Anthony's Film Review - Grim Fandango (Video Game, 1998)

LucasArts presents an adventure game with both fun gameplay and an entertaining original story...

I love stories that are original and unique. I especially enjoy tales that incorporate familiar elements from elsewhere but do so in a combination we rarely or never have seen before. When you experience a story that is so fresh and creative, whether in a book, movie, television show, or video game, there's usually a feeling of satisfaction. It lets the audience look at familiar things in a whole new way, and perhaps appreciate the old and familiar more than ever. The video game I shall review here is something that is quite original and entertaining because of it.

The LucasArts game Grim Fandango is a mix of a particular culture and old films. Specifically, imagine Mexico's Day of the Dead blended with Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca, and film noir classics. The game takes place in the Land of the Dead where souls, existing as anthropomorphized skeletons, must journey for four years on foot to reach the Ninth Underworld for eternal rest. Fortunately, travel agents in the Department of Death, like Manuel "Manny" Calavera, provide three travel packages for faster travel: by car, by ship, or by train. The train is the best because it can cut the journey to just four minutes. However, the options available depend on how much wealth and goodness the soul had accumulated before death. That means the financially and morally poor have no choice but to make a four-year journey on foot.

As the game begins, it's another typical unhappy day at work for Manny. He needs to pay off a debt before he can quit his job, but his boss only gives him the worst souls as clients. In fact, Manny's rival colleague Domino is the one getting all the rich souls for clients. Manny therefore decides to play dirty. He snatches one rich client, a lovely woman named Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, before Domino gets to her. Then there's another complication. Despite Meche's virtuous life, Manny finds that she isn't eligible for any travel package, not even the train option. To make matters worse, Meche escapes and flees on foot. Now Manny must try to find her because she's his ticket to freedom.

Together with his friend and personal driver, a big jolly orange demon named Glottis, Manny journeys across the Land of the Dead. Locations include the edge of the world, a casino, a racetrack for giant cats, a petrified forest, and the bottom of the sea. As for characters to encounter, Manny will come across flaming beavers, worker bees, two skeletal children in a cage, a woman who likes beatnik poetry, crime bosses, a creature with a light stuck to his head, revolutionaries who will probably make Karl Marx proud, and plenty more. The world is a mix of fantasy elements and real-world elements incorporated into a land of souls.

Speaking of which, one concept in the story is rather creative. There is such a thing as souls getting killed in the Land of the Dead, with one particular method of death. Souls can be killed by being "sprouted." When they are hit with a substance that promotes plant growth, the skeleton will be covered with leaves and flowers as their bones disintegrate and are used as fertilizer. Basically, they are reincorporated back to the land of the living, a reversal of living people getting killed and decomposing in the ground. With that in mind, it becomes important for Manny to not double-cross any gangsters.

As I said, the world of Grim Fandango has elements of film noir. Think of films like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and Double Indemnity. This game, too, features shady characters and schemes. As the story proceeds, it is clear that the biggest threat of all is a gangster named Hector LeMans. He has an evil plot that involves train tickets to the Ninth Underworld, and it's something that only Manny can put an end to. Along the way, there are bits of Casablanca here and there. (In fact, if you play the remastered version of this game released in 2015 by Double Fine and listen to the developer commentary during the game, it is mentioned that Manny is designed to be a Hispanic version of Humphrey Bogart, and the character known as Chowchilla Charlie is based on Peter Lorre's Ugarte.)

This is a good time for me to talk about the voiceover cast. The main character of Manny is a memorably likable character thanks to the performance of Tony Plana. Same goes for Maria Canals as the voice of Meche. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Manny and Meche, both voiced by performers of Cuban descent, have real chemistry in the scenes that feature both of them. Then there is Alan Blumenfeld voicing Glottis, a character who, I admit, did grow on me over the course of the game. Overall, I love the voices of every character, even all of the minor ones.

The music of Grim Fandango is also worth mentioning. In every location, the soundtrack enhances the mood of the environment. What you hear fits what you see. For example, expect to hear tunes appropriate for a dark setting or band music in a club setting. This is one of those games where it's worth owning the soundtrack separately in addition to the game itself. In a time capsule of video game music, throw in the Grim Fandango soundtrack CD.

I haven't said a word so far about the gameplay of Grim Fandango. That's because there isn't much to say. It's a simple interface that allows the player to move Manny around, examine and interact with hotspots in the game environment, talk to characters, and pick up and use objects. It's so easy to get lost in the experience of the game that you feel like you're in an interactive movie rather than a video game. That said, the level of difficulty with the game's puzzles is just right, without being too easy or too hard. Amazingly, I got stuck several times even if the game seems too easy at first. I am proud that I did get through the game without consulting any hints or walkthroughs. I just examined things and gave them thought more thoroughly, or I simply tried every possible action with every inventory item or environment hotspot until something new happened.

In the end, Grim Fandango is a solid video game title. It has an intriguing story, unforgettable characters, great voice acting and music, and fun gameplay. It is certainly one of the better adventure game titles made, and it deserves to be in a list of the best adventure games made. This is a good time to mention that Grim Fandango was released in the late 1990s, as the heyday of adventure games over two decades was coming to an end. Looking at it from that standpoint, it's interesting that the game was released at that time, as you could say it marked the end of a major era in computer games. But thankfully, Grim Fandango can be enjoyed even decades later. This game about death can and will live on.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Grim Fandango, visit the Internet Movie Database and Moby Games.