Welcome to the R/R/R Files, where we look at whether or not an older title should be re-released, remade, or rejected. Last week saw Tim Schafer make headline news with his Kickstarter program for a brand new Point-and-Click Adventure game that would be developed by Double Fine and feature the talents of Ron Gilbert and Tim at the creative helm. A truly exciting proposition that was funded over $1.8m within a week! So in tribute to a possible return to a classic genre for the team at Double Fine and members of the former powerhouses at LucasArts, I thought of no better way than to look at probably the best of the lot.

Case #008 – Grim Fandango

Game Information

Original platform – PC (’98)

Trivia

• Grim Fandango was the one of the last LucasArts adventure games to be released before the company decided not to create any more in favour of Star Wars games, due to market trends.
• Grim Fandango takes inspiration from both the film noir genre and ancient Mayan ideas about the afterlife. Dead humans appear as Calaca statues.
• The dialogue is littered with Mexican Spanish in certain parts of sentences spoken by characters, giving the game a “Spanglish” feel.

What is Grim Fandango Like?

Allow me to indulge for a moment dear reader, as this game is the prime example of how to do an adventure game right. The first rule with any adventure game is to create a hook to draw in a player, which means creating a world and the normality for that character and then shattering it with what is known in the film industry as an “inciting incident”. For Manny Calavera, the normality is that he is doomed for eternity to sell travel packages for the recently deceased in the Land of the Dead. He decides to take a client from his rival salesman who he is sure to be guaranteed a trip on the Number Nine Train, only to find she isn’t eligible. It isn’t until he sends her on her way that he discovers a conspiracy devised by his boss to allow coveted tickets to the Double N Train to go to a boss of a criminal underworld.

Taking a demon driver called Glotis on the road, Manny’s four year journey of salvation to rescue the dame will see him pass through many locations that are not only unique, but a pleasure to experience. If there is one thing that Grim Fandango doesn’t quite get right is that it is ever so slightly buggy when it comes to lifts, but it gets it perfect in the core mechanics of providing an adventure game that gets theme, setting and gameplay down to a tee. Other games of the genre were fantastic, especially those created by Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, but this was the one that stuck with me most.

Legacy

Critically, the game would be met with undisputed and resounding praise. A look on Metacritic would show that the game is universally loved by the critics that appear on there, with the lowest score being a perfectly respectable 87%. PC Gamer would proclaim that the game is “a sure bet for the adventure crowd and anyone who appreciates a great story”. But critical praise meant that this game, like quite a few after it, wouldn’t sell well at all. Global sales figures could be estimated between 100,000 and 500,000 units. Reasons for this would be that adventure games were not selling well generally. Even a fourth Monkey Island couldn’t reverse the fortunes of the genre, which ultimately led to LucasArts to cease any production of adventure games – thus killing the genre for the time being.

It wasn’t until years later that Telltale Games would revive the genre in a more episodic form with the first series of Sam & Max. The success would mean that other long forgotten adventure games would see a revival, such as both HD remakes of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Even Steam would see re-releases of a few beloved adventure games such as Loom and The Dig.

How easy would it be to port?

In order to take the game seriously, a re-release would mean that the game would require going over with a fine comb to fix any bugs that would hamper the games performance. Lifts opening and closing randomly were a problem, but crashing to Windows is just unforgivable in this day and age. There also is a question of where you should port the game to and up-scaling the visual details.

Re-release/Remake/Reject

As this is one of my favourite games of all time, I’m not going to even contemplate reject at all. The question lies in whether to merely touch up the visuals and leave it at that, or rebuild it from the ground up and insert the dialogue/music into a fully re-mastered edition. As it is, the game still holds up today on its own two legs to a point with the production values rivalling more recent games of the genre.

But then we live in a world where control is key to our gaming experience. The original PC version was coupled with some rather awkward Resident Evil style controls that even that franchise have long since scrapped. The bugs that caused lifts to not open and the crash to Windows buys are also slightly hard to justify the detective work involved. As for the sound, there is no point in redoing perfection. One listen to the soundtrack and voice acting will tell you that it is hard to imagine anyone else doing it. It’s like using a different cast to voice the Monkey Island games. So to sum up; re-create the vast majority of the game and refine the controls for all audiences, but leave the sound as it is!

Verdict

Remake

What do you think though, should Grim Fandango be re-released, remade or rejected?