Born for Wii: Grim Fandango

by Wesley Fenlon { Nov 4th 2008 at 1:38PM }

If spending your existence selling travel packages to the dregs of society sounds like a peculiar form of Hell, that's because it is -- quite literally. For Manny Calavera, life-after-death in the Land of the Dead is little more than a series of disappointing clients and missed opportunities. But things are astir at the Department of Death. Strange things. On the Day of the Dead, Manny finds his life as an indentured travel agent in serious jeopardy -- but could hope lie in the saintly (and recently deceased) Mercedes Colomar?

Released in 1998, Grim Fandango was an inspired capstone to an era of PC gaming. Though Lucasarts published Escape from Monkey Island in 2000, Grim Fandango represents the last truly great adventure game from the company. Like far too many of its point-and-click brethren, Fandango failed to sell as many copies as it deserved. Few games can match the sheer originality and style Tim Schafer crafted -- a comedy noir set in the Land of the Dead with a Mexican motif is like nothing else out there. In honor of its recent 10th anniversary and place in gaming history, Grim Fandango is this week's game that's Born for Wii.

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Gallery: Born for Wii: Grim Fandango

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Eternal Darkness, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

Tags: adventure, born-for-wii, grim fandango, grim-fandango, GrimFandango, joystiqfeatures, lucasarts, point-and-click, port, tim-schafer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MrTyzik @ Nov 4th 2008 2:03PM

Jebus, that was an awesome game! I'd love for a Play On Wii version. They should expand that series to include more than Gamecube titles.

Hardy @ Nov 4th 2008 2:32PM

YES!!!!!

I would pay 30 bucks for that game on the Wii, I'd pay more if they added content.

I'd pay even more if they completely redid the whole thing in 3d with a free roaming camera, and let me drive around the city or something just for fun.

But seriously, this should be on the Wii.

Peter S @ Nov 4th 2008 2:48PM

I think I'd tend to agree - this is a great game and would port well to the Wii. It would even fit on one disc instead of 4 CD's. :) Of course, there are so many older adventure games that would work well on the Wii, just like on the DS. This just happens to be one of the better ones available. I also agree with the comparison between this and the latter Monkey Island games. This was definitely one of the best LucasArts releases.

Wesley Fenlon @ Nov 4th 2008 5:24PM

Somebody else already said it, but yeah, it was only a 2 disc game. Even a four disc game would fit on a DVD, though, so there would definitely be plenty of room. 1.5 gigs is probably beyond the size we'll ever see on the Shop channel, unfortunately.

Peter S @ Nov 4th 2008 5:30PM

:P Must have gotten it confused with a different adventure game. It's been a while since I loaded it up. And with the various US Broadband companies now looking at usage caps/pay for overage, I'm not sure I'd want a 1.5 GB download at that point.

Of course, we'd need download direct to SD card to make this work in that case.

DaIllest @ Nov 4th 2008 3:11PM

Great game, one of my favourites.

That jazzy soundtrack, that style and that noir feeling made Grim Fandango a truly outstanding game. The story was nice and the humor was on point.

It NEEDS to get back to life (no pun intended).

Sisyphus @ Nov 4th 2008 3:49PM

This is definitely one of my favorite games, possibly numero uno. Great story, unique setting, great sense of humor, stylish graphics.

Marcelo @ Nov 4th 2008 3:55PM

In my opinion this is the single best story-driven PC game of all time. I'd love to see a version on Wii.

Miranda @ Nov 4th 2008 4:28PM

I would buy a full-on Wii game of "Grim Fandango" -- the $50, buy-it-at-Best-Buy kind. I loved this game. I still have my copy but I can't imagine it would play in Windows Vista. This is one of the best games of all time, IMO.

Wesley Fenlon @ Nov 4th 2008 5:22PM

You should be able to run it on Vista. See here:

http://www.grim-fandango.com/compatibility.php

danny. @ Nov 4th 2008 4:30PM

It would have been perfect timing too... check out the grim fandango 10 year reunion party article at Doublefine.com

Lucky @ Nov 4th 2008 4:34PM

Ah, Grim Fandango. The most overrated best adventure game ever made. I remember reading somewhere that it actually did sell pretty well on the long run, which makes Lucasarts look even worse than it actually is.

...and it was on 2 CDs, not 4 like someone said.