What's going on here...four sided rings have become six, and some familiar faces jumping ship thus introducing the “following” fans among us to new wrestlers as well as some of old fame, this list includes the likes of Sting, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino as well as TNA's very own technical grapplers and high-flyers such as Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Jay Lethal and the rather twisted, Abyss, just to mention a few. It looks as though THQ and Yukes' WWE SmackDown vs. Raw series is getting some competition in the gaming ring, much like on television, similar to the days of old with wCw and ECW challenging the then WWF over ratings of the popular wrestling television phenomenon. The same can also be said as regards to wrestling games, with some good and bad across various different platforms over the years, highlights including No Mercy and WrestleMania 2000 on the N64, though one thing has remained constant for many years since its first release on the PSOne over 10 years ago, the SmackDown series has remained dominant in the gaming market for well over a decade. With a new brand in Total Nonstop Action wrestling, comes with it the videogame with the same name as their weekly television show, TNA iMPACT! Does Midway's presumably first of many TNA wrestling games take the throne from the long-standing king of the grapplers, obviously referring to the WWE SD vs Raw series of games, or is TNA iMPACT! simply a disappointment like so many other wrestling games that have come before it?

Gameplay:

TNA iMPACT!'s story mode is rather clever, yet corny, as you play fictional “made-up” character Suicide, you have climbed the top of the TNA mountain by winning the coveted TNA championship, but have upset some of the competition along the way for refusing to lay down in the title match. Shortly after that big victory, little time is left to celebrate as LAX soon put Suicide down and out. It is here where the story mode picks up, as you awaken with no memory of who you are or how you ended up battered, beaten and in Mexico... receiving plastic surgery. It is at this point that you get to browse the rather limited selections of the CAW mode and I mean very, very limited selections, though some more CAW items can be unlocked later. Once you've got your 'surgery' all sorted, it's not too long before you realise that you like beating people up... and coincidentally soon end up back in the ranks of Total Nonstop Action wrestling. Once here, it is typical wrestling videogame school 101: get into a match and win, and continue to do so. There are no branching story-lines, nor can you play the story with any TNA wrestler; it's one path with progression gained only by winning matches. With each match win you are climbing your way back to the top of the TNA mountain, but still with no recollection that you are a former TNA Heavyweight Champion, in Suicide - at least nothing or 'no-one' has yet triggered your memory. TNA iMPACT!'s gameplay is uncannily similar to that seen in the rather appalling original Xbox releases of the WWE Raw games, although it is more advanced, offering up a decent counter system where every move and nearly every counter for that matter, can in-turn be countered. This is certainly a strong point as you're required to counter at the right moment during the opponent's offence midway, this can at times be tricky to master, though for anyone who watches wrestling, you may actually have a slight advantage here as you're likely to be familiar with what the right timing is in which to attempt a counter, a brief on-screen prompt is also useful, too. On another plus note, alongside the excellent counter system is the submission system. This seems to work really well and is no longer just a button mash which is what most other wrestling games opt. for, with TNA iMPACT! once you have initiated a submission move, the typical tug of war in button mashing becomes more based on precision and quick button presses, a sequence of face buttons appear on-screen and these change should the offensive player win the first button press and will continue to do so for a further three more should the offensive wrestler continue to win the sequences, the wrestler being tortured will obviously counter and get out of this situation should he be able to press the required buttons before the other player, this method for a countering system works really well as it requires both players to be alert of the upcoming button sequences. As for locking up into a strong grapple, many of the moves are the same for the majority of the wrestlers, so it rather quickly becomes repetitive as you are inevitably going to be using exactly the same moves on each other in a single match. Other than the look of each wrestler, which is rather amazingly life-like and accurate, the only other thing to distinguish something unique about a particular wrestler is their finishing move, and all wrestler's sadly only have one finisher which is initiated from a strong grapple and can only be used for a few vital seconds when a player has built up their iMPACT! Meter to its maximum level. There are several steel chairs located outside of the ring, and these are the only weapons in the game, and you can not perform any kind of devastating grapples with the chairs nor can you even sprint with them either, though of course, you can at least bash your opponent over the head with a steel chair, provided he has not had the time to get back up whilst you've left the ring and gone to grab a chair and slowly make your way back. Another thing missing is a referee, the AI after a minute of fighting has no second thought about slithering outside of the six-sided ring to grab a steel chair, and obviously there's no fear of DQ... where's Earl Hebner when you need a ref?! In the story mode, and in-fact when playing against or with any AI wrestler, there are some rather dreadful AI issues and far too many horrendous tag-team matches where your partner for the most part proves useless and sometimes decides not to enter the ring when you're being pinned - it depends how he feels at the time. There's a variety of these types of matches to keep things rolling along for a short time in the story mode, and it's annoyingly a chunk of tag matches which seem to just hit one after the other before you can get back to the singles matches, where you can just beat up the AI, as opposed to having to rely on it. As far as singles competition goes, all is rather rosy until you come up against Jeff Jarrett, who decides he will counter 99.8% of all attempted moves, and after he lands a couple of moves he immediately has his special at the ready. I however managed to beat him after many tries though, and for anyone enduring this controller throwing tantrum of frustration, I will at least share just how stupid the AI is, even when it's tough to beat. If you've ever exited the ring before you reach the Jarrett match, which you should have, then you'll no doubt be aware that the opponent follows you outside and if there is some distance he will run towards you to attack... so if you are standing behind the steel ring steps, then the invincible and counter-everything Jeff Jarrett appears to not be able to make out those steel steps in front of him, runs into them and goes flying - which I find very amusing. Simply proceed to lay some attacks on him while he is down, get into the ring and then do a belly-flop or something by diving over the ropes just as he is getting up, just for maximum damage; simply repeat until you have your special and layeth the smack... I mean just use your special, and the win should be for the taking. Unlike the much recognised SmackDown series, and more like the previously mentioned Raw games, attacking moves in TNA iMPACT! have a habit of not 'connecting', which can sometimes cause for some rather odd looking collision detection. While SmackDown's moves, such as the running clothesline for example, do actually connect and look natural, TNA iMPACT!'s do not, though most of SmackDown's animations in this regard still appear to be identical to the older games released on Sony's original PlayStation console, that is at least compared to last year's release of WWE SD vs Raw 2008. Another thing similar to Raw with TNA iMPACT! is that when playing with more than two players, the third can always interrupt any move in progress, including specials, by simply hitting one of the wrestlers during the few seconds it takes to pull off the move. I suppose this is more realistic though, but certainly breaks the flow of the gameplay as most grapples are likely to be broken up by a third or fourth player, and with some off-key collision detection to be worried about, strikes don't prove to be as much use for an alternative as they are in the competition's game. TNA iMPACT! only offers up a very limited roster, of which there are sadly no female wrestlers, to make matters worse half of the featured TNA roster is locked and must be obtained by playing the story mode and earning points. Style points as they're known in the game are earned for every successful move you land on your opponent, these Style points will ultimately unlock more of the TNA roster as well as a few more CAW items and moves. The only saving grace here is that Style points can be earned in everything; including the very barebones Exhibition matches, as well as the only stand-out match unique to TNA, which is the Ultimate-X match. For those not familiar with what an Ultimate-X match is, it basically consists of 4 large poles in each corner of the ring of which cabling is connected, players must mount the turnbuckle and jump up to the cable and make their way to the centre of where they can retrieve the X. The Ultimate-X match when played with anything but the AI can prove to be entertaining, once up near the X you must attempt to pull it down by pressing “A” at the correct time as indicated, if you miss you unmount but your attempted progress is saved for only you, so no-one can just knock you off and finish off pulling it down after you've spent the most time attempting to retrieve the X. If playing Ultimate-X with an AI wrestler, then their sole interest is just in getting the cable, with a rarity of an interest in fighting, this just makes things too easy because they'll climb up and go for the X, which makes it easy for you to kick them off and go for it instead. If they decide to climb backup and make their way over to you and the X, the easiest thing to do is just climb back a bit out of the way so the AI can go for the X, then as the AI is busy with the X just kick him down again and repeat. Style points can also be earned in online play, which is most certainly useful for a number of reasons 1) entrance videos are disabled for online play 2) no ridiculously stupid AI to contend with, which usually results in a good match online. The only downfall to the online play is the way in which pins work and some players exploiting this issue online. Once you've been knocked about a bit and your health/special meter indicates that you have taken some minor damage, if your opponent goes for the pin, chances are that it'll be damn near impossible to kick out, resulting in online matches ending in just mere minutes.

Graphics:

Certainly TNA iMPACT! is visually the best looking grappler to be released thus far, with great attention to detail and for the most part, they have captured the likenesses of the TNA performers featured in the game rather flawlessly. The entrances of the wrestlers is a major highlight at this point, though rather annoyingly the entrance videos are unskippable and are also incomplete, fortunately they are disabled altogether in online play, which is a big plus provided that is where you may end up spending most of your time. While the incomplete entrances still manage to highlight the attention to detail remarkably well, these not only look good in the short entrance videos, but it looks just as good during actual gameplay too, without a doubt the visual presentation is TNA iMPACT!'s biggest accomplishment.

Sound:

What always comes under scrutiny for sports and wrestling games alike is the commentary, with SD vs Raw the commentary has been rehashed and slightly tweaked for some time. TNA iMPACT! does not go above or beyond this, but yet somehow the commentary manages to be just as dull and repetitive as that found in previous SD vs Raw games, though is still much less irritating. Hopefully for the next game the commentary continues to evolve, as should other aspects of the game. TNA iMPACT!'s story mode offers up some voice-overs with the likes of Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarret and LAX, as well as that of the fictional character, Suicide, among some others, all of which, well, apart from Suicide's voice-over, sound convincing and over-the-top, much like wrestling's take on entertainment outside of the six-sided ring.

Longevity:

TNA iMPACT!'s initial staying power is really only in the game's story mode, which is rather dreadful with AI issues and far too many horrendous tag-team matches where your partner for the most part proves useless. There is a variety of these types of matches to keep things rolling along for a short time, as well as the more preferred singles and Ulimate-X matches. With a limited roster and match types, there's not a great deal of variety to be had locally or online. While the general gameplay is somewhat different from that seen in the WWE's grapplin' games of today, which is certainly a welcome change, other than the other issues mentioned, what just outright ruins the online experience is the way in which pins work, as has been mentioned above, though if you have a friend to play with online or meet some genuinely good gamers who play the game the way it is intended then things are likely to be more entertaining.

Overall:

The two will inevitably be compared among fans, some might say that the long-running SmackDown series has become stale with each yearly release, though with TNA offering up some competition in the virtual ring, does TNA iMPACT! offer up a refreshing game playing experience? In comparison, TNA iMPACT! falls short on several fronts as already mentioned, though it's hardly a fair competition against the WWE SD! Vs. Raw series which has seen as many releases over the year's to the point of where one might think it were an EA Sports game. Truth be told, while it's difficult for any new wrestling game entry to stand toe-to-toe with the WWE SD vs RAW series, TNA iMPACT! stands tall, though with a slight limp, regardless of the much more feature packed competition. While there are some flaws and a lacking roster, Midway have delivered without a doubt the best looking wrestling game which also proves to be very simple to play. Let's just hope that if we see more TNA games down the road, that Midway build upon what was created here and cram as many wrestlers (some females would be nice too!), match types and features into the next game as possible, let's hope that they can build upon the foundation that has been layed with this release. If you're a fan of wrestling games, then TNA iMPACT! is worth renting out some wrestling boots for, alternatively keep your eyes peeled for hopefully a much more feature packed sequel... or rather the soon to be released, SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.