On the Fence: TNA Impact!

TNA Impact is on less than a hour here at the West Coast on Spike and I have been on the fence for the TNA game, which comes out September 9th. I understand this first TNA game from Midway wants to establish the engine and gameplay for future games if they plan on doing that which seems likely. The thing that is making me skip this (I do love TNA better than WWE lately despite its crappy storylines, their roster is better) is the lack of content for the final game, hence why I made the point earlier of Midway establishing the foundations and then adding more in future games. The only way I think it will compete with the Smackdown games is the roster itself. I would rather play as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Kurt Angle, and so on compared to Batista, John Cena, Triple H, and so on with the WWE. The lack of modes is the start of what is missing from TNA Impact as well as missing signature moves like Kurt's Ankle Lock and Sting's Scorpion Deathlock (word from the streets). Also, the presentation is also not to par with the Smackdown games especially with the short enterances for the wrestlers (at least their music is accurate). Hopefully the gameplay shines from everything else when the game comes out in two weeks. Here's the commercial as well above.

The Music Game Corner for 08/28/08 (RB2 Blowout!!)

So Rush's "Moving Pictures" album still has not come out for Rock Band as Harmonix said they will delay it for a bit. On the other hand, more albums are announced as DLC for Rock Band 1 and 2 which is likely for the remainder of the year from Entertainment Weekly and some of these I would buy in a heartbeat (Story is at Joystiq).

• Foo Fighters - "The Colour and the Shape"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
• Jane's Addiction - "Nothing's Shocking"
• Megadeth - "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying"
• Stevie Ray Vaughn - "Texas Flood"
• No Doubt - unannounced album, but likely a greatest hits compilation.

Yes at Foo Fighters, RHCP, and No Doubt, but we'll see on the others. One of the songs from the five confirmed albums are in the Rock Band 2 disc, so at least players on the fence of buying those albums can play "Everlong," "Give It Away," "Peace Sells," and "Mountain Song" to see if they like it.

UPDATE - Even the free songs for Rock Band 2's launch are pretty good (from NeoGAF and the RB forums).

• Honest Bob - Tatooine
• Against Me! - Stop!
• Static-X - Push It
• George Thorogood - Bad to the Bone
• Blink 182 - Dammit
• Free - All Right Now
• Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
• Hot Hot Heat - Bandages
• Bad Religion - Suffer
• Turbonegro - All My Friends Are Dead
• The Haunted - Shadow World
• Pennywise - The Western World
• Rancid - Fall Back Down
• Sublime - Santeria
• Taking Back Sunday - What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost
• The Breeders - Cannonball
• Sepultura - Refuse/Resist
• Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
• The Killers - Somebody Told Me
• Harvey Danger - Cream and Bastards Rise

Speaking of Rock Band 2, here's a preview of pretty much the last tier of songs on guitar and vocals on Expert.

Amusement Show 2008 Preview

Japan has the Amusement Show every year where people show what's next for Japanese arcades (sort of like E3 or Leipzig GC for the arcades). Some of the highly anticipated games will be there along with some surprising additions like Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion (aka Tekken 6.1) being shown for the first time at this year's show. Great, Tekken 6 is already out for a year and another version is already planned for late 2008 release. Could Bloodline Rebellion be the PS3 version of Tekken 6? Seems likely at this point and I hope so because I don't know if U.S. arcades would double dip for BR especially how expensive the official cabinet for Tekken 6 was.


King of Fighters XII (pictured on this post) is expected to be one of big games shown at AM 2008. It was announced nearly a year ago at the same show (or Tokyo Game Show). The new graphical art style is already pleasing fans as this one could be the best looking 2D fighting game now giving BlazBlue some competition. Of course Sega has new arcade games to show as well like a new House of the Dead and other sports games that would never appeal to the U.S. audience. The Amusement Show at Japan is sometime next month before TGS.