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Despite
having several PlayStation2 ported titles and a load of multi-format
games, the PSP really is lacking any really sought-after original
PSP exclusive titles. PSP “exclusives” such as Grand The
Auto: Liberty City Stories and WipEout
Pure are really game concepts that have already been refined
on home consoles, and are simply polished up and made suitable for
handheld gaming. Not to say that there are no real PSP exclusives,
the intuitive Archer Maclean’s Mercury and the inventive Ghost
In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex to name a couple, but it still
feels more-or-less like a PlayStation2 in a tiny box. This is all
set to change though - as more and more developers get to grips with
the hardware, the future is looking a little brighter and,
hopefully, a little more inspired. Two titles offering some a little
different in the coming months are Infected and The Con.
The mess of zombies and blood that is Infected is covered
elsewhere in the Electronic Articles, but what the hell is The
Con?
The
Con is Beat-‘Em-Up from Think&Feel Inc and is their first
PSP title to be released. It’s obviously grabbed some attention
during development, as SONY soon snapped-up the publishing rights,
and presented the title at E3
2005. The
Con involves fighting against various opponents in illegal
street matches and placing bets on the winner. Pretty standard stuff
you would think, but The Con has a few tricks up it’s
sleeve. The game follows the story of your rise in rank from lowly
brawler to your entrance into the “Big Time” tournament.
Although the stories are never really the huge selling points of
Beat-‘Em-Ups, The Con’s back story is boring and completely
pointless and it’s almost certain you’ll be skipping the
decently drawn cut-scenes rapidly in order to reach the action
faster. At the start The Con asks you to create a fighter.
You must choose one of several fighting styles, including Street
Boxing, Wrestling and Tae Kwon Do, and the physique of you fighter.
Each fighting style has different moves assigned to each button and
different Special Attacks. The styles are quite diverse allow a good
amount of variety. Choosing your physique involves placing a marker
between the three physique types; Fat, Lean and Muscular. Fat
fighters have more health, leaner fighters are quicker and muscular
fighters benefit from more power. After you  have chosen the game
altering parameters, there are the aesthetic options such as
clothing, hair styles and skin tones. Now you are ready to get
rucking!
After
a brief but informative tutorial, the game really begins and you
choose two more fighters from a pre-made pool to join your crew. You
are then pitted against similarly skilled fighters in best-of-three
matches involving all of your team members. Unfortunately you cannot
choose who-fights-who, which seems a little unfair as regularly you
will not get to fight with your self-created, and usually more
powerful, character unless you lose one of the matches. As you fight
your way through bouts, you will gain more respect and eventually
you will be able to fight against the Grades Boss, allowing passage
to the next Grade. Between fights you are given the opportunity to
customise your character through training in order to increase their
power. This system is well implemented and gives the player a sense
of accomplishment, however is not particularly original as several
games, such as DragonBall Z: Budokai 3 and The Warriors,
have already used a similar system. You must also rest your fighters
occasionally as they can suffer from fatigue which lowers their
statistics and makes consequent fights a lot harder. Fighters can
also be injured during fight and as such require either three weeks
rest or a costly trip to the hospital. God bless the NHS!
The
Con is dissimilar from most Beat-‘Em-Ups as it uses a
over-the-shoulder camera similar to Resident Evil 4, however,
your fighter does not move, rather they dodge as you press the D-Pad
in different directions, making this game more like a Boxing game
than your typical Tekken-esque fighter. The actual fighting
seems sluggish when compared to Dead
Or
Alive 2: Ultimate or Tekken
5 but is far more realistic for street-fighters, although those
used to the aforementioned games will find that The Con does
not boast a system quite as fun or expansive. There is also the
option to create your own Combos, with extra moves becoming
available as you progress through the game. This system is very
simple to get to grips with and adds yet more customisability to the
game. There are also harder to execute Super Moves that are learned
through the game and can significantly damage your opponents. There
are not a particularly large amount of standard moves available and
most of the time you will performing the same moves repeatedly,
which can become a little boring, but in general The Con has
a competent fighting system.
So
what the hell is The Con? The interesting and original
Betting System is really what sets The Con apart from other
generic Beat-‘Em-Ups. You are given odds for each fighter and the
opportunity to bet before each match. However, the odds can change
during combat. By setting the bet to be placed during  the match, you
can drastically increase the odds. For instance, informing your
runner to place a bet on yourself thirty seconds into the match,
then taking a beating for those thirty seconds will cause the odds
to be far greater than at the start. Then, if you can pull it back,
you will win far more than you would have. This also works in
reverse, betting on the opposition, beating seven-shades out of
them, then taking a dive can also make you very rich. However,
diving will obviously cost you respect, but the fact that you could
if you wanted to is a credit to the developers.
The
fighters all look the part and are generally ugly, dangerous looking
people! They are decently rendered and, although hardly ground
breaking, the graphics in The Con are adequate. However the
environments in which you fight are pretty sparse apart from the
occasional 3D spectator. The menus look similar to those used in Tony
Hawk’s American Wasteland and in general the game is presented
well. The manual boasts proudly that the games soundtrack is
downloadable from the Internet. No idea why you would want to do
that though as all the songs are monotonous pseudo-R-‘N’-B
numbers that you would never, ever play in public. The sound effects
are also pretty drab and the voice-acting is, well, acting is not
exactly the right term for it. Needless to say, you will be turning
down the speakers for this one.
The
Con would be a fairly standard Beat-‘Em-Up if it were not for
the interesting Betting System. With it, it becomes a fun affair at
times, although it hardly earns the game the kind of longevity
offered by Soul Calibur III. Against it’s primary
competition, The DarkStalkers Chronicles: The Chaos Tower, it does reasonably
well, offering new features not seen previously in Beat-‘Em-Ups,
albeit without the speed of most. It also allows AD-HOC Multi-Player
in which players can bet items that they have acquired on matches,
another interesting feature of The Con. However, once you
have completed the story, it is unlikely that you will find that you
want to replay the many fights in order to collect everything. A
good attempt at providing the PSP with a unique title, but not quite
special enough to push any boundaries.
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