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Back in May of this year, I had the opportunity play Sony's intriguing fighter, The Con, at the annual E3 trade show. With long lines at the show, it was actually the first game I was able to get my hands on. At first glance, I was impressed by the game's visuals and its Tekken-like controls, and I actually began to think that the PSP had its first great 3D fighter. After a few minutes, however, I found the fighting to be monotonous and quickly understood why the game had no line in the first place. Still, when given the opportunity to review The Con months later, I was anxious to see how the game had come along. But after playing again, however, I cannot believe I was conned into giving it a second chance.
What's probably most disappointing about The Con is that the game's concept is appealing, but the execution just isn't there. As the title alludes to, you are required to play a con game to make money on matches -- where you can either bet on your fighters (you have a team of three fighters) or your opponents to win each fight. Once the fight starts, a timer runs for a pre-determined amount of time which determines how long the fight's spectators have to put money on the fight before the final odds are made . During this time, you need to do your best to con the gamblers into thinking how the fight will play out. From here, you need to make sure that your con job is convincing to gamblers.
To give an example, if you bet on your opponent to win, you'll want to do your best to beat the crap out of the opponent to impact the fight's odds until the timer runs out. At this point, you'll want to throw the fight and let your opponent win to make more money. What makes things interesting is that the game features a con meter (a Gladiator-esque thumbs up vs. thumb down system) which determines how credible your con job is. To keep the money earned from a fight, you need to be aware of this meter and make sure that the gamblers are still convinced that the fight was legit.
To help with your theatrics, you can hold the L button while you attack to throw weaker punches and pretend to be fatigued. The L button also allows you to give your best Muhammad Ali "rope-a-dope" performance, as quickly tapping the button will make your fighter appear to be down and out. While the concept sounds cool, the execution doesn't always work. This is largely due to the fact that the opponent AI oftentimes does not even bother to notice that you are not putting up a good fight and just decides not to throw punches. Despite these problems, the game's developer, Think and Feel Inc., deserves credit for coming up with a Vegas-friendly fighting game.
Unfortunately, the game's "con concept" is made less appealing by the simple fact that The Con is not a good fighting game. Sure its flashy visuals could pass for a Tekken title, but the gameplay is just too slow and repetitive. If you really want, you can hold left or right while throwing punches or kicks and usually come out as a winner. Sure you can do combos, throw moves and grapple attacks, but why do that when you can blindly hold left and press square to knock out your opponent? It seems like developers spent too much time thinking of a clever concept and not enough time making it a good fighting title.
Speaking of time, if you play The Con, you'll need plenty of it. For a portable title, the game spends too much time dealing with RPG elements -- where you determine how your fighters should spend their week (either training or resting), who you will fight, and what color hair you should have. While I might just not be a big enough RPG freak to appreciate these elements, I don't know too many fan boys of excessive loading. Between these segments of the game and right before matches, the loading times are sometimes unbearable. Believe me, there's virtually no chance you will spend more time fighting than waiting.
At the end of the day, The Con just doesn't deliver an experience that's worth playing on the PSP. Fighting fans should pray for the release of a Tekken, Street Fighter or Soulcalibur on the PSP. As for those fans of the gambling/con man genre, you'd probably be better off playing Drug War on your TI-83 calculator.
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