History YMMV / GrimFandango

** The replacement of the [=SCUMM=] point and click control and inventory system for the new did not sit well with adventure fans. The tank like movement was awkard and, considering the camera for each scene was fixed, walking onto a new set would mean you’d need to orientate yourself all afresh. Tim Schafer recognized the shortcomings and years later would contact Tobias Pfaff - who created a fan-made point-and-click modification - to obtain access to his code and finally incorporate it into the remastered version.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some faithful ''Grim Fandango'' fans were annoyed by the removal of some sound cues (especially with Bruno's scenes), the unnecessary 360 panning around Olivia, as she reads the "Grim Fandango" poem (which showed that she was never meant to be seen from some angles), and the end credits music, was changed.

** TheyChangedItNowItSucks: On the other hand, some faithful ''Grim Fandango'' fans were annoyed by the removal of some sound cues (especially with Bruno's scenes), the unnecessary 360 panning around Olivia, as she reads the "Grim Fandango" poem (which showed that she was never meant to be seen from some angles), and the end credits music, was changed.

* AssPull: While it's relatively minor and has little impact on the actual plot, the revelation that [[spoiler:Hell actually exists]] comes almost completely out of nowhere, since up until that point, we were led to believe that [[spoiler: the worst punishment an immoral person can serve in this universe]] is working away your debt (presumably, the worse you were, the more work you have to do) and then walking four years to get to heaven. Then again, it's never directly identified as [[spoiler:Hell in the "opposite of heaven" sense, and could just be a special part of the Eighth Underworld that's miserable and bars you from heaven for whatever length of time if ThePowersThatBe decide you're beyond redemption.]]

* BrokenBase: The remastered version. In one camp, you have the fans who dislike it due to any number of reasons (mainly the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks changes]], or [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks lack thereof]]), argue that it did the game a disservice and, in some cases, [[AccentuateTheNegative won't even give the game a positive review on Steam or PlayStation Network despite actually liking the game]]. In the other, you have the fans who are just happy the game got re-released at all, finally freeing it from KeepCirculatingTheTapes and making it much more accessible to a new generation of gamers.
* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Hector LeMans]] is behind the corruption in the Department of Death. Having infiltrated the [=DoD=], Hector steals the Number Nine tickets, the fastest way to get to the Land of Eternal Rest, from the souls of the righteous and counterfeits them, knowing that whoever uses them is [[DraggedOffToHell plunged into Hell]]. The righteous souls are then left to wander the Land of the Dead until they're eventually kidnapped while traversing the ocean and sent to a factory owned by Hector at the Edge of the World to be [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil eternally enslaved]]. Hector then uses [[FateWorseThanDeath sprouting]], a way to [[CessationOfExistence permanently kill those already dead]], by firing special plant bullets into the skeletal body, spreading until the victim is nothing more than an empty husk filled with flowers. Hector murders hundreds with this method, and keeps their bodies as a field of flowers in his hideout; he also preserves the corpses of his victims as trophies. In the climax, Hector has Salvador's body sprouted and his head removed for questioning, and he shoots protagonist Manuel "Manny" Calavera with a slow-acting Sproutella.

** Bruno Martinez, a short angry man who gets ''mailed'' to the Ninth Underworld, has exactly three scenes, and steals the show each time.

** The disturbing connotations that flowers have in the land of the dead is extremely fitting for a world inspired by Mexican traditions. To the Aztecs, flowers were a metaphor for blood, as in the vital fluid of the living. Flowers were also often used symbolically to represent the lives of people and symbolic sacrifices of these flowers occured.

* HilariousInHindsight: With Creator/LucasArts now being owned by Creator/{{Disney}}, the release of Creator/{{Pixar}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', a movie about the Day of the Dead, may create some comparisons. Said movie also has a skeleton named Hector (spelled Héctor in ''Coco''), but he's the {{deuteragonist}} and definitely a good guy, while this game's Hector is the BigBad.

** Also, it was pointed that many files from the original games were lost and making them from scratch was hard, especially the pre-rendered backgrounds that they probably lost the original 3D models and couldn't pre-render them again, and changing the game from a 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 would need several changes, since the game used fixed cameras, and it was argued that ''Grim Fandango'' was a commercial failure in its original release and they couldn't spend much on the re-release since it could suffer the same fate.
** TheyChangedItNowItSucks: On the other hand, some faithful ''Grim Fandango'' fans were annoyed by the removal of some sound cues (especially with Bruno's scenes), the unnecessary 360 pan around Olivia as she reads the "Grim Fandango" poem (which showed that she was never meant to be seen from some angles), and the end credits music was changed.

** The inventory system which has you scroll through your items one at a time with an animation between each that takes a couple of seconds.
** The control scheme on the whole has been widely criticized, especially as time has gone on. Despite the fact that it still uses the same basic mechanics as any other past [=LucasArts=] adventure game, the point-and-click control scheme was completely discarded in favor of character control. So rather than using a context sensitive cursor, you have to manually move the player character around the world and look for things to examine. Many a player will also spend a good chunk of time trying to remember what keys (or, if you're using a controller, buttons) do what action, something that was quite intuitively done in past games with the simple use of verbs or icons. The control scheme is pretty clearly an artifact of the experimental era of 3D games, and its problems became even more glaring when [[VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland their next (and last) adventure game]] lacked the powerful story to help make it forgivable. Some even go so far to say the inclusion of point-and-click controls in the remaster is enough to make it far superior to the original, as it removes the one major qualm most had.

** The Department of Death itself, implied to be a huge government of some sort that Manny's office is part of, has surprisingly small role in the main story. Given that many lives of the innocent are on the stake, you might expect the game at least hints at how the villains are hiding their scheme under its nose, but that rarely becomes a plot point. The ending has [[spoiler:Manny getting issued a Number Nine ticket by the company for all the good deeds he did]], but even that one happens offscreen.
** In the Year 3, we get to see trapped souls at the edge of the Underworld who are practically held as prisoners, [[spoiler:and the exprience Manny shares with them is what ultimately turns him into BigDamnHero, determined to save not just Meche, but everyone who got their tickets stolen.]] Despite its importance, the major plot in the Year 3 is more concerned about escaping from the island, and the final act quickly pushes the characters to background. It's not bad, but it's a letdown when comparing it to how the Year 2 introduced memorable side characters excellently weaved together with Manny's quest.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Bibi, one of the two children working for Domino in Year 3, is a girl. Good luck figuring this out on your own, though; her name doesn't lend itself either way, she has no hair or TertiarySexualCharacteristics to speak of, her voice could easily pass as that of a pre-pubescent boy, her personality and clothes aren't much different from her brother, Pugsy's, and there is no dialogue that refers to her as "she". Spanish speakers, on the other hand, would know that Bibi is short for "Bibiana", a popular girl's name.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The very first image you see when you boot up the game is a LogoGag where the Golden Man in the Creator/LucasArts logo turns into a skeleton. Now that the company has gone belly-up, it's almost laughable how fitting it is, but still painful to any long-time fans.

* UncannyValley: The demented collage that is the World of the Living is a seemingly intentional example.

* CompleteMonster: [[ItsAllAboutMe Hector LeMans]] is [[BigBad behind]] the corruption in the Department of Death. Having infiltrated the [=DoD=], Hector steals the Number Nine tickets, the fastest way to get to the Land of Eternal Rest, from the souls of the righteous and counterfeits them, knowing that whoever uses them is [[DraggedOffToHell plunged into Hell]]. The righteous souls are then left to wander the Land of the Dead until they're eventually kidnapped while traversing the ocean and sent to a factory owned by Hector at the Edge of the World to be [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil eternally enslaved]]. Hector then uses [[FateWorseThanDeath sprouting]], a way to [[CessationOfExistence permanently kill those already dead]], by firing special plant bullets into the skeletal body, spreading until the victim is nothing more than an empty husk filled with flowers. Hector murders hundreds with this method, and keeps their bodies as a [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses field of flowers in his hideout]]; he also preserves the corpses of his victims as [[CreepySouvenir trophies]]. In the climax, Hector has Salvador's body sprouted and his head removed for questioning, and he shoots protagonist Manuel "Manny" Calavera with a slow-acting Sproutella.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Hector LeMans]] is the man behind the corruption in the Department of Death. Hector has infiltrated the [=DoD=] and stolen the Number Nine tickets, the fastest way to get to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence the Land of Eternal Rest]], from the souls of the righteous and counterfeits them knowing that anyone who uses one is [[DraggedOffToHell plunged into hell's fiery depths]]. Meanwhile, the righteous souls Hector stole them from are left to wander the Land of the Dead until they're eventually kidnapped while traversing the ocean and sent to the coral mining factory owned by Hector at the Edge of the World to be eternally enslaved so as to prevent Hector's misdeeds from coming to light. The most evil thing Hector has done is the commission of sprouting, a way to [[CessationOfExistence permanently kill those already dead]]; the sprouting involves special plant bullets that are fired into the skeletal body, growing and spreading until the victim is completely overrun and is nothing more than an empty husk filled with flowers. Hector as capitalized on this, murdering hundreds, keeping their bodies as a field of flowers [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses upon which he builds his hideout]], and even has a greenhouse where preserves the corpses of his victims and tends to them as trophies of all who dare cross him. By the game's end he has Salvador's body sprouted and his head removed for questioning and shoots Manny with a slow-acting Sproutella which will keep him alive in agony for hours before eventually killing him. Despite all the pain and misery he's caused in the Land of the Dead, Hector doesn't care, as he merely wants to live like a king before using the stolen tickets to bribe his way into heaven.