This game will make you nostalgic for the petty crimes you probably never committed in the 90s

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Plaid? Rad.

Screenshot of The Big Con, showing a blue haired teen hitchiking
(Image credit: Mighty Yell)

You know when you were a teenager, in the '90s, and you did a lot of petty crimes? Pickpocketing, and scams with fun names, bouncing from place to place as you picked your mark, remembering to call home every now and then? Maybe not, if like me you were a teenager in [redacted] who broke out in a cold sweat whenever those buggy anti-theft barriers in shops would go off because someone looked at them funny—but we've all watched enough wild teen movies that it's kind of nostalgic anyway, right?

The Big Con, coming the 31st of August, lets you relive (or first-time live) that dream, with a flexible approach to being a teenage con artist in the '90s. If you want to get by on being a pickpocket, you can try to just get in the pockets of those high-waisted bootcut jeans. If you want to grift, to commit a little B&E? The world's your oyster—and as the store page points out, pearls are worth a lot!

Screenshot of The Big Con, showing a blue haired teen about to pickpocket someone in a supermarket

(Image credit: Mighty Yell)

The listing promises to include all the '90s fads we loved, as well as some we'd rather forget, though I honestly don't know what there could possible be to forget. We have middle partings again, and CRT TV discourse. Could there be anything left?

If you want a nostalgia trip before the game comes out, developer Mighty Yell's website is currently kitted up to promote The Big Con (though heads up for eye strain if you're sensitive). It's a real throwback to the personal geocities sites of yore, down to the ASCII art.

The Big Con will be available on Steam and Xbox from the 31st of August.