I didn't get around to playing Grim Fandango until earlier this summer, and I'm so goddamn glad I finally played it. It instantly became my third favorite game behind MGS3 and Yoshi's Island. Just an absolutely amazing game. Do yourself a favor and torrent it. It's not incredibly long; you can beat it in a week.

Yeah, I also ended up playing Grim Fandango recently. Seriously.. I'm so sorry I missed out on its launch. It's that.. what'cha call it.. style!

i did play it when it came out

heap praise upon me. heap it. continue heaping.

actually it deserves all the respect it gets. it is one of the better written games of all time, and was fun to boot. kudos.

my mother randomly bought me grim fandango in summer, 99. i don't think i've enjoyed playing any game as much as i enjoyed grim fandango at the time. i guess i don't have the time to get into a game like i did back then, though.

Grim Fandango shows why the game consumers don't know shit.

Didn't I hear that a sequal to Grim Fandango was in the works...and that Tim Burton is involved...or was I dreaming?

Just to agree with what everyone already seems to think, Grim Fandango was one of the best written adventure games, perhaps even just games in general, of the last ten years.

To quote another lucas-related work: "Tim Sheafer, you're our only hope." While Psychonauts wasn't quite the brilliance that GF, Full Throttle, or the Monkey Island games were, it was still a ton of fun. I just hope the next Double Fine game is everything and more :)

I played Grim Fandango for the first time a few months ago. It was a brilliant game, probably one of my favourites of all time, but I found that the controls really bogged it down -- I kept accidentally walking Manny into corners, and even getting him through a door could be a chore if I had him angled slightly wrong and he decided to turn the wrong way.

So how can i go about playing this game? Co worker of mine swears how great it is. I don't think I've seen it in stores for years. I'd prefer to go the legal route to support the devs but you know, I'm all ears.

i share some of your inability with RTS's what needs to be a feature in the next generation of RTS's is a sandbox mode where you can actualy bring up a menu, slect what kind of opposition you wish to spawn, then try to defeat it.

for example dropping a group of units that wil rush you, an equaly matched oponent, or an opponent that is much much farther down the tech tree.

For style and story, Grim Fandango has been on by top 5 list for the last 8 years. I bring that game up in any convo that starts with, "Yeah, but will videogames ever be art?"

Something to think about: Grim Fandango was GameSpot's PC Game of the Year 1998, beating StarCraft and Half-Life.

"This deck of cards is a little worn around the edges. But then again, so am I. And I've got fewer suits."

Grim Fandango, one of the best adventure games ever. Managed to have story, humour and brilliant puzzles

Yeah, the controls are about the only thing that prevent me from entering Grim Fandango in the BEST GAME EVAR discussion, at least when talking about it being #1. It's definitely top 10, but the controls were indeed quite frustrating. If you have a controller, and you're fluent with the Resident Evil character-relevant control scheme (left and right to turn, up to move forward, no matter where you're facing or where you are), it's not too bad. But it does have a few bugs.

But in terms of graphics (the backgrounds are beautiful and the models look great for the time), voice acting (the best I've ever heard; every character is voiced perfectly), music (excellent original score), puzzles (unlike Escape from Monkey Island, GF has maybe only 1 ridiculous puzzle -- the tumblers on the giant safe -- and everything else is solveable, but not patronizingly easy), and of course, the script (the conversation between Manny and Carla when he's trying to get the metal detector is one of the best convos in any game I've seen).

I played Grim Fandango when it came out, but then I was always into the Lucas/Sierra adventure games.
I hope they make a comeback on the Wii. The controller is perfect for those games.

When it came out, I was dying to play it. Just for some reason I didn't get around to going to a store and picking it up. Time went by... longer and longer... it was no longer in stores. Nowhere [besides eBay]. I finally got it last year and am VERY pleased with the game.

i recently ordered a copy of grim fandango and i can't wait to play it in all of its classical glory.

as for aoe2, it has been one of my most treasured titles for some time now. an i must say that it is by far one of my favorites.

mouthlessscreamer: grab a copy off of ebay if you can't find it in the shops, and then run it with ScummVM if you have any compatibility problems. Sorted.

Such a fantastic game. Had a mild panic attack last year when I was hunting for it around my place with no results; fixed by a quick eBay purchase (giant cardboard box and all). Turns out it was at my Dad's place all along...

Just such a shame that they didn't print more copies of the soundtrack: you can it in .mp3 form from grimfandango.net but it's just not the same. Oh well.

If your game store is selling the whitebox Lucasarts games, you may be able to find a copy there. Otherwise check Amazon- they have it pretty cheap.

Unlike the Lucasarts games, Grim Fandango isn't completely compatible with ScummVM- in fact, it has its own engine called Residual. The last time I checked, you could play through nearly all of the second year before you reach the limits of what is working.

oh, thats right, even back then there were odd moments where it would play too fast, or something. i can't remember. something about cd speed.

I loved Grim Fandango, it was one of the most morbidly funny games I have ever played, surely in my top 10 list of favourite games ever. The noir atmosphere it had was unique and the puzzles made you really think. I generally miss the old school adventure games. Nowadays, I can't even get myself to play Syberia :S

Grim Fandango FTW!

I was able to play mine all the way through, and I've got XP Pro, 1 GB Ram, AMD Athlon64 3500+

Maybe you guys just don't have as an extreme computer as mine. That's right, I said I have XP Pro. What are you gonna do about it?

I´m not into praising each and every nice game featured here but yup, Grim Fandango definately deserves every praise possible. It really delivers the essence of gaming in such great way like very few other games besides it:
It has lovely charming characters in a fresh believable explorative world with excellent storyline and funny unexpected twists to drive one in for a good while.
As some said it also has excellent synchronistation and even if the characters are lowpoly by todays´standards the overall presentation still looks very nice which shows just how awesome the game was already back then.
A definitive alltime classic.
(And yes,i´d so love a wii followup of this,too)

Grim Fandango.
Brilliant world/premise/characters.
Beret'd beatnik bird reading poetry in nightclub best part.
Two equally broken control methods.
Illogical puzzles.
Quality of writing/audiovisuals fosters determination to unlock further content despite constant frustration with means of doing so.
Terrible play - beautiful content.
Very much worth it.

I preordered it before it came out and I got a free shirt! I still have the shirt, but it doesn't fit me anymore and it's worn out.

I preordered it before it came out and got a free shirt for it. It's much to small and worn out for me now, but it's still cool none the less.

I saw one selling on ebay for 25 bucks a couple months back.

am i the only one who thinks pixar should totally make grim fandango into a movie? The story is so cinematic and epic....sigh...they don't make em like that anymore...one of the best games ever.

I can't stand old school graphic adventure games any more. I wasted my youth on Sierra and Lucas games, pixel hunting and calling hot lines for answers to retarded puzzles.

How am I supposed to know that in order to open the mummies tomb I need to take the magic spoon to the talking bear who will trade his flying carpet for it so I can wrap said carpet around the oversize kumquat and make it fly above the trees so the bird will eat it and drop the hammer he is holding that is used to drive a spike through a pumpkin and push out the key from the other side but it doesn't matter because I didn't talk to the witch at the beginning of the game and 20 hours later I have to start over and THANK GOD THIS GENRA IS DEAD!

'Edioes releases Deathtrap Dungeon' - I think you mean Eidos? I'm also not sure why this would warrant mention other than the fact it is one of the most craptastic games ever released. It should be mandatory playing for all 3d action game developers, to show what not to do.

Great concept, horrible execution. From tEidos at the time, I expected better. It did serve, however, to foreshadow the decline of the Tomb Raider series in greatness - mostly because of poorly-implemented action mechanics.

Clambake!

Rayzak, first of all it was never that bad...and second of all...just cause you sucked at em...

Almost every time I go to Fry's, I see a few copies of Grim Fandango for $5 in their older games section. I'm thinking of buying a few more copies in case my original breaks or wears out.

Even though it's an adventure game with seemingly no replay value, I find myself having to play through it again at least once a year.

Also, I believe you can press Ctrl+M to switch between Resident Evil and Mario-style controls. One is moving relative to the screen, the other moves relative to the character. That might make it easier on you.

asTer0id:

You never played Kings Quest then.

asTer0id:

Or Willy Beamish.

Rayzak: The point a lot of people are trying to make, IMO, is that Grim Fandango wasn't like that. I am not the biggest fan of the genre...most of the time I disliked them because of what you said, but when they were good, they were OH SO GOOD. Monkey Island was fun for awhile, but Grim Fandango takes the cake.

I'll add my vote to: "One of my favorite games ever, and possibly one of the best of all time." I also agree with the idea that it would make a great Pixar movie. Pixar doing animated film noir? Fantastic.

I'd love to see the original game refreshed today's art standards. No big changes, just tweak the control system, refresh the art, and use the exact same story/voice/music. I'd drop $49 for it, no sweat.

Grim Fandango was the only PC game I ever bought, a dark secret now revealed in my "Console games rule" Attitude.

I'd buy it in an instant if it comes out on the DS.