Did you ever have a friend that you’ve known forever, hung out with, went through the fires with and was your best bud through thick and thin? Then you grew up and you realized you and this person no longer have anything in common anymore besides those memories of days past? Remember how disappointing that felt when you came to that realization? I’m here to tell you that Grim Fandango is not one of those friends. You grew up with Grim Fandango.
It helped you through a breakup, listened when you needed it to, and it was even there for you when you graduated high school and moved on. The only difference is that Grim Fandango didn’t remain that same person. Grim Fandango didn’t grow up and keep playing childish pranks or working at a car wash somewhere and still being that creepy guy that shows up at high school homecoming. Instead, Grim Fandango matured, got a new outlook on life and became someone you can still hang out with and you know it won’t embarrass you in front of friends or spouses. Now, in case you are brand new to the classic 1998 LucasArts PC puzzle game, just forget everything I told you.
Grim Fandango was originally released in October, 1998. Surprisingly, it still holds up to us legacy players. To new players this game might not be as well received. Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions knew the risks of releasing a 16-year-old game into this modern environment. While many might view this game strictly through rose tinted glasses, others might have a lot of fun with it. Some of its features are mildly outdated, but for the most part you’re still guaranteed a good time with Grim Fandango.
The storyline is simple. The protagonist, Manny Calavera, is a grim reaper who must work off his debt to the underworld so that he could possibly leave this state of limbo he’s in and finally cross over to the other side. In his way are his tough as nails boss and a fast-talking mover and shaker co-worker named Domino, who seems to have eclipsed Manny in every possible way. How is he supposed to get his job done when he is constantly being hampered by outside forces? One day he’d finally had enough and Manny decides to take matters into his own hands. He maneuvers his way into getting the good clients in the hopes that he can show his boss that he can handle things just as good, if not better, than Domino. What happens next is that his actions cause strange events to be set off. One thing leads to another and Manny finds himself in a world of adventure and danger around every corner.
There isn’t much to the game, really. It’s a point and click adventure with at times, some really difficult puzzles. What makes it hard to market in today’s ecosystem is that so many advances have happened in the world of gaming since 1998. While games nowadays tend to hold your hand and guide you as you play it, Grim Fandango does none of this. I feel it is part of this game’s charm. It challenges you in ways you didn’t think were possible. No matter your attention span level, this game forces you to sit there and try to figure out what to do next. It was rather a rather welcoming and quaint mechanic from a long forgotten era in video games. There is no autosave; there are no hints, and if you can’t figure the puzzles out you’re stuck. However, once you do figure out these puzzles you’re rewarded with a sense of pride and a feeling of accomplishment. You’ve got smarts. That is, unless you looked up the answer online. You should feel like a dirty, dirty cheater if you go that route.
This is exactly how games played back then. I’m not going to beat you over the head with “back in my day…” because I am glad that video games have advanced as much as they have. Some of those old games were incredibly frustrating. As it stands now I would never want to go back to those prehistoric days in gaming. We were the gamers discovering fire and being chased by dinosaurs so that we could all have these nice modern gameplay mechanics.
I was a 17-year-old teenager working as a busboy in a restaurant. It was a glorious time in gaming because for the first time we as a collective were beginning to grow. As the technology got better with each console generation gaming matured into what it is now. Grim Fandango was gaming’s first step from boyhood to manhood. It was dad tossing you the keys to the family car and letting you spread your wings a little. That’s why I believe this game is special, and why I believe everyone should give it at least one shot.
