Grim Fandango Remastered

Grim Fandango Remastered brings one of the most acclaimed adventure games of all time to the handheld console. The protagonist Manny Calavera works as a travel agent in the land of the dead, selling the recently deceased packages for their four-year journey to eternal rest. When he discovers that someone is gaming the system and cheating honest souls out of their deserved ticket, he sets out to uncover the conspiracy. The result is a story that blends the Mexican Day of the Dead with the aesthetics of 1930s noir detective fiction, and it does so with such ease that the combination retroactively seems like the only possible one.

The gameplay is classic adventure fare: collecting items, combining them, talking to bizarre characters, and solving puzzles that rank among the most inventive as well as the toughest in the genre. The original release used direct character control, but the remaster thankfully added classic point-and-click controls too, which on PlayStation Vita means comfortable tapping right on the screen. It also added lighting, reworked character models, and the option to switch between the new and original graphics at any time, making it easy to see just how much work went into it.

On Vita's small screen the game works surprisingly well. The hand-painted backgrounds are crisp, touch controls cut down on fumbling, and the shorter chapters can be played in pieces. What still matters most is the music: the jazz and mariachi motifs rank among the best soundtracks in the genre's history, and the lead character's voice acting remains a textbook example. The remaster also added developer commentary that can be listened to while playing, discussing how individual scenes came together, which is reason enough on its own for genre fans to dive in. The original release from the nineties was not a commercial success, but critics ranked it among the pinnacles of adventure gaming, and the remaster brought it back into the spotlight. Today it's a mandatory stop for anyone who wants to know how far storytelling in adventure games can reach, though it's worth expecting some puzzles to demand a good deal of patience.