We’ve gone hands on with Midway’s upcoming pro wrestler title, TNA iMPACT! on a number of occasions, but they were always tight-lipped on one thing: the game’s career mode.
At a TNA iMPACT! event that took place in Trenton, NJ this past weekend, Midway finally pulled off the covers on the game’s interesting on the single-player career progression. The game initially puts you in the shoes of a Midway designed wrestler named Suicide, who is quickly making his way through the ranks as one of TNA’s top superstars. When asked to take a fall to the current champ, Suicide refuses, and is later viciously attacked by TNA tag-team, LAX.
Beaten down and severely disfigured, you wake up in a dirty hospital bed in Tijuana, Mexico. With no memory and a strange desire to climb into the ring with other men and fight, you’re given the opportunity to re-create your persona through the game’s create-a-character mode. By working your way up and through independent wrestling organizations, you’ll eventually make your way back to TNA.
More info after the jump.
I went hands-on with the early portion of the career mode, and went head-to-head with “jobbers” in a Mexican wrestlers circuit, including a masked high-flyler, and a wrestlers modeled after long-time Midway designer Sal Divita named “Nightwolf” (a nod to the Mortal Kombat character that Divita was also modeled after). It looks like the mode will be story-heavy, with cut-scenes between many of the career’s 30 matches. Interestingly, Midway also hinted at some sort of tie in between the in-game character Suicide and TNA’s television programming, a first in wrestling videogames.
While at the event, I cornered some of TNA’s top talent to talk about the game and videogames in general. Check back later in the week to find out which TNA superstar has killed all of the pidgeons in Grand Theft Auto IV and which barely has played a game in his life.
TNA iMPACT! is set to hit the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 9, with Wii and PlayStation 2 versions following later this year.
