December 7, 2005 - The PSP is almost a year old and it seems like we haven’t yet had our onslaught of original titles yet. Say what you will, the best games on the handheld at the moment are puzzle games (Lumines) and racers (Wipeout, Burnout, Ridge Racer, Need for Speed, Midnight Club). With that in mind, Sony is trying to set things right or at least trying to do something new and The Con may very well be the most innovative title we’ve seen thus far on the PSP.

Looking at the game’s title, you’d swear this involved casino heists or some version of Three Card Monte game. And you’d be wrong. Looking at the packaging, you’d think this was a straight beat ‘em up like Final Fight or Beatdown or Def Jam Vendetta. And you’d be wrong. What The Con boils down to really is a hybrid between Super Punch Out, Def Jam Vendetta, a fighting game, a dress-up Barbie game, a Scorsese picture, a Vegas gambling simulator and a loan-shark looking to make a profit. For gamers, it’s something old and something new wrapped up in a nice package. The Con also requires a good blend of strategy, cleverness and a good sense of timing.

The main mode of The Con is Story Mode in which your character (which you have complete freedom in creating) forms a crew and makes his/her way up the fighting ranks with the ultimate goal of fighting in “The Big Time”. Along the way, you will recruit members, make a few friends and a whole lot of enemies. One of your first friends is a character uncannily resembling Queen Latifah’s Matron Mama Morton from Chicago. Under her tutelage you will learn the ins and outs of The Con and realize, with every step, how deep this game truly is.

The first step in the general flow of the game is to line up a fight. Here you’ll generally choose to fight one of six different teams. These teams are ranked in various ways and allow you the freedom of accomplishing different tasks by fighting various factions. Next, you’ll be able to set-up what your team will be doing in the weeks leading up to the fight. This involves resting (which helps you lower your fatigue level), training (which raises and lowers various stats) and checking into the hospital (which, for a fee, heals all your injuries in the course of one week). You’ll also have access to shops and customization screens to change the look of your team, what they are wearing and their combos. Finally, you get to the betting screen where you will see the odds for/against your fighter. Here is where The Con really shines. If you want money, you can bet on your opponent and simply take a dive. But the twist comes in the fact that all odds aren’t locked from the onset. The odds change depending on the initial moments of the bout. You therefore have to “sell” the “con” by fighting good to raise the odds for you and then, in a believable manner, take a dive. You can also play this the other way and bet on yourself, fight poorly, wait for the odds to lock and then pull off an incredible victory. A meter on the side tells you how much money you are about to make and a meter in the center keeps track of how well you are “selling” your performance. On the other hand, if you just want to raise your rank, you can jump in and simply kick butt; but you’ll need lots of money to buy your way into The Big Game.

All of the mechanics and strategy set up in The Con work perfectly well. And while most fights are never very hard since after a while you’ll find yourself much better than the A.I., you’ll still have to “sell” your performance and sometimes battle back from very low health to win. This is what makes The Con so brilliant.