This post is just note to myself to document the video games I have finished.

22/08/2025 Grim Fandango

This summer I bought a Nintendo Switch 2 with the money I received as part of a Silver Star I was awarded at work. I have never had a recent first generation console, rather tended to always come across one well after the prime, so it was quite cool getting the Switch 2 within a month of its launch. And the first game I played on the first generation 2025 console? A game released 27 years ago in 1989: Grim Fandango. Talk about aging well. This game is amazing, and I can only imagine the stir it caused 27 years ago. Wait, I do not have to imagine the stir, because my brother highly recommended it to me at the time, and he even gave me a pirated copy, that I never quite got around to playing. So when I fired up the Nintendo Store and saw it on sale for 3.24€ and could not resist. And I have been enjoying the Switch 2, especially the option to go mobile tremendously (seriously Nintendo rocks, what a genius idea).

When not mobile, I was playing using an old Panasonic TH-37PX60EH Plasma TV that must be from 2006 or so that was not in use at my mother in laws house on the northern coast of spain (I think my father in law had bought it mostly for football games (read soccer by Americans)). I was really surprised to learn even had HDMI so connecting it was plug and play (I had thought it had a SCART connector).

I finished Grim Fandango in a couple weeks, but due to no credit of my own, but of copious use of walk-throughs. I really take my hat of to anyone who finished this game on their own. Even with the walk-through there were times it took me a while to figure things out. Amazing story, amazing artwork, amazing voice work, and really amazing animation, especially for 1997 and the Pentium 133 the game was designed for.

I just read this part of the Wikipedia article about the game, what a pity:

Grim Fandango received praise for its art design and direction. It was selected for several awards and is often listed as one of the greatest video games of all time. However, it was a commercial failure and contributed towards LucasArts’ decision to end adventure game development and the decline of the adventure game genre.

Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback or comments via email (andrew@jupiterstation.net).