The Big Con has finally landed on Android. If you’ve followed the game since its initial launch on PC (which was in 2021), you know that it’s going to be a road trip full of scams and sneaking around. The game has storytelling, comedy, improvisation, and a heavy dose of the nostalgic ’90s.
The Big Con is about Ali, a sarcastic high school student who skips band camp to pull off cons across America. She isn’t doing it just for fun, though. Her goal is to save her mom’s struggling video store from loan sharks who are trying to shut it down. Of course, her mother doesn’t know that she’s conning people out there.
So, what’s The Big Con here?
Ali’s cross-country journey is full of opportunities to hustle strangers in different ways. You can stick to the basics by quietly pickpocketing people for quick cash, but bigger rewards come from taking on more elaborate schemes.
That includes breaking and entering, lockpicking, wearing disguises, spying on conversations, gathering clues, talking your way into or out of situations, and figuring out how each target can be fooled. You also get to decide who deserves to be conned and who might actually need some help.
The game’s biggest hook might actually be its obsession with the 1990s. Whether you lived through the decade or not, almost every part of the experience is designed as a throwback. Plaid clothing, payphones, VHS tapes, malls, landline phones, cassette tapes, plushie crazes.
Even the fictional businesses lean into parody. Places like Videoville recall the blue-and-yellow branding of old video rental giants such as Blockbuster. Movie shops feature fake posters for corn-themed spoofs of Quentin Tarantino films, including From Husk Til Dawn. And if you really want to embrace the weirdness, yes, you can ride the Hormpillar as much as you want.
The Big Con is available now on the Google Play Store as a free-to-try release. You get an optional purchase to unlock the full game.
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