The Con Review

By Luke Albiges Published 8 March, 2006

What? The PSP or the game?

Version tested: PSP

It's pretty safe to say that the fighting genre has fallen into something of a rut of late. With nobody really willing to challenge existing and popular franchises such as Tekken, Dead Or Alive and Soul Calibur, let alone the all-conquering Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, and a veritable dearth of new ideas (well, ideas that actually work as functional fighters, as Guilty Gear Isuka proves beyond reasonable doubt), the genre has slowly stagnated. On home consoles, at least. With little notable competition in the handheld market, portable fighters have decidedly more room for artistic license as the success of Jump Superstars in Japan clearly shows. Now it's Sony's turn to add a twist to one of the most traditional genres of them all and for all its flaws, The Con is if nothing else a breath of fresh air.

The Ready Money Round

The Con's 'thing' is that it ends up being as much a game about gambling as it is about fighting. At its heart is a pretty simple fighting engine but with its emphases spread across several different elements, this doesn't harm the game that much, if at all. While a Tekken-esque four-button layout governs basic punches and kicks, there's an obvious emphasis on combos rather than specials and a decent parry system in place for the more technically minded player. With several fighting disciplines, basic attacks and throws vary massively in power as well as each having unique moves and special attacks. Combat is decidedly static but then following in the wake of portable travesties like Rise Of The Imperfects, this in itself feels original, solid and nowhere near as limiting as it probably should. Imagine a 3D version of Super Punch-Out!! and you're pretty much there. Tight as this is, it combines wonderfully with the game's gambling aspect to make for a unique fighting experience and you'll need a good head for stats and playing the odds if you want to strike it rich.

'The Con' Screenshot 1

But here's where the clever part comes in. You don't have to go all in at the beginning of the fight - timed bets allow you to send a runner with your wager at whatever point in the match you choose. To what purpose, you ask? Let's say you set your bet to go in thirty seconds into the bout. Using the left shoulder button to pull punches and lean into incoming blows, you can give the impression of being the underdog for the first part of the match before coming out swinging the second your bet goes on at the newly inflated odds. It's a risky technique and one that'll see you having mountains to climb if used in the wrong situations. You can instead bet on your opponent if you so choose and since each battle is a best of three with your created character and two fellow gang members fighting one round each, a tough battle can be thrown, provided the crowd don't get too suspicious of your loss. Make it look convincing or make for the exit before you get trounced by an angry mob...

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Despite its interesting and original approach to the genre, The Con falls down in some remarkably basic areas. For a start, you can't help but feel the training sessions between fights could have been used to add much-needed variety to the proceedings. Slightly more importantly, characters all come from the same creation tool, meaning that variety is hardly the game's strongest point. This is true of both appearance and move sets - when you break it down, it's pretty much only the individual fighting styles that determine how a character will play. This makes for a massive shortfall in long-term appeal and without and kind of complex or personal system in place for combos and juggles, throwing out the same couple of guaranteed combos time after time gets dull unfortunately quickly.

'The Con' Screenshot 2

But in that respect, The Con is perfectly suited to a handheld platform. A few quick brawls on the bus or train to work each day will keep you satisfied for a good few weeks and its here that the game's simplicity really works in its favour. There's absolutely loads to get through as your created freak and their motley crew of fighting friends battle for domination of the streets - cash earned from successful bets can be spent on a plethora of custom clothing and such and there's even a fair bit to be unlocked by beating rival gangs under certain strict criteria.

The Con is about as far from revolutionary as you can get and in no way suited to extended play, but to give Sony its due, it's easily one of the stronger and more accurately pitched portable fighters out there.

6 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Luke Albiges

Read more articles from Luke by visiting the Luke Albiges archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SeesThroughAll #1 6 years ago

    This game never had any appeal for me, especially considering the weird camera angles I see in the screenies.

  • smelly #2 6 years ago

    6/10?????????????

    NINTENDO FANBOYS!!!

  • Talha #3 6 years ago

    2006: The Year of the 6/10 Games

  • SeesThroughAll #4 6 years ago

    Calm down, smelly! This game really looks average to me, and if you look at the review, you'll see that this guy actually IS reviewing the game.

  • kangarootoo #5 6 years ago

    "What? The PSP or the game?"

    Jesus, don't you people bloody learn. This thread is going to turn to shit any minute now because of that pointless caption. Nice one.

  • smelly #6 6 years ago

    @SeesThroughAll : Are you americun?

  • Hog-lumps #7 6 years ago

    BLOODY PSP FANBOYS!!!
    NINTENDO FANBOYS!!!

    Smelly, why do you keep contradicting yourself on these forums?

  • Syrette #8 6 years ago

    Jesus, don't you people bloody learn. This thread is going to turn to shit any minute now because of that pointless caption. Nice one.

    Exactly, as sad it is, perhaps that was the point? You know, to induce discussion and all that (perhaps a cynic could suggest that the more comments to an article, the better it looks to advertisers)?

  • kangarootoo #9 6 years ago

    I'm all for discussion, but every time an "EG hates the PSP" thread hoves into view the result is hardly intelligent debate.

    Maybe I am attracting attention to something innocuous, but it seemed a foolish tag to include after the explosion that accompanied Tom's Lemmings review yesterday.

  • JonFE #10 6 years ago

    It's x360-season all over again ;-)

  • Eldritch #11 6 years ago

    Looks like the PSP is the 6/10 machine. *sigh*

    As for that headline, nice one, EG. Not.

  • PearOfAnguish #12 6 years ago

    If I was running a site that had rabid fans who latch onto the smallest comment like it was directed at them and start huge flame wars, I'd use captions like that just to rile them. Just for shits and giggles.

  • myiagros #13 6 years ago

    "Looks like the PSP is the 6/10 machine. *sigh* "

    not really, yes there are quite a few very average games for the format (this is the same for all systems), but there are also some outstanding titles ie. Lumines, GTA:LSC, Exit, Wipeout Pure, Tales of Eternia, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max ect.

  • Darkedge #14 6 years ago

    the headline is about as stupid as smelly or one of the first posters.

    Good review though

  • JohnnyWashnGo #15 6 years ago

    I wonder if the problem with the PSP is the lack of quality control when it comes to the games that are released for it.

    Or is it just that there are so few games for the machine that any old crap gets released to make up numbers.

    Don't get me wrong, I love my PSPs and Exit is currently bringing the console back into daily use for me, but lets face it, the DS is far and away the winner. It gets a great new game once a month, along with a couple of average games as well.

    I must have over a dozen games for the DS which I love and would not be without.
    I have 2 for the PSP, Exit and ToE.

    Where's the bloody software Sony?

  • drumbaby #16 6 years ago

    That's what I thought in the first year of the PS2. Then look what happened.

    Best. Library. Evah.

  • lemon #17 6 years ago

    JohnnyWashnGo, compare:

    http://www .metacritic.com/games/ds/scores/

    http://ww w.metacritic.com/games/psp/scores/

    If it's all not your taste, too bad for you, but please, no more retarded claiming there is no quality software.

  • myiagros #18 6 years ago

    well done lemon thanks:

    90% : PSP=0 DS=2
    80% + above : PSP=22 DS=21
    70% + above : PSP=50 DS=43

    there you go once and for all, there are plenty of quality titles for both PSP and for DS.

    JohnnyWashnGo - "face it, the DS is far and away the winner"

    just have a look at the stats, thats not really true now is it.

    edit: spelling
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/06 @ 12:43

  • SeesThroughAll #19 6 years ago

    @ smelly: No, I'm european. ??

  • smelly #20 6 years ago

    @SeesThroughAll : Nah, forget it. It's just that irony is lost on people. I was just pre-empting the backlash from the fanboys. The same as when DS games are reviewed with a low score the DS fanboys start saying EG are psp fanboys.

  • SeesThroughAll #21 6 years ago

    Aaaah, now I see. Sorry for not seeing through the irony, mate.
    But the problem with the Lemmings review was that it really was awfully written. With an informative review that really shows why a game fails to meet it's purpose, I don't have a problem.

  • Tonka #22 6 years ago

    Let's not forget
    below 50% NDS=10 PSP=3

    Or the one that matters to me
    Games in the top 20 that I would like to play
    NDS=12 PSP=3

    This is not a dig at the PSP. It's an attack on statistics. They are pointless when it comes down to such a personal thing as gaming preferences.

  • Tonka #23 6 years ago

    agreed

  • SirScratchalot #24 6 years ago

    "@SeesThroughAll : Nah, forget it. It's just that irony is lost on people. I was just pre-empting the backlash from the fanboys. The same as when DS games are reviewed with a low score the DS fanboys start saying EG are psp fanboys."

    Does that actually happen?

  • smelly #25 6 years ago

    LMFAO at how serious some people take all this!

    1) Its an opinion, not a fact
    2) The words should describe whether you want to buy the game or not
    3) Reviewers aren't "out" to diss a specific machine.

  • myiagros #26 6 years ago

    frod, just relaying the facts for those who cant be bothered to check out meta critic.

  • Dizzy #27 6 years ago

    "What? The PSP or the game?"

    Oooooohhh.. naughty!

    At least EG seems to harden their line on all consoles lately. Interesting.... the old EG making a comeback???? I certainly hope so....

  • Tonka #28 6 years ago

    SeesThroughAll: Sorry for not seeing through the irony

    seesThroughALL ey?

    ;)

  • JonFE #29 6 years ago

    Not one to add fuel to the fire, but apart from the statistics of review scores each platform is awarded, one must count other factors as well, i.e. the initial investment of getting the machine, the availability or lack of original games, the target audience for each etc.

    The bottom line is that if you are happy with your purchase, you should not need reassurance of any kind...

  • Chtulie #30 6 years ago

    I hope I'm not the only one who'd like to see a rockstar game, preferably by the 'Warriors' guys, all about underground fighting tournaments ('Bloodsport' anyone, there's plenty of campy films they could base it on) with the gambling like here and all sorts of other fringe elements too deepen the game experience beyond the fight itself.

  • SeesThroughAll #31 6 years ago

    @Tonka: LOL, exactly

  • Azazel #32 6 years ago

    "If I was running a site that had rabid fans who latch onto the smallest comment like it was directed at them and start huge flame wars, I'd use captions like that just to rile them. Just for shits and giggles."

    hehheh, nice one

  • ses #33 6 years ago

    "Interesting.... the old EG making a comeback???? I certainly hope so...."

    If the "old EG" means badly written anti-PSP rants disguised as game reviews and childish captions, then count me out.

  • pantherboy #34 6 years ago

    "
    "What? The PSP or the game?"

    Jesus, don't you people bloody learn. This thread is going to turn to shit any minute now because of that pointless caption. Nice one.
    "

    "
    If the "old EG" means badly written anti-PSP rants disguised as game reviews and childish captions, then count me out.
    "

    Oh lighten up people, it was quite funny I thought even though I quite like the psp and the review was good imo.

    I have a picture in my head that all the other posters on this forum are the comic book guy in the simpsons :)

    Edited by 1 at 08/03/06 @ 22:06

  • ED209 #35 6 years ago

    When will people realise, I don't want to buy or earn or win clothes in a game, I don't want concept art, I don't want long credits, I don't want to be told I'm rank D again, just cos I save the game and turn it off instead of leaving it paused overnight, I don't want to get to the end when you've to diffuse the bomb in the plane but keep cutting the wrong wire after playing the friggin game for hours and waiting for the tape to load an hour between sections, I don't want a trailer for a sequel that wont be released for 8 years and the robot suit in it doesn't look anything like the square-y one in the final game that uses some sort of new pixel-scaling-technology, but actually just looks a bit shit.
    I just want to BE the bosses, that's what I want.

  • kangarootoo #36 6 years ago

    "I have a picture in my head that all the other posters on this forum are the comic book guy in the simpsons :)"

    Wurst... comment... eva.

  • NotTimpey #37 6 years ago

    How exactly is that an anti-PSP rant?

    It only slates aspect of the game, not the hardware at all.

    It's fair enough loving a wicked handheld that you paid two hundred quid for but that doesn't mean you have to leap to its defence for no reason when an average game gets an average score...