Spandex ballet

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is the brattish kid of the US wrestling scene. A new federation, barely six years old, it concentrates on a high-risk, hugely athletic style of competition.

These guys are crazy - and just to prove how crazy they are, they fight in a hexagonal ring. Hexagonal?! Absolute luncacy.

Back to basics

With popularity growing on both sides of the Atlantic, Midway snapped up the license and has built a loud, aggressive competitor to THQ's long-running WWE series. TNA iMPACT strips the wrestling experience down to raw essentials, implementing an intuitive control system that offers simple punch, kick and grab/grapple buttons, but still offers access to a reasonable range of moves.

Leap into the ring and you're confronted by two impressively modeled combatants who don't just look like their real-life namesakes, they move like them, too. Midway has motion captured every one of the 25 TNA stars on offer, accurately replicating the signature styles of Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle and the rest. Want to see sweaty maniacs pulverising each other with delightful moves like the Neckbreaker and Diamondcutter? This is the place to come.

X factor

There are nine match modes to plow through, taking in singles match, tag team, submission and a walloping four-wrestler rout named Free For All. One option that may be unfamiliar is the Ultimate X mode, in which a large X shape is suspended above the ring by two criss-crossing ropes - the first wrestler to shimmy along and untie the X wins the bout. It's… erm… bizarre.

The meat of the game is its story mode, in which you play hard-up wrestler, Suicide, looking to take one more shot at the big time after a particularly sound beating. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly involving plot, and you may find yourself plodding through merely out of necessity in order to unlock new fighters and arenas.

The story mode isn't the only thing that feels a little unfinished. TNA iMPACT isn't nearly as exhaustive as the WWE Smackdown vs Raw titles. It's shorter on modes, moves, and sheer presentational pizazz. The Create A Wrestler feature, usually a really fun part of the grapple-'em-up experience, offers only a very small selection of costumes and body types. There is online multiplayer, but the options are limited. Everything is almost there… but not quite.

More, please!

Midway, then, has produced the foundations of a great wrestling simulation, which harks back to frenetic fun of its old Wrestlemania arcade machine. The controls are good, and the animation captures what TNA iMPACT is all about: big, death-defying moves pulled off with genuine athleticism. There just isn't enough of the good stuff.

If you love wrestling, you'll enjoy what TNA iMPACT has to offer, but you may be left wanting a whole lot more. TNA iMPACT 2, here we come!

GAME's Verdict

• Impressive character modeling, motion captured from each individual wrestler.
• The accessible controls make it easy to get started.
• You won't have played a wrestling mode like Ultimate X before.

• The story mode is a little dull and unconvincing.
• There's room for more moves and modes.
• Presentation is generally lackluster, with none of the sheer showmanship and peripheral detail of the WWE titles.

Review by: Keith 'The Khaos' Stuart
Version Tested: PS3
Review Published: 15.10.08

Mark grapples with WWE's latest competition...

2001 saw a sensation in the world of pro wrestling, as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) bought their competition, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after a bitter TV ratings war. Fans salivated at possible cross-federation superstar matchups, but ultimately the much hyped invasion of WCW stars, joined by the also-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), fell a little flat, with many of the biggest names missing and a storyline that felt like a missed opportunity.

Sports Entertainment Wrestling

Since then, the newly named World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has had a monopoly on ‘Sports Entertainment', as they call it – but more recently, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) has emerged to challenge WWE that supremacy. Fronted by ex WWE, WCW and ECW stars like Kurt Angle, Booker T, Sting and Rhino, and with a host of upcoming young talent too, TNA is growing in popularity and gathering a considerable cult following.

All of which contributes heavily towards the hype for the federation's first videogame, TNA Impact! Named after TNA's signature TV show, TNA Impact! is highly anticipated amongst wrestling fans, who've been waiting an age for a successor to what many regard as gaming's last must-have grappler; 2000's AKI developed N64 WWF No Mercy.

Much to our surprise, TNA's wrestlers themselves have been amongst those waiting. The recent press event, attended by X-Division Champ Petey Williams, World Champ Samoa Joe and triple-crown winner AJ Styles (our interview with whom you can find here), began with Joe himself declaring his fondness for some great wrestling games of old, including obscure but well-regarded Japanese titles, and the WWF games running on the AKI engine.

Grapple-happy

There was a general feeling that recent year's efforts hadn't done the genre justice – and that in realising this, TNA Impact was the title to right that wrong.

This may be an ambition that's a tad too lofty for the current code, however. Our hands-on with TNA Impact's unfinished form showed some promise of an entertaining, responsive and fast-paced brawler with a lot of TNA's best hallmarks, but one that exhibited several areas for improvement, too.

To its credit, TNA Impact employs a moves system similar to the AKI games, with the bulk of a wrestler's moves repertoire – suplexes; piledrivers; DDTs; finishers; all of the hard-hitting stuff – accessed by first grappling your opponent, and then pressing different combinations of attack buttons and directions. Alas, compared to No Mercy's two grapples and myriad moves, TNA Impact presents one grapple type, and a less diverse selection. Bouts can thus become repetitive, and the lack of an option to drag your opponent round the mat or pick them up is a missed opportunity.

Most of the usual conventions are here, though – quick-fire kicks and punches, irish whips, turnbuckle attacks, a counter button for well-timed reversals, and a meter which you build up through successful moves, reversals and taunts, letting you employ finisher's like Kurt Angle's Olympic Slam and Booker T's Bookend. The great news is that it all looks great, with TNA Impact boasting top-notch character models and lifelike animation.

Sucker punch

Where TNA Impact differs is in how responsive it feels, how fast the fights are, and in some of the on-screen happenings. The six-sided ring is a first for a wrestling videogame, as are matches like TNA Impact's Ultimate X, where the goal is to down your opponent long enough to climb the turnbuckle, inch along overhead wire to get to the middle, and successfully time a button press to unhook an giant plastic X or a title belt. Currently the timing needs to be exact, which makes it a little tricky, but with some balancing it could be a real selling point for TNA Impact.

And TNA Impact is really a game full of unique selling points. TNA itself is a fresh, upcoming federation, and the game has a similarly unusual pace and responsiveness about it. Throw in a character creator, online play and content downloads for new wrestlers and you have a release which may just deliver a sucker-punch to the all-conquering WWE games.

Preview by: Mark 'Axe Kick' Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 26.06.08

TNA Triple Crown Winner AJ Styles shares his views on gaming, WWE and why TNA Impact is great for fans of both...

AJ! How are you?

I'm great! One more day and I get to go home!

How're you finding the UK, have you wrestled here before?

Oh absolutely, a bunch of times. I truly think that's why people are so familiar with AJ Styles and TNA. A lot of our guys have been here a bunch of times.

What's the difference between wrestling over here and in the States?

You guys enjoy wrestling! You guys aren't spoiled rotten! I love coming over here, there's always a great atmosphere – I come out here, I'm gonna put it all on the line.

We're obviously here for the game, TNA Impact! Big gamer yourself?

Oh absolutely, BIG gamer. We have regular Xbox Live nights in the company which [World Champ] Samoa Jo thinks he's the king of. A few people online actually found out my gamertag and it got a bit crazy.

What have you actually worked on within the game?

From the storyline to the motion capture, to what we thought looked good – pretty much everything. We spent hours climbing on cable for the Ultimate X Motion Capture, and let me tell you that's NOT fun. But we're happy cuz it's the match people are probably going to have the most fun with in the game.

How does TNA differ in real life to WWE?

How about wrestling? How about we actually do wrestling? How about the fact that we do moves you've never seen before? That's basically what it boils down to. And the six-sided ring. There's a lot of things that are different about TNA, and a lot of things different about the game too.

Like what?

You know, I wish I could tell you exactly how different it is from the WWE games – but I thought their games sucked so bad a few years ago, that I haven't played the recent ones at all! I can't stand their kick and punch, the jerkiness – when I mash a button, I expect something to happen! I don't want to have to wait, or mash buttons to do one move. That's not fun to me. I want to pick up a game, and play it. And that's the thing about TNA Impact – easy to play, hard to master. That's our slogan; it's what we want fans to take from TNA Impact.

So you'd say the game embodies TNA itself?

Oh gosh, I think it's right on! I really do! Where we're at with TNA, Impact is just like it – from the ropes, to the dives, to the blood and sweat that's on the mat – it's the little things that embody TNA. They mean the most. And people notice that – they're gonna go "wow, they've really made a lot of effort with this game". That means a lot.

What superstars are in TNA Impact, and what grudge matches can fans expect?

I think the grudge matches are up to you. You figure out what you wanna do. The storyline is there for whatever grudge match you want to see, which is off the charts.

As for superstars, you got Booker T, you got Kurt Angle, you got Sting, you got Rhino, you got Samoa Jo, you got me, The Phenomenal AJ Styles – and loads more. The superstars you wanna play as are definitely in the game. And y'know, you can always make more with the character creator, and there'll be more wrestlers like Christopher Daniels with download content too.

And why should fans pick you?

So I can get online with my created character, and beat you up for being me!!

Hahaha. Thanks AJ.

Interview by: Mark 'Stinger' Scott
Interview Published: 20.06.08