The Con

Written by Matt Swider  on July 07, 2005

First Impressions: Pete Rose's favorite PSP game

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When The Con releases in October, it'll be the first 3D fighting game for PSP, edging out other upcoming titles in the same genre by a matter of weeks. However, while Marvel Nemesis and Mortal Kombat: Deception may provide some competition later on, The Con will clearly remain the more innovative 3D fighter on the market. This is because it doesn't focus on whether or not you win or lose, but how you win or lose. The premise is that you're a newly released ex-con that has debts to pay and becomes involved in the underworld of illegal fighting tournaments. Besides trading blows, you'll be making bets on the outcome of each fight and fool the crowd into putting money down on the opposite outcome.

The unique idea of gambling on the fights isn't just a quick gimmick, either. Players must use a bit of strategy to earn enough cash and respect to move on in the game.
Simply betting against yourself and then throwing the fight in an obvious fashion isn't going to work here. The crowd won't believe it and won't bet in your favor. Instead, if you bet against yourself, you need to appear as if you'll win early on, but employ a series of fake punches and open shots so that your opponent takes the win. Betting on yourself follows the opposite formula. Don't gain the crowd's trust and make it seem as if you'll take the fall early on, but win in the end. The more believable you make it seem, the more people will bet the opposite way at the start and the more you'll collect in the end.

The Con will include five different fighting disciplines: Street boxing, Kickboxing, Tae Kwon Do, Jeet Kune Do, and Wrestling. Although learning the moves of each fighting style is essential when taking on the toughest challenger, you're encouraged to learn how to throw those fake punches and setup easy shows early on. Faking the fight seems just as important as learning how to fight given deceptive show you must put on to fool crowds. In addition to the pulling off the moves provided, players can take advantage of the reprogrammable combo strings for advanced fighting combinations and create a team three fighters for special three-on-three matches.

The gambling aspect isn't this game's only innovative feature. In fact, the very first thing you'll notice is that the game uses a funky over-the-shoulder perspective, which places the camera behind your fighter. This rare angle replaces the typical to-the-side viewpoint of the average fighting game with one that's much more personal. This approach gives gamers a fresh way to experience fighting in 3D and it's finally doable thanks to PSP giving players their own individual screen.

To make the experience even more personal, The Con will allow you to customize your own fighter with options like gender, build, facial features and clothing. You'll use your winnings as a way to equip your fighting with new items from the game's shop. And, if that's not personal enough for you, it's also possible to import an image of your face via Memory Stick and insert it onto a fighter. Face mapping is something that's just taking off in select console games, so it's nice to see a portable title that's ahead of its time, taking advantage of the idea for the ultimate customization.

The Con will support fighting over WiFi so that two human players can duke it out in an online or close-range wireless mode. The best part about the close-range wireless mode is that only one UMD disc is required between two friends. The concept is kind of like the multi-boot function used by Game Boy Advance. The PSP's ability to game share isn't something Sony really bragged about and few knew it existed until recently. But, it's a fantastic idea, so here's to hoping it'll appear in more titles in the future.