Gamervision Review: TNA Impact

GV reports:

''Back at E3, when we first got our hands on Midway's new wrestling game, TNA Impact, we were told that it would revolutionize the wrestling genre. With features like interruptable animations, an entirely new submission system, and a streamlined grappling mechanic, we were ready to believe it. The early release we played had some technical issues, but overall, felt like it just might be a contender for wrestling game dominance. The final product has arrived, and, sadly, the promises were left unfulfilled. What we have instead is an unfinished, unpolished game with a serious lack of features, game modes, and characters.

Midway said that their control scheme would be totally different than the one found in the WWE's games, and on that front, they were right. Pretty much every command is different than the competitor's. A and X serve as your standard attack buttons, B interacts with environmental elements, and Y initiates grapples. All of these commands can be turned into stronger versions by holding the left bumper while inputting them. For example, pressing A while the opponent is down causes your wrestler to stomp on the opponent. Adding in the left bumper makes you leap in the air and crash down on them, causing significantly more damage. The right bumper serves as your defensive button. Pressing it causes you to attempt a counter, which reverses your opponent's attack. Pressing it while holding back will simply block the attack. Holding the right trigger makes you run. In general, the control scheme feels pretty instinctive, and after a match or two, you shouldn't have to think about it much, which is nice. In practice, however, the controls tend to be unresponsive at times, especially the right thumbstick, which targets different opponents. There are also times when it feels like the counter button simply doesn't work. Perhaps it's just my poor timing, but I often miss counters that I feel I should have hit, and vice versa.''