One of the greatest adventure games ever made, with inimitable writing and world. Some puzzles have aged and the controls remain imperfect, but the charm, humor and beauty of the world remain intact.
Your verdict
Category
Adventure1 player12+
Description
A remaster of Tim Schafer's cult adventure, published by Double Fine on Switch in 2020. Manny Calavera, a travel agent for the souls of the Land of the Dead, gets caught up in a conspiracy over a four-year journey. Art-deco visuals and Mexican folklore, brilliant writing and point-and-click puzzles compose a timeless classic of the adventure genre.
Grim Fandango Remastered review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
MAX
Story
★★★★★
"Masterful"
The art-deco world crossed with the Mexican folklore of the Day of the Dead is one of the most beautiful ever imagined for a game. Elegant skeletons, angular architecture, film-noir moods: every setting is a postcard, elevated by the remaster's smoothing.
Peter McConnell's jazz-swing and big-band score is inseparable from the game's art-deco world. Its moods blending film noir and Mexican folklore give the Land of the Dead a unique soul, and the remaster records it with a live orchestra.
The writing is among the finest in the adventure genre: a film noir laced with Mexican folklore, with dialogue of constant wit and elegance. The plot of corruption in the afterlife, carried by an unforgettable Manny, is a model of interactive storytelling.
Is Grim Fandango Remastered still worth playing in 2026?
This remaster of a peak of the adventure game makes accessible on Switch one of the genre's greatest masterpieces, whose writing and art-deco world remain unmatched. Years on, its humor, characters and visual splendor keep dazzling. As point-and-click enjoys renewed interest, discovering Manny Calavera is a rite of passage for any fan of the medium. On Switch, the adventure is best savored in chapters, settled in comfortably for long evenings.
