Game: “Grim Fandango”

Genre: Adventure, Mystery

Rating: Teen

Available for: PC

Perhaps one of LucasArts’ most acclaimed video games, “Grim Fandango” (first released in 1998), walked away with nearly all positive reviews and over 12 awards from various web sites such as Gamespot.com and the Imagine Games Network (ign.com).

It was the first game to use the “GrimE” graphics engine instead of the then-popular “SCUMM” engine. The major difference in the two engines is “GrimE’s” ability to create the appearance of three-dimensional objects in three-dimensional worlds.

The game takes place in the afterlife and unfolds in four chapters, each of which is set a year apart on El Dia de los Muertos--the Day of the Dead. The protagonist, a grim reaper named Manny Calavera, works as a travel agent for those traveling to the afterlife. His travel packages to the underworld vary depending on how good or evil the soul acted during life, and range from a four-minute trip on the “Number Nine” express train to a four-year walk through the Petrified Forest. However, Calavera (which appropriately means “skull” in Spanish) becomes suspicious when righteous souls are denied entry. His search for the truth sends him to the Ninth Underworld, the dead city of El Marrow, and even the End of the World.

The game has a distinct “Casablanca” feel to it, and many of the characters are Hispanic. Also, most of the characters smoke, and the game’s manual humorously mentions that everyone in the game who smokes is dead, and tells the reader to “think about it.”

There are rumors about a “Grim Fandango” movie, supposedly directed by Tim Burton; however, these are nothing more than rumors.