TNA Impact: Cross The Line for Nintendo DS review

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Hulk Hogan and Mick Foley make their video game debuts with Total Non-Stop Action and are joined with 16 other TNA superstars in the first ever Nintendo DS TNA game TNA Impact: Cross The Line.

All the wrestlers have finishing maneuvers you can keep in reserve, along with a basic punch, kick or grapple that can also be made into stronger moves if you also hold down the R button. The controls are fairly simply to master. On the main menu you have the chance to go through a tutorial for every position you will face in the game. The stylus comes into play when performing a finisher, a submission hold or escaping a pinfall.

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The game offers three different game modes; Exhibition, Bound for Glory and Victory Road. Exhibition gives you the option of having a singles, four corners, steel cage, ultimate X and a regular tag match. You can make the matches end by pinfall or submission or another way depending on the match type. There are no count outs, no rope breaks and no disqualifications no matter what match you are in.

Bound For Glory is a text and photo story mode that all the wrestlers except for Foley and Consequences Creed can participate in. Each wrestler has their own individual storyline. For example, Curry Man\’s storyline revolves around him trying to save the world from being destroyed and the only way to do that is to win a belt. Cut scenes are given when a major moment in the story happens, like Sting coming down from the rafters to attack Jeff Jarrett. Bound For Glory can become extremely addictive especially if you are a fan of the old generation versus the new generation of TNA storyline. In certain stories, Eric Bischoff makes an appearance.

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Victory Road plays much like a Mortal Kombat style tournament where you have to face a number of opponents to win a title. You can challenge for the tag team, X or World Heavyweight Championship. An achievement screen for all titles won including individual records is including in the main menu.

Although your first strike usually misses due to poor hit detection, this makes the game more addictive as you have to work harder than the CPU to make a grapple or a strike. There are no moves you can hit from behind your opponent and each time you hit your opponent down he will always roll over on to his back. There are odd times when the match will continue even though you just got the three count.

TNA mainstays such as AJ Styles, Abyss, Beer Money, Rhino and others make appearances, but unfortunately there are no TNA Knockouts in the game and no Rob Van Dam or Jeff Hardy. The videos played during the introduction of the game and for each wrestler\’s entrance are top notch and are far more entertaining than watching a wrestler come down the ramp for the match.

TNA Impact: Cross The Line features a basic control setup, hours of fun in terms of gameplay, but the game was clearly rushed into stores. There are a number of spelling mistakes throughout the storyline mode and in the game manual. Audio sometimes goes mute at random times for either a strike, a slam in the ring or when a wrestler falls from a high point. On some moves or pins, your wrestler will warp in the old six-sided ring and end up on the opposite side of your opponent or even magically on the ring apron.

The lack of any multiplayer options and a create-a-wrestler option are the two biggest disappointments. The glitches in the game are minor in comparison to the two options that are almost essential in wrestling video games today. This game is worth renting as you can easily play it for hours straight. TNA Impact: Cross The Line was a decent first effort by SouthPeak Games and hopefully they will continue to grow on what they accomplished in a follow-up.

TNA Impact: Cross The Line

Created by SouthPeak Games

Developed with DoubleTap

For Nintendo DS and also available for Sony PSP

Released end of June 2010

Click here for more information on the game