Id like to state I am a long time fan of the Soul Calibur game line. That is why it hurts me to say that this game really let me down. Let me also say, that while I did hope good things for this game, I did not have my expectations at an insane level. I thought this game would be a good continuation of the series, but I didn’t think it’d be the best game ever or anything of the sort.

Let me start with the good. If you are just looking for a fighting game to play with friends, this is a good choice. The graphics have certainly made the jump to next gen in a big way. They are smooth and crisp and yet still retain the look of the other games in this series. The roster is once again large, with a diverse line up of fighters. This is a plus as it keeps the casual player from getting burned out, while letting true fans of the game continue to play as their favorites, letting them build up their ability as one or two characters.

Now for the bad, and sadly, there is a lot.

The biggest problem for me is the new story mode. SC has typically included massive story modes. In SC2, Story Mode took hours to fully explore. I say explore, because the mode involved you moving from point to point on a map. Scattered around were secret ways, dungeons with levels of fighting, and more. In SC3, you had more of a “Pick your own adventure” type deal. But, it was still large, and had replay value so you could see all the different ways. In SC4, you play through five fights. The cuts scenes are nothing more than a look at a landscape(literally, they pan across a background, your character not even in the scene) up until you beat the mode, at which time you get a very short, unsatisfactory video of your character doing something. On top of this, the handling is not nearly as good as the last few games. Instead of skill and practice meaning something, it seems this game is a button masher. People who have never played a Soul Calibur game, can pick this up, and manage to beat vets by simply smashing the horizontal and vertical hit buttons. Response time is slow sometimes to the point of it being frustrating as it seems like the game didn’t even notice you pressed anything.

In closing

(+)Large Roster
(+)Great Graphics
(-)Shotty Controls
(-)Leaves you feeling like the game was rushed
(-)Pitiful Story Mode

Final Say: It’s just not up to the level a Soul Calibur game should be. If you want a good fighting game to keep around that you can play at a party or with a bunch of people, this one isn’t that bad. But if you are a die hard Soul Calibur fan, your hopes will be bashed in harder than it is to kill Night Terror on expert.

A very generous 5 out of 10

Having said that, I was actually pretty excited for this game. I enjoy the Smackdown games, but with no real competition for my video game dollar, that series has grown pretty stagnant for the last few (several?) releases. For TNA Impact!, I had hopes that it would be as good as No Mercy for the N64 but fears that it would be as bad as WCW Thunder. As these things usually turn out, it was right in the middle.

The first thing you should know about this game is that it is a pretty good first attempt at a wrestling game but it isn’t the polished package that you get with Smackdown. That makes sense because Yukes has had several iterations to add and test features for the Smackdown series and this is Midway’s first real shot at it. You won’t find a huge roster and a ton of match types here. In fact, you won’t even see a wide variety of moves for the different wrestlers. It very much feels like Midway wanted to put out a game to show that they could do it and then worry about adding the real features in the sequel.

The first thing you’ll notice with this game is that the graphics look really good, as you’d expect from a game using the Unreal engine. I did notice in the create-a-wrestler mode that some of the textures took a second to draw in properly, but they looked pretty sharp once they did. This is on the XBox 360 version, so maybe the PlayStation 3 preloads some of that to the hard drive. But from my limited experience watching TNA, the wrestlers all look like their real life counterparts and the level of detail is pretty high.

The next thing you’ll notice is the roster. I’m not going to beat around the bush here, it’s pretty small with only 25 guys. The worst part is that a lot of them have to be unlocked in the story mode. With a roster that small, I really question the decision to have to unlock so much of it. Midway has announced that there will be downloadable roster updates, though they haven’t said if they’ll charge for them or not. One slightly puzzling decision is a complete lack of female wrestlers in the game. Normally I don’t play the women in a wrestling game, but with TNA’s strong focus on its Knockouts division, you’d think it would it be in the game. Adding to this mystery is the fact that there is a Knockouts gauntlet match included on the game disc.

The limited initial roster is only a problem if you want to only play exhibition matches, though. The reason is that the story mode is only for created wrestlers. Of course, that leads to a whole other set of problems, specifically the fact that you have to unlock most of the moves and (hopefully) some costume pieces for your created wrestler. So your first play through will feature a pretty generic looking wrestler using some pretty generic moves. I mentioned that hopefully you can unlock new costume pieces, because there aren’t many to start with, but I haven’t actually unlocked any yet. Also, while you will unlock moves during the course of the story mode, don’t expect too much. I’m sure I haven’t seen all the moves in the game yet, but there is a whole lot of repetition going on. It seems like every guy will do a DDT, for example.

The story is pretty basic, but I’m enjoying it so far. The background is that you’re a TNA star named Suicide. You quickly rise through the ranks and win the World title when you were told to take a dive. Since you didn’t do as you were told, you get beaten up and left for dead in Mexico. Why you were transported from Universal Studios in Orlando (you’ll hear that phrase a lot) to Mexico is a mystery to me. But you’ll wake up in a Mexican hospital with no memory and your only way back to America is to win a wrestling tournament. That’s where the game starts. Eventually you’ll make it back to the States to get signed by TNA and I assume eventually win the World title again and get revenge on those who wronged you.

One thing I like is that the story views the wrestling as an actual sport, with you having to win matches to move to a better promotion or to earn your spot in TNA. It really is a little touch, but I appreciate it. Actually, this game seems to do a lot of the little touches right. I got a good laugh out of a sign I saw in the crowd that said “.9 Muta”, which if you’ve ever read a wrestling review on the internet should at least make you smile.

At this point, I want to mention the controls. Since it has been years since I’ve played a wrestling game that wasn’t named Smackdown, it was tough for me to get used to the new controls. You’ve got a punch button, a kick button, a lock up button, and an action button. Another button is used as a “Strong modifier”, making your attacks more powerful. The button placement doesn’t feel natural to me, either. I’m used to games making more use of the X button (on the 360, remember) while the Y button is for stuff that isn’t used as much. So I’d expect the lock up button, which is the one you’ll probably use the most to be on either the A or the X buttons since those are most commonly used in other games. Nope, lock up is Y, punch is X and kick is A. Because of this, I still do a lot more punching then I plan on. I wish I could remap the controls, but this is a fairly minor complaint and something I’ll get used to pretty quickly.

One area this game really shines is the reversal system. Every move can be reversed, even reversals. This is done very fluidly and can lead to some chain wrestling sequences that would make Kurt Angle proud. The biggest drawback to this game that I can see is replay value. The story is engaging and the voice acting is pretty decent but I’m not sure if there will be any benefit to going back and playing through it a second or third time. In the Smackdown games, there are so many different storylines that you have to play through a few times to see them all, but unless there is a big surprise, TNA Impact! won’t offer that kind of longevity.

So, overall this is a good first attempt by Midway and I’m curious to see what they can do now that they’ve got the basics down. No, it isn’t as good as the latest Smackdown game, but they haven’t had ten years to perfect the formula, either. I bought the game knowing this, but I also wanted them to have good sales so there would be a sequel with more features. And really, I’m not disappointed with the purchase. I’m having a good time playing it and once I finish story mode, I’ll play it some more with my friends, so I’d say it was a pretty good purchase. But, if you aren’t a big TNA fan or a big wrestling game fan and you only plan to play through it a single time, I’d suggest renting it or at the very least waiting for a price drop as $60 is on the high side for a game lacking so many features that are expected in a wrestling game today.

Finally, for those of you with iPods or iPhones, you can now subscribe to the podcast using iTunes so you can reap all the podcasty goodness within. And by that I mean it will auto-download and allow you to pause the podcast, listen to something else, and then come back and restart where you left off.

Show Notes:

• MK Vs DC Universe main site
• Spider-Man Web of Shadows site
• DC Universe Concept Pictures
• Borat/Amy Winehouse doll

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