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TNA iMPACT! (video game)
Encyclopedia
TNA Impact! is the first video game released by the professional wrestling
promotion
, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
(TNA). The game was developed by Midway Studios in Los Angeles and published by Midway Games
. Although the game sold 1.5 million units, financial issues at Midway Games prevented the planned development and release of a sequel.
and Rockstar Games
, TNA signed a multi-year agreement with Midway Games
on November 7, 2005. Midway announced their intentions to release Impact!, the first game in TNA's history, for each of the seventh generation consoles
on March 2, 2006.
TNA wrestlers have been involved with the games production. The self described "hardcore gamers" Samoa Joe
and A.J. Styles
have both taken part in meetings with Midway staff to brainstorm game-play ideas, and Joe, Styles, Christopher Daniels
, Senshi, Sonjay Dutt
, and Jeff Jarrett
were all a part of the motion capture
sessions. During the October 23, 2006 tapings of the weekly TNA Impact!
program, members of the TNA roster were "scanned" for the game and audio samples of the Impact! Zone
crowd were recorded.
TNA Impact! is geared towards a quick-paced, high-impact style of play, with less emphasis on submission maneuvers
. It supports up to four players at once on a console, with online
support—which includes tournaments—currently standing at one-on-one. Online play is, however, limited to the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
versions. Scans of the actual wrestlers were used for the game in place of hand-painted textures to include small details, such as skin texture and specific scars. Finishers are accessed by building up the "Impact! meter" displayed on the screen. In the same area a color-coded damage indicator shows the condition of characters. The game also features mini-games for escaping pin attempts and submission holds.
TNA's signature match, Ultimate X
, is a playable match type, alongside the more standard Singles, Tag team
and Fatal Four Way matches. Submission and Falls Count Anywhere matches are also included. Eight different venues—including TNA's main home; the Florida
Impact! Zone
, and arenas set in Japan
, Mexico
, England
, Las Vegas
, and locations designed to evoke the independent circuit
feel—are available to house matches, with the Impact! Zone having an increased ringside area for play and hot spots for player interaction. Liverpool Olympia
is also a playable arena in the game.
Midway has now introduced downloadable content which enables players to expand the game, making TNA Impact! the first professional wrestling video game in history to offer this service. The first downloadable content is in the form of new wrestlers players can add to the game, these being Curry Man
and Petey Williams
. These can be bought for 100 Microsoft points from the Xbox Live Marketplace and as an extra gift the player can download Mike Tenay
free of charge. This feature is only available for Xbox 360
and started on November 6, 2008, however, the content was initially glitched and made Curry Man come out as Christopher Daniels in his entrance and Petey Williams comes out as A.J. Styles
and have the model of Senshi in the ring. These glitches were later fixed.
The story mode's main character is a wrestler named Suicide
. During every iMPACT! episode after the August 14, 2008 version of iMPACT!, the words "whoissuicide.com" flashed on the screen for less than a second. On the website, it shows that Suicide is being taken from the game to real life television. At Final Resolution, Suicide entered the TNA World.
At Destination X 2009
, Suicide competed in his debut match in TNA, which was an Ultimate X match, and became the new X Division Champion
.
Reviews of TNA Impact! were generally mediocre. The game was praised for its realistic graphics and simple control scheme but criticized for its limited and repetitive movesets, poor entrances, lack of championship belts, and inconsistent AI
.
On February 12, 2009, Midway Games
announced TNA iMPACT! had shipped approximately 1 million units.
(through its subsidiary
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) purchased the majority of Midway, the TNA license was not included with the purchase. In a September 2009 interview, TNA president Dixie Carter announced that TNA was looking for a new video game partner. On November 11, 2009, SouthPeak Games confirmed it acquired Midway Games TNA video game license in its quarterly report. The first game published by the company was TNA Impact!: Cross the Line for PlayStation Portable
and Nintendo DS
. It was released on June 25, 2010.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
promotion
Professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...
, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is a privately held professional wrestling promotion founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett. The company broadcasts its events on television and the Internet fifty two weeks a year with over a million weekly viewers on its primary television program, Impact...
(TNA). The game was developed by Midway Studios in Los Angeles and published by Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
. Although the game sold 1.5 million units, financial issues at Midway Games prevented the planned development and release of a sequel.
Production
After periods of negotiation with Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
and Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games is a major video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of UK video game publisher BMG Interactive. The brand is mostly known for Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A...
, TNA signed a multi-year agreement with Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
on November 7, 2005. Midway announced their intentions to release Impact!, the first game in TNA's history, for each of the seventh generation consoles
History of video game consoles (seventh generation)
In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony...
on March 2, 2006.
TNA wrestlers have been involved with the games production. The self described "hardcore gamers" Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe
Nuufolau Joel "Joe" Seanoa is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Samoa Joe. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling....
and A.J. Styles
A.J. Styles
Allen Neal Jones , better known by his ring name A.J. Styles is an American professional wrestler currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
have both taken part in meetings with Midway staff to brainstorm game-play ideas, and Joe, Styles, Christopher Daniels
Christopher Daniels
Daniel Christopher Covell is an American professional wrestler, best known in the United States by his ring name "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. He is also known for performing under the ring name Curry Man. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , while also...
, Senshi, Sonjay Dutt
Sonjay Dutt
Retesh Bhalla is an American professional wrestler of Indian Punjabi descent, better known by his ring name, Sonjay Dutt. He is best known working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and is also known for his stints with Combat Zone Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, and other various independent...
, and Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett
Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett is an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , an organization he co-founded along with his father and in which he holds some stock but not total control...
were all a part of the motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
sessions. During the October 23, 2006 tapings of the weekly TNA Impact!
TNA iMPACT!
Impact Wrestling is a professional wrestling television program for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling that currently airs in the United States and Canada on Spike...
program, members of the TNA roster were "scanned" for the game and audio samples of the Impact! Zone
TNA iMPACT! Zone
The Impact Wrestling Zone is the professional wrestling nickname for Soundstage 21, a sound stage in Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida...
crowd were recorded.
Features
Professional wrestling holds
Professional wrestling holds include a number of set moves and pins used by performers to immobilize their opponents or lead to a submission. This article covers the various pins, stretches and transition holds used in the ring...
. It supports up to four players at once on a console, with online
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
support—which includes tournaments—currently standing at one-on-one. Online play is, however, limited to the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
versions. Scans of the actual wrestlers were used for the game in place of hand-painted textures to include small details, such as skin texture and specific scars. Finishers are accessed by building up the "Impact! meter" displayed on the screen. In the same area a color-coded damage indicator shows the condition of characters. The game also features mini-games for escaping pin attempts and submission holds.
TNA's signature match, Ultimate X
Ultimate X match
The Ultimate X match is a type of professional wrestling match created by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , mainly used in their X Division. It is considered the "signature match of the X Division," as stated numerous times by Mike Tenay right before an Ultimate X match begins.-Match...
, is a playable match type, alongside the more standard Singles, Tag team
Tag team
Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...
and Fatal Four Way matches. Submission and Falls Count Anywhere matches are also included. Eight different venues—including TNA's main home; the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
Impact! Zone
TNA iMPACT! Zone
The Impact Wrestling Zone is the professional wrestling nickname for Soundstage 21, a sound stage in Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida...
, and arenas set in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, and locations designed to evoke the independent circuit
Independent circuit
In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indy circuit refers to the many independent promotions which are much smaller than major televised promotions. They are roughly analagous to a minor league for pro wrestling, or community or regional theatre.Specific promotions on the...
feel—are available to house matches, with the Impact! Zone having an increased ringside area for play and hot spots for player interaction. Liverpool Olympia
Liverpool Olympia
The Liverpool Olympia is situated next to The Grafton Ballroom on West Derby Road, Liverpool, England.-History:The Liverpool Olympia was built in 1905 For Moss Empires Ltd by architect Frank Matcham as a purpose built indoor circus and variety theatre...
is also a playable arena in the game.
Midway has now introduced downloadable content which enables players to expand the game, making TNA Impact! the first professional wrestling video game in history to offer this service. The first downloadable content is in the form of new wrestlers players can add to the game, these being Curry Man
Christopher Daniels
Daniel Christopher Covell is an American professional wrestler, best known in the United States by his ring name "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. He is also known for performing under the ring name Curry Man. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , while also...
and Petey Williams
Petey Williams
Peter "Petey" Williams III is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he is a two time X Division Champion and a former captain of Team Canada. Williams Currently Wrestles for Lucha Libre USA...
. These can be bought for 100 Microsoft points from the Xbox Live Marketplace and as an extra gift the player can download Mike Tenay
Mike Tenay
Michael William "Mike" Tenay is a professional wrestling play-by-play announcer currently employed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Prior to signing with TNA in 2002, he had a notable tenure with World Championship Wrestling from 1994-2001...
free of charge. This feature is only available for Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and started on November 6, 2008, however, the content was initially glitched and made Curry Man come out as Christopher Daniels in his entrance and Petey Williams comes out as A.J. Styles
A.J. Styles
Allen Neal Jones , better known by his ring name A.J. Styles is an American professional wrestler currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
and have the model of Senshi in the ring. These glitches were later fixed.
The story mode's main character is a wrestler named Suicide
Suicide (character)
Suicide is a fictional character from TNA Impact! the video game. In December 2008, the Suicide character was introduced on television as a real-life wrestler in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
. During every iMPACT! episode after the August 14, 2008 version of iMPACT!, the words "whoissuicide.com" flashed on the screen for less than a second. On the website, it shows that Suicide is being taken from the game to real life television. At Final Resolution, Suicide entered the TNA World.
At Destination X 2009
Destination X (2009)
Destination X was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , which took place on March 15, 2009 at the TNA Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida...
, Suicide competed in his debut match in TNA, which was an Ultimate X match, and became the new X Division Champion
TNA X Division Championship
The TNA X Division Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion. It is primarily defended in TNA's X Division—a style based on a fast-paced, daredevil type of wrestling...
.
Reception
| System | Metacritic Metacritic Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,... |
GameRankings |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 2 | 58 (4 reviews) | 63.17% (6 reviews) |
| PlayStation 3 | 64 (27 reviews) | 63.33% (24 reviews) |
| Wii | 43 (5 reviews) | 44.43% (7 reviews) |
| Xbox 360 | 62 (44 reviews) | 64.73% (44 reviews) |
Reviews of TNA Impact! were generally mediocre. The game was praised for its realistic graphics and simple control scheme but criticized for its limited and repetitive movesets, poor entrances, lack of championship belts, and inconsistent AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
On February 12, 2009, Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
announced TNA iMPACT! had shipped approximately 1 million units.
Sequel
Midway Games originally announced a sequel to the game. In July 2009, Time WarnerTime Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
(through its subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) purchased the majority of Midway, the TNA license was not included with the purchase. In a September 2009 interview, TNA president Dixie Carter announced that TNA was looking for a new video game partner. On November 11, 2009, SouthPeak Games confirmed it acquired Midway Games TNA video game license in its quarterly report. The first game published by the company was TNA Impact!: Cross the Line for PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
and Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
. It was released on June 25, 2010.