back to article Death becomes it: Grim Fandango Remastered

There’s no doubt that the gaming remaster is a strange beast. On the one hand we have the likes of a GTA V, which got the treatment in the space of a year. And, on the other hand, we've got Grim Fandango – a game that last saw release in the year Titanic blitzed the Oscars – which has just been released on PS4, PS Vita and …

  1. Rob

    Made my year...

    ... 'nuff said

  2. Khaptain Silver badge

    "No doubt it’s also why the genre died a death too, only to be replaced by the more user-friendly "Telltale Games" style episodic gaming in more recent years."

    Yup, I always like to believe that initially computers and the early games were played by people that were capable of thinking rationally ( even though some of the puzzles were a little unrational to say the least).

    Unfortunately the masses have to be catered for and the IQ levels appear to be far lower. Now it's either a "visual experience", ie lots of nice graphics but no gameplay or it is fire, fire, fire at anything that moves.

    I do follow the 0adventuregamers site from time to time hoping that a new Gabriel Knight, everyones favourite Schattenjäger, will appear. The last game I bought was "The vanishing of Ethan Carter" but it's slowness bored me to death, the 'trudgery' of walking around was painfull....

  3. Ironclad

    Family fun

    I played it and loved it. The wife played it and also enjoyed it.

    Might be time to try it on the kids.

  4. Valeyard

    nice

    Cross-saving between the vita and PS4? my wife's been hogging the tv to play it on the ps4 and owns a vita, I'll have to tell her about that one

  5. ratfox
    Pirate

    Hurray

    I rate this as the best adventure game I have ever played. Some moments are truly unforgettable!

    1. Captain Scarlet

      Re: Hurray

      This was truly one of the most under rated games ever, well it wasn't but still no idea why this didn't grab peoples attention more

  6. Andrew Moore
    Coat

    Optional Toast Reference...

    "Stephen, this is Grim Fandango, can you hear me?"

    1. Valeyard

      Re: Optional Toast Reference...

      Ha i kept thinking that everytime clem fandango spoke

  7. AbortRetryFail

    Grim Fandando was one of the few LucasArts adventures I never got round to playing. I think of everything they did, this and Sam & Max were the only two I've never played.

    I think I may have to rectify this.

  8. jason 7

    There was another game that came out a year earlier...

    ...that was claymation style. A tall thin alien type character who had a man eating plant in his living room. I remember myself and a mate playing the first level demo version on my new 150Mhz Windows 95 PC all those years ago. It was good fun but we never got round to getting the full version.

    Can't remember its name. Grrrr

    1. Valeyard

      Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

      "Neverhood"?

      claymation makes me think of that, there was talk of a kickstarter sequel, i know my wife backed it but can't remember if it hit the target

      1. Sarah Balfour

        Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

        Yep, that's the monkey! I bought it and, try as I might, I never managed to get into it. It wasn't the style, I liked that because it was something different, but I seem to recall it being completely illogical, and very linear and, like most adventure gamers, I find linear games frustrating in the extreme, because you really need to be psychic/clairvoyant to get anywhere. I can't think of any examples offhand, so I'll have to invent one, but say you get to a bridge, guarded by a troll who won't let you pass unless you give him the amulet in from the witch's cottage right back at the beginning, and now there's no way back because you had to destroy all the bridges to prevent being hunted down by the bridge troll's mates, and all you can do is start over and, when you DO start over, it takes 3hrs of searching to find the fucking thing! I hate pixel-hunting, too!

        I don't mind dying in a game, provided there's good reason, and it doesn't happen every time you stick your head around the door of a building you've not searched before. That gets pretty old, pretty fecking fast. There was a point towards the end of one of the Gabriel Knights (3 I think - it was the werewolf one, as I recall), where you had to perform a series of actions in exactly the right order, and with split-second precision timing, to ,kill the bad guy (who may - or may not - have been a werewolf by that point, look it was about the same time as GF, as I recall) and I remember one of the things was jumping from the middle of a revolving platform, onto a very thin ledge and, if you didn't get the timing exactly right, you fell into the abyss and that was that. I don't recall ever finishing that game, coz it was too frustrating.

        1. Valeyard

          Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

          I enjoyed the puzzles, but i once got to this library bit and started walking, after an hour i was still walking (well, i had something pressing the key down iirc), then it seemed like too much effort to go back! i do remember i tried another time and it crashed and corrupted my save :'(

          I might give it another go, but i was enjoying it quite a bit apart from that weird library place with it's endless text

      2. John Gamble

        Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

        "...there was talk of a kickstarter sequel, i know my wife backed it but can't remember if it hit the target"

        It did, it's called Armikrog, and it's in alpha testing now.

      3. jason 7

        Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

        Spot on!

        All comes back to me now. Ahhh yes, buying PC Format each month to get the patch updates and bits of software you needed because downloading a 20Mb DirectX update by 33.6 modem would have just been too much hassle.

        Good times!

        1. Mark Allen
          Devil

          Re: There was another game that came out a year earlier...

          20MB over a 33.6K modem... those were the days.

          Time to get the modem back out as this download is only 3.89GB!! I'll let some other poor soul work out how long that would take to download over your modem.

          Nice thing is they are releasing it via bittorrent making downloading a breeze

  9. TheProf
    Happy

    The old version

    I've recently been playing the original version and it looks good on my 24" widescreen monitor. I didn't think it needed any 'remastering' but it's nice to know that it's once again available to purchase.

    I'm one of those impatient people who wants to get on with the story so I've used a walk-through more often than a genuine puzzle fan would do. I'm full of admiration for people who can play the game without cheating.

    That said I still found the game frustrating. There's one part in the undersea section where one has to click a very small and far away item at exactly the right moment. Miss it and there's a (what seems like forever) wait until the object is in the right place again. That kind of 'picky' action tends to put me off a game.

    I go back to it occasionally because it looks good, sounds good, and it's funny.

    Now I want to give Starship Titanic another chance.

  10. peterkin
    Thumb Up

    More pleasse

    Would kill for a decent sequel,

  11. Graham 32

    It's worth pointing out the game has a brightness setting. It seems all those screenshots were taken with it as dark as possible. Turn it up a bit and you get to see the beautiful art deco scenery.

  12. DuncanL

    Tank controls?

    For those of us who never played the original, give us clue what this means and why it's bad? Ta.

    1. n0r0imusha
      Pint

      Re: Tank controls?

      Tank controls refers to a movement style in early third person perspective 3d games where the character is used as the point of reference when choosing which direction moves them forward.

      I have a pint to celebrate my epic skill of google-ing stuff

      1. Duffy Moon

        Re: Tank controls?

        I assumed it meant two joysticks like Battlezone. Oh well.

    2. auburnman

      Re: Tank controls?

      In traditional modern controls, pushing down on the controller makes the character walk toward the screen and up sends them into the background, left is left and right is right obviously. With tank controls, up and down are forward and reverse respectively and L and R rotate your character.

      It's a pain in the arse because walking a complex path goes from left-right-down-left-right to UP-ROTATE-UP-ROTATE-UP-ROTATE-UP-ROTATE-UP

    3. NumptyScrub

      Re: Tank controls?

      Like the original Resident Evil, where you press forwards to walk the direction your character is facing, push left to turn left etc. Most games these days instead map directions to cardinals (i.e. push the direction you want to go) rather than make them dependent on character facing.

  13. DrXym

    Still have the original in the cupboard

    I must see if I can get it going in ResidualVM.

  14. Lyndon Hills 1

    £12

    If the price quoted is correct, this is the cheapest non-phone game I've seen reviewed for ages.

    1. Groaning Ninny

      Re: £12

      Better than that - £9.29 at gog.com

      http://www.gog.com/game/grim_fandango_remastered

      1. Greg J Preece

        Re: £12

        Better than better than that if you live outside the UK. $15 in the US, and $16 in Canucksland. Was going to get it on PC, but if it has cross-play and I can play it in the living room with my roommate and ladyfriend to help out with the puzzles, I'm game. This time, just this once, I might betray the PC Master Race.

        Why no PS3 version, though?

      2. HAL-9000

        Re: £12

        £9.29 WTF That's a real bargain ... steam want £10.99 for it, may have to wait for weekend saaaales ...

        1. Vince Lewis 1

          Re: £12

          If you ever intend to share your life with anyone, Get it on gog.

          With gog you own your games

          With steam you may own the game but VALVe can choose if you get to play it.

  15. DropBear
    Paris Hilton

    Target demographic today even in (some) adventure games -->

    "No doubt it’s also why the genre died a death too, only to be replaced by the more user-friendly "Telltale Games" style episodic gaming in more recent years."

    Funny that, as I for one have no use for either "user-friendly" ("just keep clicking next, feel free to leave your brain in storage, we won't give you any choices that matter anyway") or "episodic" ("we can't be bothered to think up a properly epic Grand Adventure or any meaningful story progression for that matter, have fun with these five mini-monsters-du-jour - we'll throw in a level boss at the end for free, now bugger off") games. Oh, and the "remastered" GF...? Just give me the original one on GOG please - this one I'll pass. To be honest, I'm much more excited about Ron Gilbert's upcoming strictly-8-bit-look Thimbleweed Park than any modern Lucasian 'prettifying' attempts...

  16. Dabooka
    Go

    At least my avatar might get more recongition

    for it's been Mr Fandango for years. Actually in hindsight I think I'd prefer it to stay unknown to all but those that 'know' :-)

  17. monkeyfish

    Tablet version?

    Any news on an iOS or Android version? Seems like a tablet would be the natural home for point-n-click games these days... Albeit prod-n-swipe.

  18. toughluck

    Just be sure not to rely on one [walkthrough] utterly, as otherwise you’ll beat the game without any of those "Eureka!" moments of satisfaction.

    Funny, I don't think people had "Eureka" moments in the E.T. game (yeah, that one) when they managed to get out of the pits.

    And "Eureka" moments in adventure games in the olden days usually went like: "combine this broken metal rod with that plastic bottle in order to create a thingamajig that will combine with that torn piece of clothing which you then give to the king who will give you a cart full of dirt to take to the wizard".

    Not in the least logical and if you didn't buy the official guide (usually about the price of the boxed game release!), you needed to hope for your games magazine would print tips for the game you're stuck with and that they would include that specific location and not the ones you guessed.

    Eureka? Fat chance. More like sheer frustration.

    1. Teiwaz

      > And "Eureka" moments in adventure games in the olden days usually went like: "combine this broken metal rod with that plastic bottle in order to create a thingamajig that will combine with that torn piece of clothing which you then give to the king who will give you a cart full of dirt to take to the wizard".

      Ah, you've played one of the Discworld Games then?

      I'm sorely tempted by Grim Fandango, I played through it so much I think the solutions are all still tucked away in long term memory on quite well worn in mental pathways, wouldn't take me long to play through. Oh, go on then, says the pleasure centre to the wallet hand.

      Me too for Starship Titanic. Very weird, very great, slightly disturbing and weird.

      Lure of the Temptress, hmm.

      1. Cronus
        Happy

        Dang now I want to play Lure of the Temptress!

  19. Stretch

    ohohoh thank you for alerting me to this. I tried to get the original working via various means a while ago.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Loved Grim Fandango...

    I miss these sorts of adventure games. I loved Grim Fandango so will have to try this out.

    Equally love the older ScummVM games like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road. If only they get remastered at some point too.

  21. thomas k.

    Hmm ...

    Grim Fandango was the only Lucas Arts game I ever played, must have come in towards their end. I played a ton of Sierra adventures though.

  22. Dana W

    I can finally finish it, and I can finish it on my Mac! Happy day.

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