1998 | Adventure | Lucasfilm Games (LucasArts)
At the tail end of 2024, MachineGames and Bethesda developed and published Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. An action-adventure game set in the world of the whip loving, whip-like-creature hating, hero historian Indiana Jones. Since this setting is the brainchild of George Lucas, the devs collaborated with Lucasfilm Games (nee LucasArts), a video game subsidiary Lucas founded in the 80s to expand into other entertainment media. In addition to being a stepping-stone for what would eventually become Pixar, Lucasfilm Games developed a string of adventure games in the 90s, including our subject: Grim Fandango.
In mid-2024, before I was even aware of this new Indy game, I played through the remastered version of Grim Fandango on Steam.
The world of Grim Fandango is a unique hybrid. A fictional afterlife based on Mexican/Aztec traditions, with retro-futuristic technology, and Day of the Dead aesthetics. Most of the characters are these animate skeletons that used to be living humans, and who wouldn't feel out of place in a film noir. Though instead of your typical gumshoe protagonist, we have Manny Calavera: an ex-person, working his time off in sales to gain passage through the afterlife. Although we don't know much about his Land of the Living experience, we see he is very lonely, having no family to visit during the Day of the Dead festivities. We watch Manny as he uncovers a conspiracy, forms friendships and smooth-talks his way through the Land of the Dead.
As with other Lucasfilm Games adventures I've played, the worldbuilding is a huge draw - which makes sense when you consider who's behind the company. In addition, the dialogue is hilarious and the characters are witty. I would even say it's the main reason to play, despite the word count of this paragraph. Though they are all fantastic, I do have a special love for Glottis: a large elemental creature whose obsession with cars is absolutely adorable, despite not being a car-guy myself. The friendship him and Manny develop over the years is wonderful to watch.
As for the gameplay, the graphics are rendered in a very particular style. 3D modelled characters, but the camera remains still - switching to a new angle every time Manny moves to a new area. The scenery looks like a pre-rendered 2D background, though it animates and has collision with the player. It visually reminds me of messing around on Kid Pix on the school computers. In the '98 version of the game, Manny was controlled exclusively "tank" style, such that pressing up on the D-pad would make him move forward - irrespective of the camera angle - rather than up relative to the screen. I tried this method in the remaster after beating the game (there's an achievement for playing through the game like this, which I might go for later) and it's not too bad. It definitely makes sense why they chose to control him this way on console, otherwise Manny would move in unintended directions every time the camera changed, possibly even back and forth between two scenes. Also, in tank mode, you use the action buttons to do different things: such as examine an object, use an item, or engage with NPCs (though, I was using an Xbox controller and the game only shows PlayStation buttons). Manny's head moves to look at whatever he's interacting with to help you. The remaster adds a more familiar point-and-click alternative control option (which I primarily used), as well as upscaling the character models, and a bit more realistic lighting. This was a much easier way to play the game for the first time, as the cursor indicates when items are interactable, making it much faster to examine each scene to see what choices were available.
The game also features various puzzles in order to progress through the story. The puzzles aren't always bad, but a common issue with many of these older titles is how unclear they can be. The remaster doesn't provide a hint system, however, I was able to find a fan-made guide that gives hints instead of outright solutions. It makes for a great supplementary resource. Nonetheless, there were still times when even the hints weren't enough and I was so stuck I needed a video solution. Honestly though, this did not ruin my experience of the game. It's still fun to attempt these puzzles yourself, but as I said before, the world and story are the big appeal. Interacting with every object and exhausting every NPC's dialogue option was already rewarding enough.
Grim Fandango was the last original adventure game of this era, made by Lucasfilm Games. It had poor sales, despite how beloved it was, and the company decided there wasn't enough of a market for these types of games anymore. I'm glad they're still around providing fans of Lucas' film franchises with video games, but there's something so wonderful about this era that we lost. They had such an endless creativity and stellar writing, and are icons of the adventure game genre (side note: years ago some of the Lucas Arts team split off and became Double Fine, who are the people that produced this remaster, as well as the Psychonauts series, Brütal Legend and The Cave). This remaster is absolutely worth a shot to anyone who can use a mouse. Don't hesitate to seek help when (not if) you get stuck, but make sure to explore every atom of this world for all of Manny's best zingers.
Uploaded: 04 FEB 2025
Last Edited: 04 FEB 2025