TNA Championship, despite advice from LAX to turn down the title match. He didn’t and ended up left for dead in Mexico by the TNA Tag Team. Suffering from amnesia, you get to then reconstruct how Suicide now looks, and a new name for him. The Create a Wrestler then pops up, and you make your guy from there. Again, for a first time effort, it’s poor. There’s a definite lack of options available, so your CAW will never be THAT different to anyone else’s. Perhaps a bonus then for the lack of being able to use them in the Online Mode.

    After making your guy, you then face some local jobbers, and move to America to try and make a name and some money. As you progress you unlock moves, and the TNA Wrestlers you beat, eventually having to win the TNA Gold again. Now as great as this sounds, it’s very one dimensional. The story doesn’t branch at all, and should you lose, you have to try again. There’s between 5 to 8 hours worth of gameplay here in this mode, should you win or lose countless times. Having played through it once though, you’re done. There’s no reason to go back and play again, unless you have far too much time on your hands. It decreases the longevity of the game, not that there’s a great amount anyway. Your Created Wrestler doesn’t increase in power or any other stats through the story, so as you progress it becomes increasingly difficult to defeat more powerful superstars,

    Tna Impage 3

    And the Online mode is no better. Often crashing before you can even wrestle a match, there are some serious lag issues on the server and it takes it’s toll on the gameplay. Two types of people play this mode, the braggers and those fun seeking. The fun seekers, are usually your friends, who want a decent fair game, which can be a lot of fun if not for the lag. The braggers, just cheat, beat you to a pulp, then pin you for bragging rights. A downfall of many online games, but more so in this badly flawed game that often can become so infuriatingly difficult to beat someone with quicker fingers. The lack of match types on Online is very limited, but then, the entire game offline suffers the same fate, with at last count, only 6 or 7 different match options available. It’s ironic that a company who pride themselves on innovative matches, can only give us big standard singles, tag or Triple Threat matches, and one of their signature matches in the Ultimate X. There’s no King of the Mountain, no Six Sides of Steel or anything else. It’s just something else missing.

    Overall, the game has so much missing it almost feels like a demo. For all intention’s purposes, the game is probably going to be more of a taste of what the next offering will be, but for a game they’ve spent a great deal of time on making and marketing, it feels so empty, dated and just plane frustrating. Trade-In’s will surely be at an all time high. My advice would be to go pick up Legends of Wrestling: Showdown from your local gameshop, because even such a bad game as that put’s TNA’s first Video Game Effort to shame.

    Graphics: Looks good, but no different in HD, and the crowd is horrible 7/10

    Sounds: The music is samey, and the commentary is below SD vs RAW standard. The ring effects sound brutal though and much more fleshed out than other games 6/10

    Gameplay: Flawed, and severely lacking in options. It needs a lot of work, and a patient gamer. 4/10

    Longeivity: Very little. One time play of Story Mode, and only 6 match types and a limited roster. 4/10

    Overall: 5 / 10

    Buy it:

    UK: PS2 | PS3 | Wii | XB 360

    USA: PS2 | PS3 | Wii | XB 360

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    midwayTNAWrestling Video Games

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest
    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Christopher Daniels Interview

      By Dean Reilly
      | June 1, 2013
    • TNA: How do you fix Jeff Hardy?

      By Tony Cottam
      | March 19, 2011
    • Fire Pro Wrestling A Review

      By Russ
      | August 10, 2003

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Video Game Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Five live play TTRPG podcasts you must listen to

      By Ethan J
      | March 30, 2022
    • Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best games

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 31, 2021
    • What we want from an AEW video game

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz