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Ten Best Heroes in Gaming
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Manuel Calavera
Manuel Calavera (Manny to his friends and coworkers) may be dead, but he has more in common with Jake Gittes, the jaded PI from Chinatown, than with Bub, the semisentient zombie from Day of the Dead. Based as much on classic film noir as on the Mexican folklore that inspired its rich visual design, Grim Fandango managed to combine a unique fantasy world with a great story of intrigue and corruption.
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At the center of the story is Manny, a down-and-out travel agent stuck in a dead-end job with the Department of Death. Because of the undisclosed wrongdoings in his life, Manny must work off his debt in the afterlife, selling travel packages to fresh souls. But there is something amiss in the DOD, and Manny just can't seem to get the good clients. Like so many film noir protagonists before him, Manny is catapulted into action by a woman. In this case, the female in question is Mercedes Calomar, a saintly woman who has lived a spotless life. When Manny can't even get her a luxury trip through the Land of the Dead, he decides to do some investigating on his own.
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During his journeys, Manny takes on several guises. When he takes over a casino in the port city of Rubacava, he becomes a much more debonair figure, transformed from Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity to Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. He goes on to become a sailor, and then finally a crafty private eye for his final, deadly encounter with the evil Hector LeMans.
Throughout it all, Manny is never a caricature of the style that inspired his character. Whereas many games have parodied the noir genre, Grim Fandango simply emulates it. Manny never speaks in silly similes, and there are no melodramatic sax solos. Instead, his arc simply follows those of the best examples of the genre: the transformation of a simple, jaded working stiff to a man who is motivated to bring down a huge conspiracy of corruption, if only to get the girl.
Listen to Manny:
manny.wav (262KB)
manny2.wav (48KB)
manny3.wav (270KB)
The Cyborg
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