Escape from Monkey Island wins this for me. Warm, colourful, inviting, lovely hand drawn art. I find the Grim box surprisingly unpleasant - the bland 3D models, awkward composition with too much spacing yet still weirdly crushed together, terrible background. The title font is also bare as hell, no life (ha) to it.
This post was last modified: 01-24-2026, 02:47 PM by LeftHandedGuitarist.
With bony hands I hold my partner,
on soulless feet we cross the floor,
the music stops as if to answer,
an empty knocking at the door.
It seems his skin was sweet as mango,
when last I held him to my breast,
but now, we dance this grim fandango,
and will four years until we rest.
I'll go with Grim Fandango
on soulless feet we cross the floor,
the music stops as if to answer,
an empty knocking at the door.
It seems his skin was sweet as mango,
when last I held him to my breast,
but now, we dance this grim fandango,
and will four years until we rest.
I'll go with Grim Fandango
This post was last modified: 01-24-2026, 03:29 PM by srnickolas.
It's a little hard to disassociate the art from the games here, as well as from the associated memories. Grim Fandango's box art isn't very good, especially in a time when we're no longer impressed by what are now viewed as rudimentary 3d character models. However, I distinctly remember our family going to EB Games in the mall and buying it off the shelf when it was still a fresh new game, something which we rarely did. Since then, the box art has become somewhat iconic, solely by virtue of being attached to what is by many (not me) considered to be one of the best adventure games of all time.
Escape From Monkey Island, on the other hand, is an average example of box art layout, but a fine example of hand drawn box art. Ironically, the actual character models in that game look even worse than the ones in Grim Fandango. On a blind box-art-based buy, I'd purchase Monkey Island before Grim Fandango 8 out of 10 times (Grim has the tag line about betrayal and corruption in the land of the dead, which would get my money every now and then). However, with the...not benefit, but experience of hindsight, Grim is obviously the infinitely superior game.
But this is a Box Art tournament, so despite the nostalgic childhood memories of buying and playing Grim, versus the disappointment of buying and playing (some of) Escape on PS2 when I was a little older, I'm going with Escape From Monkey Island.
Escape From Monkey Island, on the other hand, is an average example of box art layout, but a fine example of hand drawn box art. Ironically, the actual character models in that game look even worse than the ones in Grim Fandango. On a blind box-art-based buy, I'd purchase Monkey Island before Grim Fandango 8 out of 10 times (Grim has the tag line about betrayal and corruption in the land of the dead, which would get my money every now and then). However, with the...not benefit, but experience of hindsight, Grim is obviously the infinitely superior game.
But this is a Box Art tournament, so despite the nostalgic childhood memories of buying and playing Grim, versus the disappointment of buying and playing (some of) Escape on PS2 when I was a little older, I'm going with Escape From Monkey Island.
Going with Grim.
EMI is the better eye candy, but quickly reveals itself to be empty calories. There's just nothing that interesting IN the pretty artwork.
Grim Fandango is rather disappointingly blah, but those character designs are just so distinctively cool, they make me want to know more. (Bonus points for not including Glottis.)
EMI is the better eye candy, but quickly reveals itself to be empty calories. There's just nothing that interesting IN the pretty artwork.
Grim Fandango is rather disappointingly blah, but those character designs are just so distinctively cool, they make me want to know more. (Bonus points for not including Glottis.)
Co-founder, Editor-in-Chief, Adventure Game Hotspot (perhaps you've heard of it?)
Escapes artwork is better than the game itself, but it's going to have to be Grim Fandango, for sure.
"I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint."
