Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a video game that consists of 3 releases
Recent
Images
News
Videos
Community
Guides
Overview
Grim Fandango is an adventure game released by LucasArts in 1998. It was one of the last adventure games made by the company, and is generally said to mark the endpoint of "the golden era of adventure games" in the nineties. Using the keyboard, the player controls a Grim Reaper-like character throughout the "Land of the Dead," following a story with heavy tie-ins to Mexican folklore, older adventure games, and Film Noir cinema such as the 1942 classic Casablanca. Grim Fandango was the first adventure game to sport 3D-modeled characters, although in a pre-rendered 2D world.
As a travel agent for the Department of Death it is Manuel "Manny" Calavera's job to usher the souls of the newly departed from the Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead. In the city of El Marrow, the souls are judged and then sent off on the journey towards the Ninth Underworld, the soul's final destination. While the sinners will have to make the four-year journey on foot (or, like Manny, stay in El Marrow working of their debt to "the powers that be") the more virtuous souls gets different degrees of travel-help, culminating in the " N umber Nine", a luxurious express train safely traversing the trials of the Land of the Dead in only four minutes.
After sending the virtuous Mercedes "Meche" Colomar to a journey on foot, despite having lived the life of a saint, Manny starts to suspect that corruption has started to crawl deep into the Land of the Dead. Manny and his mechanic/sidekick, Glottis, set off on a quest to find Meche and set things right in the Land of the Dead. Their journey will take them to various locales in the Eighth Underworld: from the Edge of the World to slightly beyond.
The project leader, Tim Schafer, left LucasArts shortly after the release of the game to start a new game company named Double Fine productions. He had previously worked with LucasArts on titles such as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, the Secret of Monkey Island and Full Throttle
Grim Fandango had an original soundtrack composed and produced by Peter McConnell at LucasArts and combines orchestral score, South American folk music, jazz, swing, and big band music. The soundtrack was released as a CD at the LucasArts store but is no longer available.
01 - Casino Calavera
02 - Swanky Maximino
03 - Smooth Hector
04 - Mr. Frustration Man
05 - Hector Steps Out
06 - Hi-Tone Fandango
07 - She Sailed Away
08 - High Roller
09 - Domino's in Charge
10 - Trouble with Carla
11 - Blue Casket Bop
12 - Manny's Office
13 - Rubacava
14 - Blue Hector
15 - This Elevator is Slow
16 - Domino
17 - Don Copal
18 - Neon Ledge
19 - Nuevo Marrow
20 - Gambling Glottis
21 - Raoul Appears
22 - Scrimshaw
23 - Talking Limbo
24 - Coaxing Meche
25 - Lost Souls' Alliance
26 - Los Angelitos
27 - The Enlightened Florist
28 - Temple Gate
29 - Ninth Heaven
30 - Compañeros
31 - Manny & Meche
32 - Bone Wagon
Alan Blumenfeld - Glottis
Maria Canals - Mercedes Colomar
Bill Capizzi - Maximino
Barry Dennen - Chief Bogen, Beat Waiter, and First Thunder Boy
Patrick Dollaghan - Domino Hurley
Barbara Goodson - Lola
Morgan Hunter - Toto Santos
Terri Ivens - Lupe
Milton James - Membrillo and Skinny Hitman
David Jeremiah - Aitor, Alexi, and Second Thunder Boy
Tom Kane - Raoul, Second Mayan Mechanic, Gatekeeper, and Cat Track Announcer
Paula Killen - Olivia Ofrenda
Kay E. Kuter - Dockmaster Velasco and Croupier
Katie Leigh - Bibi and Makeup Woman
Sal Lopez - Salvador Limones
Peter Lurie - Celso Flores and Slisko
Joe Nipote - Clown and Chowchilla Charlie
Daragh O'Malley - Nick Virago
Tony Plana - Manuel Calavera
Rachel Reenstra - Eva
Raphael Sbarge - Terry Malloy, First Mayan Mechanic, and Ensign Arnold
Pamela Segall - Carla and Pugsy
Michael Sorich - Don Copal and Tube-Switcher Repairman
Keith Szarabajka - Bowlsley and Unicycle Man
James Kevin Ward - Hector LeMans, Gunnar, and Doug
The actor who provided the voice of Eva, Rachel Reenstra, also appeared as the voice of Enrica Villablanca in Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
Grim Fandango is an adventure game released by Lucas Arts in 1998. It follows a travel agent for the Department of Death named Manny Calavera and his exploits battling corruption in the Land of the Dead.
Overview
Manuel "Manny" Calavera
Gameplay
Grim Fandango moves away from the point-and-click interface of the SCUMM engine that most earlier LucasArts adventure games used, and instead makes use of the GrimE engine that lets the player directly control the movement of the 3D-characters using the keyboard. As Manny walks around, his head will turn and his view will fix on certain key objects. The player may look at, pick up or interact with the object Manny is looking at using the keyboard (though only the interact key is actually necessary to finish the game). This system was appreciated for its cinematic qualities, but criticized for being inaccessible compared to the simple overview that is provided by a traditional point-and-click interface. Even though the control scheme and game-engine was new to the genre, the gameplay itself still revolved around the classic inventory-based puzzles that finds the player collecting and combining objects in the scenery in order to advance the storyline.Story
Glottis' Garage (concept art)
After sending the virtuous Mercedes "Meche" Colomar to a journey on foot, despite having lived the life of a saint, Manny starts to suspect that corruption has started to crawl deep into the Land of the Dead. Manny and his mechanic/sidekick, Glottis, set off on a quest to find Meche and set things right in the Land of the Dead. Their journey will take them to various locales in the Eighth Underworld: from the Edge of the World to slightly beyond.
Impact
While critically acclaimed, Grim Fandango was not a commercial success but did spawn a large fan base due to its witty dialogue and bizarre setting. It won several awards after its release in 1998 including IGN's "Best Adventure Game of the Year", GameSpot's "Best of E3 1998", "PC Game of the Year", "Best PC Graphics for Artistic Design" and "Best PC Game Music".The project leader, Tim Schafer, left LucasArts shortly after the release of the game to start a new game company named Double Fine productions. He had previously worked with LucasArts on titles such as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, the Secret of Monkey Island and Full Throttle
Soundtrack
Grim Fandango Soundtrack cover art
01 - Casino Calavera
02 - Swanky Maximino
03 - Smooth Hector
04 - Mr. Frustration Man
05 - Hector Steps Out
06 - Hi-Tone Fandango
07 - She Sailed Away
08 - High Roller
The Grim Fandango cast
10 - Trouble with Carla
11 - Blue Casket Bop
12 - Manny's Office
13 - Rubacava
14 - Blue Hector
15 - This Elevator is Slow
16 - Domino
17 - Don Copal
18 - Neon Ledge
19 - Nuevo Marrow
The Edge of the World - one of Grim Fandango's many strange other-worldly locations
21 - Raoul Appears
22 - Scrimshaw
23 - Talking Limbo
24 - Coaxing Meche
25 - Lost Souls' Alliance
26 - Los Angelitos
27 - The Enlightened Florist
28 - Temple Gate
29 - Ninth Heaven
30 - Compañeros
31 - Manny & Meche
32 - Bone Wagon
Voice Actors
Jack Angel - Bruno Martinez, Chepito, Large Hitman, and Seaman NaranjaAlan Blumenfeld - Glottis
Maria Canals - Mercedes Colomar
Bill Capizzi - Maximino
Barry Dennen - Chief Bogen, Beat Waiter, and First Thunder Boy
Patrick Dollaghan - Domino Hurley
Barbara Goodson - Lola
Morgan Hunter - Toto Santos
Terri Ivens - Lupe
Milton James - Membrillo and Skinny Hitman
David Jeremiah - Aitor, Alexi, and Second Thunder Boy
Tom Kane - Raoul, Second Mayan Mechanic, Gatekeeper, and Cat Track Announcer
Paula Killen - Olivia Ofrenda
Kay E. Kuter - Dockmaster Velasco and Croupier
Katie Leigh - Bibi and Makeup Woman
Sal Lopez - Salvador Limones
Peter Lurie - Celso Flores and Slisko
Joe Nipote - Clown and Chowchilla Charlie
Daragh O'Malley - Nick Virago
Tony Plana - Manuel Calavera
Rachel Reenstra - Eva
Raphael Sbarge - Terry Malloy, First Mayan Mechanic, and Ensign Arnold
Pamela Segall - Carla and Pugsy
Michael Sorich - Don Copal and Tube-Switcher Repairman
Keith Szarabajka - Bowlsley and Unicycle Man
James Kevin Ward - Hector LeMans, Gunnar, and Doug
Trivia
The actor who provided the voice of Glottis, Alan Blumenfeld, also appeared as the voice of The Milkman in Tim Shafer's Psychonauts.The actor who provided the voice of Eva, Rachel Reenstra, also appeared as the voice of Enrica Villablanca in Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
| Game Name | Grim Fandango |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
Add a new genre
|
| Themes | |
| Original US Release |
Oct. 30, 1998
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | |
| OFLC |
OFLC: G8+
|
| ESRB |
ESRB: T
|
| PEGI |
PEGI: 12+
|
Top 10 Adventure Games
a list of 10 items by dantebk
a list of 10 items by dantebk
I Came. I Saw. I Conquered.
a list of 67 items by FordFairlane
a list of 67 items by FordFairlane
PC
a list of 193 items by Bluepixie
a list of 193 items by Bluepixie
We don't have any info about Grim Fandango's franchise games.
