I think I must have been a weird child. There’s not much other explanation why a cover for a video game, 
which featured a skeleton in a tuxedo smoking a cigarette with the tagline “an epic tale of crime and corruption in the land of the dead”, appealed to me. But I’m glad it did, because it turned out to be one of the best games I ever bought. With the comedy genius Tim Shafer writing the dialogue, Grim Fandango is a witty tale involving Manny Calavera, a travel agent at the Department of Death. The DoD helps recently departed souls make their way to the resting place of the Ninth Underworld.
Manny, being an mediocre salesman, only has clients who are sinners and therefore unable to afford expensive travel packages. So, he decides to steal a client, Meche Colomar, whom he believes has lead a sinless life. Manny realises that something is wrong when Meche also gets granted the basic package, and so begins a journey to get to the murky bottom of the dealings of The Land of the Dead, and save Meche from the clutches of the criminal underworld. The game has a definite film noir feel, with its saxophone-tinged soundtrack and dark comedy, yet the design is 1930s Art Deco, splashed with beautiful Aztec folklore motifs that rightfully won Grim Fandango an award for “Best PC Graphics for Artistic Design”.
Too many games nowadays concentrate on fast paced set pieces to suck gamers into their world, but this stunningly original game uses supposedly old-fashioned ideas such as well-defined characters and plot to make gamers care about the world that they are in. Grim Fandango was named the best game of 1998 along with Half Life, and whilst the latter is in some senses original, does it contain an obese orange demon that works as a mechanic called Glottis? Not the last time I checked, and for that and many, many other reasons, Grim Fandango will always have a place in my heart.