The Big Con Reviews
For an experience meant to mimic a night spent in front of a rented VHS tape and a bowl of microwaveable popcorn, that’s about all you can ask for.
The Big Con is a heart-warming coming of age story that will delight 90s kids, referential-humor enjoyers, and those with sticky fingers. Its relatable protagonist never loses her heart of gold, despite the horrible circumstances she finds herself in, which serves as a shining testament to the dev team’s ability to carefully craft a story using controversial mechanics. If you have $14.99 and 7 - 10 hours to spare, take a look at The Big Con -- it's bound to steal your heart.
Video tapes, scrunchies, plaid shirts, grunge…did someone say a recipe for the ‘90s? Though I was born in 1997, which some would say doesn’t count, I still remember the ‘90s vibe going on strongly into the early 2000s. A time of Pokemon, classic Disney films and the PlayStation 1, where little me had no responsibilities!
Where the gameplay may be lacking, The Big Con makes up for with emotional stakes. I found Ali’s relationships to be engaging, funny, and heartfelt. She can call her mom and her best friend—who she’s currently on the outs with—from the road. She makes friends with recurring guests along the road, including a particularly funny Pawn Shop Broker (the game’s way of letting you sell random items for extra cash). She even has a delightful imaginary friend called Rad Ghost who serves as a helper—emotionally, and logistically with controls—throughout the game. Amid the nostalgia and time travel, there is a very tangible reflection on the transience of commercial fads as well as a love and concern for small businesses. Ali is a good kid, and getting to follow her journey, living vicariously through her as the cool ‘90s teen I never was, was worth even the most lackluster of pickpocketing opportunities.
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 provides some much-needed 90s nostalgia while also providing an outrageous tale smothered in wit, sarcasm, and Horm. It’s a short, casual game, with a whole lot of spunk and a whole lot of crime, and I really recommend it to anyone looking for a laugh.
Though there's some technical issues, some more devastating than others, The Big Con is a heart-warming teenage road trip that's worth playing
Criminality has never been so much fun, and thankfully, in The Big Con, no one really gets hurt. Available on day one via Xbox Game Pass and with a roughly six-hour completion time this is a title well worth checking out.
It is not easy to make a game about coning and robbing people on this personal of a level and not make the gamers feel bad about what they are doing but the developers behind The Big Con use the art style, comedic bits and the 1990s nostalgia in a way that this idea works in such a nice way that you will have a blast playing it, specially if you are a 90's kid.
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