Not quite there. An unbiased review too.
As soon as you put the game in you will notice the graphics. Graphics and animations are what make this game very smooth indeed. Moves don't feel jerky and it doesn't feel like you have to sit around waiting for an animation to end before you can continue attacking. There was said to have been a total number of 2000 moves captured over the space of the 2 years game development, however most are missing due to time limitations. Sadly this done mean you will see a lot of moves done over and over again. Many of the strikes are similar and there are a lot of basic suplex moves you will see over and over. Entrances are okay but they last about 10 seconds.
Speaking of moves looking all the same. There are 25 TNA wrestlers on the main game roster and you can ask anyone, but all characters don't feel barely any different to others and I swear that some are just the exact same with the same moves and abilities. I never played them long enough to get a finisher which is just usually awkward to do.
Which brings me onto the control. The control is a mixed for me. The A is used for kicks, X for punches, Y for grapples and then holding down LB gives you "stronger" attacks and when using grapples there is more control. This is a good idea however I don't like the idea of using RT to run and using RB for reversals. Reversals are dodgy as hell too and I read a lot of reviews saying they just flat out "don't work". That's not true. They do work, but they're really tight. If you do a move and you're fiddling about even with the analog stick, you're reversal won't work. That goes to say that if one person does a suplex on you and you slightly jolt the stick but still hit the reversal button in perfect time - it will not work. So it's rather messy.
On the main menu you have the option to crate a wrestler and a story mode. Sadly story mode fails to impress me and so does the wrestler creation. There is barely room to really expand on your wrestler and such limitations. The story mode starts you off as a wrestler named "Suicide" and after you get the life beaten out of you, you're in a coma and you are all bandaged up and then you create your OWN person. Saints Row 2 anyone? The story is just, you wrestle in Mexico twice, you go to an independent circuit show and after that you're in TNA. Short? After that be cursed with hundreds of tag team matches before finally being able to go into single matches. Tag Team matches are...diobolical. The AI doesn't know when to come in, the camera is stretched out and it's awful and because of it the ring posts and other things can get in the way. It's generally annoying to play and really isn't fun.
Xbox live is where you'd expect gameplay to be better and it sadly doesn't get much better. It's crashed and froze my xbox on 4 different occasions, I've had Kurt Angle stuck running for over 5 mins and I couldn't get him back, Booker T being stuck on the ring and smacking his nose off the apron and many other stupid glitches. If you're playing with a friend then it's highly hilarious but if not then it's very frustrating. No created wrestlers on XBL either.
So, time for a rating.
Graphics: 7.5/10
Control: 4/10
Xbox Live: 3/10
Customization: 2/10
Story mode: 4/10
20.5/50
x2 - 41/100.
TNA had a lot of potential I reckon, though it just failed to deliver. I hope you enjoyed my review and please let me know what you think. Many thanks for reading!
- Martin