All in all, I think it's pretty good. Infinitely more entertaining than the actual TNA product.
That said, regardless, most of the time, TNA delivers a solid product in the ring, where it really counts. That's why I feel the prospect of a TNA video game is attractive and definitely has potential. I especially imagined how awesome it would be playing an Ultimate X match, which I'm sure most people familiar with TNA also felt.
But ever since the game was first announced, I had low expectations for it. First of all, because it's TNA, and TNA can't seem to do anything right as a company in my opinion. Secondly, because it was being made by Midway, which hasn't produced a game I really liked in years. Not only is it made by Midway, but it was also programmed by the same exact people who made Backyard Wrestling, one of the worst modern wrestling games I've played or even heard of. With all this in mind, it's hard not to come into this game with a certain degree of pessimism.
When the game came out, it got pretty mediocre reviews. I didn't feel it was worth it to spend $40 on it. I wanted to rent it, but none of my local stores had the PS2 version for rent. So, I waited until it dropped to $20. Which it did, relatively quickly. About 6 months or so after its release. At which point, I bought it.
Honestly, for as low as my expectations were, TNA Impact blew them away. It's really a fun game. The mechanics work pretty well. The moves have a good sense of power behind them, wrestling in the six-sided ring works very well, generally it's a lot of fun. The controls are really good. I was a bit put off at the beginning because you had to move using the analog stick (my three favorite wrestling games for the PS2, Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, and King of Colosseum II, all use the d-pad for movement which I think works better for wrestling games), but it only took me one match to learn how to play. It's a great pick up and play kind of game.
The counter system is one of the best in wrestling games. It revolves around timing. When your opponent goes for a move, you hit the R1 button at the right time.You can counter almost any move, including top rope moves. But, even better, in some cases you can counter an opponent's counter, and then they can counter your counter. Not only are these counter strings a lot of fun to do, but they're also animated really well.
The submission system is also one of my favorites in wrestling games. When you lock in a submission, you have to press a sequence of three face buttons. If you press your button sequence faster than your opponent does his, you keep the submission applied. But if your opponent hits his button sequence first, then he escapes the hold. The same works the opposite way, when your opponent locks you in a hold. However, after three button sequences, the hold is released automatically.
Ultimate X is also everything I hoped it would be. It works exactly like it does on TV, where you climb the ropes and try to get the object in the center of the ring. The mechanics work really well, they're really intuitive, and it's definitely a fun match to do. One thing I would've liked to see though, are some more of the crazy spots we see in the real Ultimate X matches.
However, the AI really isn't very good. It's pretty stupid and it rarely provides a perfect level of challenge. This is definitely the kind of game that's better to play with a friend. Tag team matches are also pretty bad in this game. The partner AI is good, perhaps too good, but there aren't any double team moves in the game or any tag team mechanics at all really. On top of that, a lot of slowdown occurs in tag matches. It's very noticeable, and detrimental to the gameplay. The tag team match seems to be just thrown in as an afterthought, which is actually a lot like the tag team division in TNA. Tag teams don't even make entrances together. Speaking of entrances, they're really short and not very good at all.
The story mode in Impact is good, but not great. The storylines are nothing like what you see on TV, but personally I think that's a good thing. The story itself is just decent, but it's still better than 90% of the storylines in TNA. The voice acting is hit or miss. Half of the story is told in simple speech with a still picture in the background. The other half of the story is told in prerendered cutscenes, which are definitely better.
One thing that put me off about the story mode is that for the first 60% to 70% of the story mode, you're wrestling no-name jobbers most of the time. You do wrestle some TNA guys, but only once every few matches, usually when there's a story sequence coming up. When you first start the story mode, you're not actually wrestling in TNA. You start off wrestling in Mexico and then move on to some indy before going to TNA. Using the no-name wrestlers here actually makes a lot of sense, and I thought it was nice for them to do that. But, once you actually get onto the TNA show, you're still wrestling the jobbers for the next 30% of the story mode, for the most part. You only start wrestling TNA guys all the time about 70% into the story mode. There are some TNA wrestlers who rarely or never get showcased on the story mode, even for one match. I would've liked for there to be more matches against TNA guys in the story mode and less against jobbers.
Playing through the story mode lets you unlock a lot of wrestlers and arenas, but no additional match types or anything like that. Once you play through the story mode once, you unlock everything in the game, so there's no incentive at all to play through it again once you've beaten it once.
The roster in Impact is pretty good as well. It has most of the roster, although some notable people are missing. They started adding new wrestlers as downloadable content on the Xbox 360 version, but obviously if you have any other system you're out of luck. The PS2 version has a lot more wrestlers, but they're just the no-name jobbers you had in the story mode, and they're not too great.
The graphics in Impact are one of its best features. Although the PS2 version is unsurprisingly lacking compared to the next-gen versions, it still looks pretty good when compared to other PS2 wrestling games. The character models are nicely done and look just like their real life counterparts. The arenas look very good as well. The ring itself and the Ultimate X look perfect. Overall, this game looks as good as you can hope.
The sound, however, is not quite as good. The commentators, Mike Tenay and Don West, are horrible even on television, and they're even worse in the game. Although, they're not as annoying on the game, thank goodness. But the sounds and slams in the ring sound kinda weird. Maybe it's just me, but one of the slams sounds like bowling pins being knocked over. The fans also sound nothing like they do in real life. There isn't any chanting or anything like that, and the other crowd noises aren't too audible, and not very realistic either. One of the TNA TV show's best features is the enthusiastic crowd, which adds a lot to the product. It's too bad it wasn't replicated in the game.
Replay value and lifespan. This is where this game breaks down. Although as I mentioned, the moves are very good, there just aren't too many of them. There's reportedly less than 150 moves in the game, but I personally counted less than 50. Nowhere near the thousands of moves in Fire Pro Wrestling. Every wrestler plays almost exactly the same. Very few of the wrestlers have their signature moves or signature wrestling styles in the game. The only unique move wrestlers have is their finisher. This is a shame, because it means the game gets boring pretty quickly. The game is also very limited in its match types. It's just normal match, tag team, and Ultimate X, with one-on-one or free for all variations. Nowhere near Smackdown's 70 match types. You can't even have 6-man tag matches, or steel cage matches, which is a shame because nowadays, those match types seem to have become the bare minimum for wrestling games. As I said before, the story mode is worth one play through only, and I beat it in about 10 hours, maybe less. Overall, despite its good gameplay, this game has almost no replay value.
Overall, TNA Impact is a good first effort. Hopefully if Midway is able to stay in business, they'll make a sequel, which will have the same gameplay but a lot more moves, more wrestlers, more match types, a better, and longer season mode which will hopefully give you incentive to play through more than once, basically more of everything, and it'd be perfect. As it stands now though, this is a good game. Probably worth a purchase for TNA fans or diehard wrestling fans. It has its flaws, but it also does some things right that no other wrestling game seems to have gotten (for example the counter system, the submission system, and Ultimate X). I think this game gets a bum rap, but all in all, I think it's pretty good. Infinitely more entertaining than the actual TNA product.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 6
Value: 5
Tilt: 9
Overall Score: 7.2