Wrestling games come and go, but few are as memorable or accessible as THQ and AKI’s Nintendo 64 titles, WCW vs. NWO World Tour/Revenge and WWF Wrestlemania 2000/No Mercy. What these games did so right was their ability to strike a perfect balance of simplicity and capturing the methodical pace and feel of grappling with your foe and setting him up for a devastating suplex. Other wrestling games have tried to rival or at least be similar to the N64 games’ grappling systems, but they could never quite get it right.
It comes as no big surprise then that Midway is promising the same amount of ease in their upcoming wrestling title, TNA Impact. Sure, we’ve heard that before, but the developers – even the TNA wrestlers themselves who were brought in to help with motion capture, modeling, etc – are using WWF No Mercy as a big influence. But aside from that and the usual 1-on-1 and tag team matches, the similarities end there. You might think that once you’ve seen one match between two oily muscle-heads, you’ve seen ‘em all. However, TNA’s brand of ass-kickery is decidedly different than what you’ll find in WWE. Whereas WWE seems content on sticking with the same formula they’ve been using for years, TNA kicks things up a notch, featuring fast, relentless action and lots of high-flying maneuvers, all inside their special six-sided ring (because squares just aren’t edgy anymore). One of the ways you’ll be getting a taste of that fast action comes from the fact that your character will be performing at the same speed throughout the matches. It might be more lifelike for your guy to be limping and dragging himself along after being pummeled unmercifully, but to keep that quick pace intact, your ‘roid-rager will feel as fresh and ready-for-action as the moment he stepped into the ring. Of course, that doesn’t mean that eventually, you won’t be subject to a match-ending finisher.
Although it hasn’t yet been 100% confirmed for the game, TNA even has every wrestling nut’s bloody favorite, the steel cage match – dubbed “The Six Sides of Steel” by TNA – and it would be hard to imagine why one of their biggest draws wouldn’t be included in the game. Better still, TNA is home to the massive spectacles that are the King of the Mountain match and Ultimate X match, where contenders must climb across criss-crossing cables set up above the ring to reach the “X” in the center, and yes, these will both be featured in the game. All in stunning detail, too, it would seem. Screenshots reveal such fine and subtle visual elements like freckles and tiny bumps on the skin of the wrestlers, realistic wrinkles on the old ring veterans, and drops of sweat carving paths through body hair.
You might not have heard of some of the roster, as they’re not all big, well-known names (yet, anyway), but some former WWE superstars are present, such as Kurt Angle, Booker T, and Rhino, as well as the up-and-coming stars of tomorrow like AJ Styles, Jay Lethal, and Samoa Joe. They behave as they do on TV, too. Bigger guys like Booker T will not be performing any fancy flips off the top rope, and smaller wrestlers won’t quite be able to lift someone over their heads and toss them around like ragdolls. But forget about those guys for now. The real star here is you – or rather the custom character you create for the single-player story mode. This is important because a) you gotta have a campaign mode and b) what kind of a wrestling game doesn’t have a create-a-player option?
This brings us to arguably the biggest question: “what am I going to be playing this thing on?” And the answer is “every home console that is still relevant,” and that includes the Playstation 2. But wait, there’s more. These days, online play is a must and all versions of Impact will include it, even the Wii version, so get out a pad of paper and a pencil, and prepare to write down some friend codes. Speaking of the Wii, not much is known about that version yet other than that it is coming, and the developers are working on trying to simplify the controls for the casual Wii-loving crowd.
After many delays, TNA Impact seems to have settled on a release date for the summer of ’08. It’ll be the perfect weather for getting some exercise, whether that exercise be jogging or beating the crap out of anyone that dares stand in your way on the path to championship gold.
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