Synopsis:
Hustle your way across ‘90s America as a runaway teen con artist. Choose how to make your scratch as you don disguises, pick pockets, and rip people off in this comedic crime-filled adventure. Experience the totally rad ’90s in all its plaid and payphone glory!

Publisher: Skybound Games
Reviewed on: PC
Also available for: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Cast: Erika Ishii, Melissa Hutchison, Dave Fennoy

Developer: Mighty Yell
Game Direction & Writing: Dave Proctor
Technical Direction: George Degenkamp
Art Direction: Saffron Aurora, Lyndsey Gallant

It’s the 90s, a Saturday night, and you are on the way to get your weekend adventure from Blockbuster. Pokémon is the new kid on the block, Backstreet Boys are running wild on the airwaves, and a unicorn has thrown up on everyone’s clothes. This is the exact nostalgia that developer Mighty Yell is trying to capture in The Big Con. Taking inspiration from teen movies of the time, The Big Con puts you in the shoes of Ali, a teenager who finds herself thrown into the world of con artists in an attempt to save her family video store from loan sharks. While the set-up is simple and has been seen plenty of times within the last two decades, The Big Con attempts to create a fresh experience while drawing from the settings vibrantly coloured roots.

Throughout the five hour playtime of The Big Con, Ali’s adventure leads players through a range of locations, pickpocketing and scheming to save the small-town store. From the bustling streets of a city to the carriages of an interstate train, The Big Con’s brightly coloured aesthetic lends itself to creating interesting environments filled with a wide variety of characters that make the world feel alive. Supported by a fantastic soundtrack, this world is easy to get lost in, with plenty of places to explore across each location. Looking into the world more closely, players will find many unused areas that come as somewhat of an annoyance as Ali journey’s back and forth. Each place completing objectives can feel like they have been placed there to extend the playtime of each mission or objective.

However, I found freezing bugs throughout the playtime that would level me stuck on a screen several times, but the game would continue in the background. On one occasion, such a bug caused me to restart the game entirely as The Big Con only allows for one save file at a time.

Storytelling is key for all members of the adventure genre, and this is no exception for The Big Con. The teenage adventure heavily follows the bygone tropes of 90s teenage movies with plenty of life lessons and ad-friendly messages. For example, throughout her journey, Ali meets a young woman several times, which leads to discussions about her smoking addiction and trying to help her quit through a series of smoking facts. Many characters appear across each location, each with their own story that resolves by the final area. Even if you had not interacted with some of these storylines, the game continues as if you had. A phone call with a character in the final moments of the game played off as if I had been trying to call throughout the entire game, which I found confusing as it was the first time id picked up a phone. It made me feel like I had very little agency in Ali’s actions throughout the game. By drawing so much from the reference material, The Big Con also succumbs to one of the style’s pitfalls, and the story itself feels very superficial, with problems wrapping up a little too neatly.

One of the simplest money-making methods of any con artist is pickpocketing, which players will find simple and far too rewarding. The simple timed button press it takes to perform does very little to convey the risk that Ali is taking each time, and by the end of the game, when you are pulling thousands of dollars from a single bulging pocket, it becomes far too easy to make money. To the point where I could pickpocket as many people as I needed to for the money goal that prevents the story progression for each area. For an adventure game, this seems counterintuitive as this very much can lead to players missing out on the charming stories of each location. Another overly easy mechanic is lost suitcases or bags throughout The Big Con, which a combination pin can open. It is intended for the players to find the baggage owner and listen in to work out the combination. Sadly the combinations can easily be solved through trial and error.

The trend of overly simplified gameplay takes a lot away from The Big Con’s moment-to-moment gameplay. Why does Ali worry about her family’s business, wherein she can reach into a couple of pockets and make as much as a weekly wage? These game mechanics and previously mentioned superficial writing detract the most from The Big Con’s experience. Ali never really feels at risk because of these story and gameplay decisions that lead to the players feeling disconnected from the narrative. My time with The Big Con reminded me of so many of the great times I had growing up watching movies like Halloweentown and Johnny Tsunami, but at the same time, it also reminded me of why I do not go back to watch these movies now at 27. Mighty Yell shows its creative flair through The Big Con’s art style and soundtrack, which makes me look forward to future titles from the studio and hope that Skybound continues its mission to reinvent adventure games.

(The Big Con code provided for review)