The Con is not your typical fighting game. Sure, it has fighting styles, combos, and the like, but what makes it different is that it throws in a gambling element – and one in which you can try to cheat your way to riches.

The basic premise behind The Con is a little screwy and the storyline is not much to speak of, so we’ll just dispense with all that and just accept the fact that you’re recruited into an underground fight network in which a lot of money changes hands as people bet on the outcome of each match. You’ll have the opportunity to bet on the matches as well, but what sets you apart from Joe Gambler is that you actually have some power over the fight’s outcome.

I hope that you bet on Cinder.

Before each fight you can make a bet on yourself or on the other fighter. The two fighters’ levels, record, and odds against winning are presented on the betting screen so that you know what you’re getting into before plopping down your cash. In addition to making a bet, you can specify when during the fight the bet is placed. Since bets are taken throughout the fight the odds are constantly changing. Placing your bet during the fight will give you a chance to pump the odds up higher and increase your winnings. In practice there’s no real reason to have your bet go in at the start of the fight as you can almost always get better odds later in the bout.

The key to pulling off a con is to keep the crowd believing that the fight is on the up and up. This is where the L trigger comes into play. Holding the L trigger before hitting your opponent will soften the blow while pressing it as you’re getting hit will cause you to lean into the hit to take extra damage. How well your con is working on the crowd is reported by a small meter at the top of the screen that swings from green to red and includes a thumbs-up icon when things are going well and a thumbs-down icon when the crowd’s not buying it. End the fight with a thumbs-down and you’ll lose your bet and take a beating from the crowd.

The game is played as a progression of matches in which your team of three fighters tries to make its way up the ladder by challenging higher ranked teams. It’s a very accommodating ladder in that lower ranked teams never challenge you and higher ranked teams are always willing to accept your challenge. Anyway, winning matches earns your team respect, experience, and progression up the ladder, and it is here that the game has a fundamental disconnect: there’s no motivation for throwing a fight. Throwing a fight means passing up on the opportunity to earn respect and subjecting your fighter to more damage that will require downtime to heal. Hmm, now why exactly would I want to throw a fight? Because of this disconnect you’ll use the exact same betting strategy throughout the game; bet on yourself, place the bet a little ways into the fight, take a few punches, and then pound your opponent into the ground to collect your winnings. The crowd never catches on and you’ll always raise the odds before your bet goes in.

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