Save mom's video store by pulling crimes in this 90s comic caper

Remember the '90s? Not really (I was an actual child for most of it), but Skybound is banking on you loving the saturated Saturday morning cartoon stylings of the decade for its upcoming crime caper, The Big Con.

It's a story ripped straight out of a family VHS—complete with cheesy, period-appropriate trailer narration. With loan sharks threatening to shut down mom's video store, 17-year-old Ali embarks on a cross-country road trip to steal, scam, and scrounge together enough money to save the shop.

Each stop on your adventure opens up a new heist, and you've got plenty of tools to swindle. Pickpocketing is a reliable staple, but using disguises or good old-fashioned sneaking to hear about big scores is where the real money's at. Naturally, the whole thing is painted in an oversaturated '90s palette, sitting somewhere between Toejam & Earl and a Cartoon Network classic.

The game is Toronto studio Mighty Yell's debut (a developer sporting talent from games like Jazzpunk and Guacamelee! 2), and is published by Skybound—a company that took over The Walking Dead ownership after Telltale bit the dust, but has more recently pushed into experimental works like heart-breaking blink 'em up Before Your Eyes.

The Big Con is coming to Steam later this year.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.