Gaming Ring’s own Dick Ward goes hands on with TNA Impact, does it live up to expectations?

I got to take a look and go hands on with Midways latest offering – TNA Impact.  We took a quick look at the intro and a few of the characters and then got right down to business with a 3 man Ultimate X match.  I took the role of Chris Sabin against the producer, playing AJ Styles, and a fellow journalist who selected Sting.

First impressions are that this game is very much like the AKI games of the Nintendo 64 days.  There are two buttons for striking attacks, a button to grapple, and a modifyer to change all of these from quick moves to strong moves.  It all works pretty well, and really takes me back to the glory days of games like Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and No Mercy.

We set up a few situations to see some different things within the game, most specifically the Ultimate X match.  To start with we see how players can be both punched and thrown off of the turnbuckles, and some unique and interesting counters.  We then take to the X, and start climbing towards the belt.

While players are suspended in the air, it’s quite simple for an opponent to pull them down, so it’s important to try and get any opposition out of the ring before taking to the ropes.  Of course, the player on the ropes isn’t defenseless, they have the ability to dodge, and of course, execute a special airborne attack from the ropes to the ground.

When going for the belt, a mini game must be completed a number of times before the belt will come down.  Unbuckling the belt a bit more each time the game is completed, there surely is a strategy in letting your opponent get it down most of the way before pulling him off, then taking it yourself.

It’s interesting, and undoubtedly an impressive debut, but there are just some things that don’t feel right with this game.  The controls are simple, but occasionally don’t seem to do what they should.  For example, climbing the turnbuckle.  While it’s a simple press of the A button while holding in the direction of the turnbuckle, half the time I ended up sliding out of the ring instead.

The game’s still a few months from release, slated for September of this year, and unfortunately, I didn’t get a look at the create a wrestler mode so there’s still a lot to see.

For our upcoming interview with Christopher Daniels and a comparison between the years two big wrestling games, keep your brower set to Gaming Ring.

 

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 4:31 pm and is filed under E3, GR on the road, PS2, PS3, Top Story, Wii, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.