The actual moves your characters use are a bit limited as well. While the move list was reportedly supposed to be bigger, it has been sizably cut down, resulting in most wrestlers having the same basic moves except for their finishers. Some wrestlers, namely the smaller names in TNA, also share finishing moves, it seems.
The basic game mechanic is that using moves gets you impact points, which build up your meter and you can use your finisher when you fill it all the way up. Overusing a move cuts the number of points you get in half until it stops counting for points all together. It's a unique way to keep people from spamming certain moves. The points also accumulate after each match into a style points total. The more you play and the more points you accumulate, the more you unlock in the game, including wrestlers and moves.
The character creation mode in TNA Impact! offers a fair amount of creativity, allowing you to work in the basic areas of customization — outfits, body type, face type, and moves. There are quite a few options in some areas, like masks, and not quite enough in others, like moves and lower body attire. An expanded creation mode, especially one with more than five open character slots, would do future TNA titles a world of good.
The game's story mode features you following a wrestler by the name of Suicide. He has risen through the TNA ranks and is in line for a title shot, but suddenly, he is brutally attacked and dumped in Mexico. Recovering in a hospital and so beaten he cannot remember his past, Suicide begins his recovery with the goal of remembering how he got there. This attack is also the basis for allowing the player to use the character creator to come up with a new persona. As for the actual story, it's interesting, though nothing too mind-blowing or extraordinary. Game play in the game mode, though, generally features you wrestling one type of match for several matches in a row in each chapter, something that can get a bit monotonous after a while. Tag team matches, in particular, get tiring and frustrating, especially when the other wrestler's partner breaks up pinfalls while yours does not.
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