TNA Impact: Cross the Line | Review (PSP)

LOOK AT MY FIST!

LISTEN UP MAGGOTS! ARE YOU READY TO PLAY THE TOUGHEST ROUGHEST BADDEST WRESTLING GAME EVER, BROTHER? That’s what I might say if I were a wrestler from one of the top companies, and I’d really only be right about one of those things.  Today I am reviewing TNA Impact: Cross the Line for PSP. You’ve probably read about the DS version, but let me assure you, this game is a little different.

The first noticeable thing is the option of what to do; there is a story mode, exhibition and Ad-Hoc multiplayer. In exhibition there are a number of various match types. The most interesting option, however, is the Story; this is where you can see everything they throw at you.

You play as Suicide, who actually has a decent costume. Suicide is a fan favorite who has fought long and hard to get a shot at the title. Before the title match, he is approached by two thugs who tell him he better throw the match or else. Suicide says sure thing, but decides otherwise. He becomes the champ and the fans go wild. Afterwards, our new champion is beaten within an inch of his life, and dumped off in Mexico. He wakes up without his memory and decides he needs facial reconstruction surgery. After the surgery he decides to get back into wrestling, in hopes to regain what’s missing. You thrown into a gauntlet match(fight three guys in a row) where the winner gets to go to America and fight in some league there.

Here is where one of the first problems for the game arises. It has not shown you how to play yet, so hopefully you thumbed through the instruction booklet. With wrestling games, the controls are usually a bit different. I started to get the hang of them, and frowned as it seemed my moves were very limited. The idea of the wrestling is to build up your IMPACT meter by performing various moves and attacks on your opponent. Once your IMPACT meter is full, you can do your special. So I’d do my special, then look through the instructions, where it says after your special, it’s usually a good time to pin your opponent. Ok, how do I do that? I looked and looked through the instruction booklet. Guess what friends? The instruction booklet says NOTHING about how to pin! How can you even think of leaving something like that out? Pinning is essentially how you win 87% of your matches! So I was frustrated, and tried to make the guy tap out instead. Nope, he had enough time fill his IMPACT bar, and do his special. Then he pinned me. At that point I almost put my PSP into a Figure-Four leg lock, but instead I searched the internet. Apparently it took up way to much print to include a tiny spot in the book to say “Press O at the opponents left of right when he is on the ground”.

Once you’ve learned how to pin, the game can become VERY easy. I found this little strategy to work: in normal matches, leave the ring and fight out there till you are ready to pin. There is no count out so you are safe, and they can’t pin you out there. The big trick is to make sure your opponent does not pull off his special on you. If you take control of the match early on, your opponent won’t get very many moves on you. The only real time they hit me is the lucky reversal.

Let’s return to the story for a moment. You get to America where you meet two wrestling clowns (how do magnets work?). After you beat them, and a TNA superstar just happens to be there and decides that if you can beat him you can come to the TNA! So I do, and get to go back. Kevin Nash is there to tell Suicide how he can get a contract. Basically another gauntlet match. After you win that you get your own locker room, fight a few matches then are teamed up with a partner for tag team stuff. It goes on from there as you keep trying to fill in the blanks. There are many incentives to keep playing, as you are able to unlock more wrestlers and arenas to fight in.

I have some minor questions about the story though. Wouldn’t Kevin Nash recognize him?! I mean Suicide did win the title before he was left for dead! Sure he had reconstructive surgery, but he wore a mask to begin with! He wears pretty much the same mask! Wouldn’t the fans know, or did they already forget about him?

So, as far as the writing goes, if you are a normal average gamer, you’d find it very laughable, but for a wrestling fan, it’s not too bad. I was a wrestling fan myself in the late nineties, so I can see both sides on this. The graphics are pretty good, standard PSP quality you know to expect. The backgrounds are very plain and the fans look like cardboard cutouts. The sound, however, is hit and miss.  In the cut scenes, the voice acting is as good as a live wrestling event. It even features many of the wresters’ voices. On the other hand, the voices for the announcers are one of the most annoying things about this game. I swear in one match I heard this line “His eyes are glazed over like a couple of donuts!” like twelve times… They are VERY repetitive. I swear in one match I heard this line (ha! Almost got ya!).

I think this game really suffers for being a handheld title. Most big name sport and wrestling games don’t tend to translate well on this platform. A lot of features you know and love are cut out because of it. I’ve always enjoyed creating my own superstar and customizing their moves and intros.