Hogan Not Enough in Solid DS Wrestling Title

The Nintendo DS isn’t exactly the first system you’d expect to see a quality wrestling title, but “TNA Wrestling: Cross the Line” is one indeed.

With decent controls, graphics and presentation, the title is easily one of the best wrasslin’ games on the handheld.

That however isn’t saying much.

Nevertheless, it’s hampered from a series of problems that prevent it from garnering the three count it could have gotten otherwise.

For one, featuring only 18 wrestlers, two being Consequences Creed and Curry Man, both of whom aren’t being used in any current story lines, there’s just not enough depth to the roster to keep you entertained very long. With all the new additions to the company over the past seven months, there’s no excuses why talents like Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair weren’t included.

Simply put, the addition of just Hulk Hogan can’t satisfy all by itself.

This sentiment especially rings true when many of the movesets aren’t in the least bit realistic either, hampering the game even further.

Hogan and Mick Foley doing the tornado DDT? What about Foley doing the Blackhole Slam as a finisher?

Yeah right.

Aside from that, some of the animations for the finishing moves are just abysmal. Hogan’s leg drop for instance looks like a high knee followed by a crooked leg drop across someone’s chest. As well, several clipping and collision problems limit the overall fun and make playing the game more a chore than the smashfest it feels like at times.

Nevertheless, in spite of these zits, this game has its moments.

Featuring video intros a-la “WCW Thunder” for the original Sony Playstation the presentation is pretty cool. The same thing goes for the control scheme, which effectively uses the DS touch screen for pins and submissions, going a long way in making the game enjoyable.

Graphically, the game resembles another PSone title, “WCW vs the World,” as the blocky and mishapen character models aren’t the least bit attractive, but they get the job done and give the game a unique and old school look. With some more polish though, this game could have looked like something like “WCW Revenge.”

While the overall look of the title is slightly above mediocre, it’s solid enough to not be an eyesore and help round out a more than entertaining entry in the DS library.

As a result, if you can forgive its problems and don’t care about having the newest wrestlers or realstic movesets, this is the game for you. Hardcore fans however may have to wait until next year before their hunger for a super high quality wrasslin’ game is quenched.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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