5. Grim Fandango
Sticking with Lucas Arts again, we move onto the hugely popular Grim Fandango. It was a close call between it and Sam & Max, but Grim got the nod due to the originality of its setting. Written by the now veteran Tim Schafer who brought a dark comedy approach to the style of the game. In a new move for Lucas Arts games, it became the first of theirs to use 3D graphics on static backgrounds. Again, all the staples of the genre were present. Great humour and writing, brilliant game design and clever puzzles. Fandango benefitted from being able to take all the best bits from the previous Lucas Arts titles and put them together to make one of the best point and click games ever. You control Manny, an employee of the Department of Death who finds Travel Packages for incoming souls and helps them get to their final reward. The game follows his being tasked with selling a Premium package or be faced with losing his job. The puzzles you face are sometimes big and complex but at no point overwhelming. Fandango is a lesson in design work, with a unique game world and a wide variety of places to travel and an art style highly influenced by the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico. Some consider Grim Fandango the best of the Lucas Arts series of adventure games and while that is debatable it is definitely up there with the greatest.