Throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s, LucasArts established itself as the forefront developer for narrative adventure video games. One of the all-time greats in their extensive catalog celebrates its 20th anniversary this month: Grim Fandango.

The game first released on October 28, 1998, for Windows PC, and was notably the first LucasArts game to use 3D graphics on top of prerendered backgrounds – a look that would become dominant in various genres throughout that era. Players control Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the Land of the Dead, where souls try to continue on to the Land of Eternal Rest. Manny is stuck working in the Land of the Dead in order to pay off a debt; his latest client is Meche Colomar, who he learns is the latest victim of a scam being run by the criminal underground in order to prevent people from ever making it to the Land of Eternal Rest. Manny must rescue Meche and both must find their way out of the Land of the Dead while avoiding the various dangers that would prevent them from doing so.

Grim Fandango received critical acclaim, particularly for its unique visual style as well as for its storytelling. The characters in the game are all modeled after traditional Mexican calaca figures that are used to celebrate the Day of the Dead, which gave Grim Fandango a uniquely stylized look to it. The film noir style of storytelling also provided a different kind of feel to the game, which helped make it stand out among others in the adventure game genre.

The game won a number of awards in the time following its initial release, and is considered one of the best adventure games of all time. However, commercially speaking, Grim Fandango underperformed – ultimately selling only about half of what the previous LucasArts adventure, Full Throttle, was able to move. Though it was profitable, the sharp downturn in sales despite the universal critical acclaim meant that Grim Fandango would be one of the last adventure titles that LucasArts would ever produce; the studio cancelled sequels to Sam & Max Hit the Road and Full Throttle, though many former development team members would later continue working on this genre of game for other studios.

An updated edition of the game, Grim Fandango Remastered, was released in 2015, for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and iOS.