Written by Paul Stuart

In a previous review, I’ve already confessed to not being an avid follower of the current wrestling and/or cage fighting phenomena.

Quite frankly, these current iterations confound me. Call me old school, but I prefer my wrestling either openly soap operatic…or real to the core. Either fight or don’t fight, for cryin’ out loud.

Not surprisingly, this same Goldilocks identity struggle has reared its ugly head in nearly every wrestling themed game over the past 13 years.  Too arcade, too simulation, but none just right. A blazingly stupid trend, considering just how entertaining and playable the arcade classic WWF Wrestlemania was back in 1995. If it ‘aint broke…enough said.

Flash forward. Midway, the same folks who brought us that original coin-op wonder attempt to once again work their magic via ‘TNA Impact’ for the PS3. (For newbies, ‘TNA’ does not stand for breasts and bootie, rather ‘Total Nonstop Action.’)

As a non-wrestling fan, I could care less about individual leagues, fighters, or marketing gimmicks in my rasslin’ games. Give me a fun, deep and challenging title, and I’m a happy reviewer. Add a roster of diverse wrestlers and styles to add replay value, and a solid game is made. Fanboys need not apply.

‘TNA Impact’ for the PS3, however, did not get off to an auspicious start. For a game that bills itself at ‘Total Nonstop Action,’ I literally waited 20 minutes for it to load needed content to my PS3 hard drive. While I understand the robust Havok and Unreal Engines pack both graphics and physics wallop, an initial load cache time of this proportion is inexcusable. We’re talking nearly 5GB of data being transferred.

This load problem didn’t get much better once able to actually (and finally!) play ‘TNA Impact.’ Load screens accompany intros to every wrestler, a feature that becomes insanely annoying in multi character tag team, ‘X’ match or elimination battles. That’s a whole lot of ‘Loading’ then pressing the ‘x’ button over…and over…again.

Thankfully, ‘TNA Impact’ plays cleanly and hitch-free. Wrestler and move representations are flat out gorgeous, arguably the best to date in a current generation wrestling title.

On the flipside and akin to sister titles, ‘TNA Impact’ simultaneously struggles with the aforementioned Goldilocks dilemma. Thankfully, however, this dilemma is not nearly as prevalent as in THQ’s ‘Smackdown’ titles where individual matches can last up to 30 boredom filled minutes.

To elaborate, ‘TNA Impact’ for the PS3 features much more intuitive control schemes and grapple and fighting systems that its counterparts, factors that allow players to immediately jump in. Related, on-screen button cues assist in reminding folks of integral moves in the heat of battle. For instance, breaking grapples require pressing a randomly generated, on screen provided button sequence. Ditto move reversals by pressing the R1 button at the appropriate time.

Still, far too many button combinations bog down what could otherwise be the best wrestling game since 1995.  Strategy inevitably deteriorates to button mashing, tag team battles an ugly array of control pad and trigger marriages.  

With this being said, ‘TNA Impact’ is definitely fun. If you could overcome the endless load times and control faux pas, matches are surprisingly enjoyable. Moreover, there are twenty wrestlers to choose from (many require unlocking) each with somewhat unique moves.

Finally, ‘TNA Impact’ for the PS3 comes packed with a host of goodies, including videos of TNA’s greatest matches (two never before televised), a ho-hum ‘Create a Wrestler’ feature, and a somewhat peculiar ‘Story Mode.’ Decent bang for the grappling buck.

SUMMARY: ‘TNA Impact’ for the PS3 is a decent wrestling title, albeit bogged down by incredulous load times and a dash of control confusion. Still, if you’re both a PS3 owner and diehard of the TNA Series, you could do much worse than ‘TNA Impact.’

CONCLUSION: C