TNA iMPACT!

Apr 18, 2008

TNA iMPACT! has quite a bit of promise. Midway's been hyping it up for over a year now, but it's only been in the last six months that we've seen it in action. Our last demo left us quite impressed with the game, and yesterday's session at Midway's media event showed that the team is onto something pretty good. We jumped into the action with Midway LA's Paul Edwards, who walked us through the new additions to iMPACT's brawling. There are some things we'd like to see addressed, but overall it still looks like a solid wrestling title.

The roster has seen some updates since our last demo. Booker T, Christopher Daniels, Alex Shelley, Tomko, and Jay Lethal were all playable in our recent demo. We grilled Edwards about the features of iMPACT, from DLC to how the Wii and PS2 versions compare to the Xbox 360 and PS3 game that we saw. It turns out that although the DLC specifics are under wraps, there will be some form of DLC releasing over Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

Both the Wii and PS2 versions are being developed at Point of View. Neither were on display at the event, but the Wii game will feature a scaled-down modification of the Unreal 3 Engine to power it. The character models' resolution has been reduced, but it's still slated to run at 60 frames per second, just like its HD cousins. The PS2 version will tout its own unique engine from Point of View, and like the Wii game, will feature scaled-down character models.

Although we'd like to see a little more variety in regard to the ground fighting -- currently, it seems as though the attacks are a little monotonous -- the other mechanics are falling into place quite nicely. We can finally counter a running attack now, which we couldn't do before. The rhythm of the reversal system is being fine-tuned, although the timing's already a little more intuitive than that of the SmackDown! games.

Midway LA's also added some new features, like the Style Points system. Every time you pull off a successful move you get points. Points can be used to purchase unlockable items. It's a margin of diminishing returns, though; the system is designed to reward players with versatile movesets -- you'll get lower points for repeating the same move over and over. The team has also implemented a mini-game for submissions. Whether you're initiating the hold or trying to get out of it, a sequence of button combos pop up under the wrestler's health bar. The faster fingers either retain the hold or break it. It's a cool system that eliminates cliched button mashing.

Right now, Edwards mentioned that the team's focused on getting the game polished. They're implementing personality nuances for each wrestler to ensure that the movesets reflect his character. There are a few other things that are getting worked out; there's some minor collision detection outside of the ring that needs some work; in our first match as Jeff Jarrett in the new England arena, we took a suplex on the floor outside and Jarrett's feet went through the entrance ramp. It's not a big deal at this point, since there's still time to fix those sorts of issues.

The highlight of the demo was our test run with Ultimate X. If you're unfamiliar with the match, it's a special affair in which an item (a belt in real life, in our demo a huge X), is suspended above the ring by cables. In order to win the match, a wrestler has to scale the cable and grab the belt. As anyone who's seen an Ultimate X match can tell you, it's easier said than done. In iMPACT! it's pretty tough as well. We tried out "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels in a match against Jay Lethal, whose "Macho Man" Randy Savage gimmick has made the game's cut.

Most of the match is fairly standard stuff, save for the lack of pinning your opponent. Once you mount the top rope with the action button, you must repeat the gesture to climb toward the belt. Upon reaching the big X, there's a mini-game in which you'll have to line up a quickly-moving arrow with a target and repeat the feat a few times to unlock the X from the cables. Since it's not easy to pull off, it's an effective tension-builder, but we hope to see it tweaked somewhat; the reticle moves too fast, and since it requires several successes to unlock the X, it's pretty frustrating.

Our second match with TNA iMPACT! was a satisfying one. It's great to see how Midway LA has fleshed out the movesets, and although we want to see a few small adjustments, the controls feel very intuitive. The addition of style points is a welcome one, as is the submission mini-game. We'd like to see some fine-tuning to the Ultimate X match, but all around it's still pretty solid fan service for TNA die-hards. More soon.