What a year for games 1998 was. Grim Fandango, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Half-Life, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft.
Grim Fandango
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Re: Grim Fandango
#22What a year for games 1998 was. Grim Fandango, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Half-Life, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft.
Don't forget Gex: Enter the Geko!
Re: Grim Fandango
#23This review is pretty dead (hah) on. I’d been trying to crack Grim, off-and-on, basically ever since it came out; each time I was foiled by the clumsy interface and inscrutable game design. It’s not as player hostile as the old Sierra adventures but it sure comes close.
Finally I caved and watched a longplay on YT, and I have no real regrets. Great game, but that’s probably the best way to play it. Life’s too short.
Re: Grim Fandango
#24Even with a guide, I still had no idea what the hell I was doing with that train puzzle.
Re: Grim Fandango
#25I think one understated problem Grim Fandango had is that it's too adult. Today "adult" often means "there's sex and/or gore", but the content is still simple and juvenile. But Grim Fandango isn't like that, it's just full of themes that probably confused the heck out of almost every kid that tried to play it. Like the very first chapter throws you right into office politics. You deal with stealing a job from another…
That's a really interesting perspective. I grew up around when adventure games were popular, and I learned a lot about the grown-up world (and in fact, American world) through adventure games. Sam and Max had so much Americana that, playing as a non-American, got me into the deep cuts of American culture. I think a lot of it was contextual. I didn't get all the references at first (e.g. who's John Muir for instance),…
I got completely stuck in the Beavis and Butthead adventure game when one of the voice acted characters told me to get a "vee-hickul". As a teenager sitting at my family PC in London, I had no idea what the hell the Texan (?) was saying. Only several years later would I figure it out.
The only other thing I remember from that game is the hock-a-loogie minigame, which I mastered. I wonder if my parents had any idea what I was up to on the computer?
Re: Grim Fandango
#26I think one understated problem Grim Fandango had is that it's too adult. Today "adult" often means "there's sex and/or gore", but the content is still simple and juvenile. But Grim Fandango isn't like that, it's just full of themes that probably confused the heck out of almost every kid that tried to play it. Like the very first chapter throws you right into office politics. You deal with stealing a job from another…
I'm about the same age but personally I had the opposite experience. For me it was refreshing to play something more mature, more 'intellectual', even if I'm sure a lot of the jokes washed over me.
Re: Grim Fandango
#27I think one understated problem Grim Fandango had is that it's too adult. Today "adult" often means "there's sex and/or gore", but the content is still simple and juvenile. But Grim Fandango isn't like that, it's just full of themes that probably confused the heck out of almost every kid that tried to play it. Like the very first chapter throws you right into office politics. You deal with stealing a job from another…
Here's the thing - I remember playing it as a kid and so many things, arguably most of it, went way over my head: the whole travel agent thing and getting ahead in the office, dia de los muertos, the references to noir, the weird but gorgeous mexican art deco combo, I knew nothing about any of it. But I still loved every second of it. It made the world feel very rich and real even if I didn't fully get it, in a way that other games around the time just were not.
Also this is not too dissimilar to how adult life that surrounds every child is to a child. You're sort of used to living in a world that has workings beyond your comprehension and just going along with it. I didn't get what exactly was going on but I did understand /something/ was.
I'm listening to a review of The Great Mouse Detective (1986) which has a similar ethos, as did other content targeting young people from that era. Also I recall picking up books as a kid that were certainly not meant for children and adults back then didn't even blink, and I think it stoked my curiosity and interests and pushed the boundaries of my understanding, as well as prepared me for growing up. I don't think I ended up being a worse person or being traumatized in any way. Part of me wonders if kids' content being much more sanitized these days is a mistake.
Re: Grim Fandango
#28I think one understated problem Grim Fandango had is that it's too adult. Today "adult" often means "there's sex and/or gore", but the content is still simple and juvenile. But Grim Fandango isn't like that, it's just full of themes that probably confused the heck out of almost every kid that tried to play it. Like the very first chapter throws you right into office politics. You deal with stealing a job from another…
This is a great assessment that I never realized until you said it. There are so many games from that era that I played that fit that mold. I was playing Leisure Suit Larry as a 10 year old! I can’t imagine parents these days letting their kids play that at all!
My parents couldn't understand enough English to really get why I shouldn't be playing Larry (almost all the screens are just fine) and I was too young to understand the actual theme. Perfect combination...
Kind of like Police Quest 1 too. Although it did teach me to type "use handcuffs" fast enough. Also the spelling of "briefcase" and other longer words.
Re: Grim Fandango
#29Yes, I can hear you, Grim Fandango.
Re: Grim Fandango
#30An excellent game for its time. The remaster is well worth it. One unfortunate aspect of classic games is how dated mechanics can get. It’s a problem that music or movies don’t really have, besides maybe feeling a bit cliché. In the case of Grim Fandango, the tank controls are a bit awkward, some puzzles are actually quite difficult and require logic that would only make sense to a point and click adventure gamer fro…
Those point-and-click puzzles never felt like anything but time fillers to me. It's interesting to think about the "could have beens" of Western visual novels instead, or at least Telltale-style story games.