all games are not created equal

Lucas Arts used to be a game company that didn't solely focus on Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  Far from it, actually.  2D Point n' Click adventure games were gold back in the early to mid 90's, and games using Lucas Arts SCUMM engine (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion).  But during the time of N64 and Playstation, everything was going to 3D.  Out goes SCUMM, in comes GrimE (Grim Engine).
Grim Fandango was the first to use GrimE, and it did it well.

Grim Fandango takes place completely in the afterlife, which looks to be a blend of Aztec and Mexican culture.  You play as Manny Calavera, a suave man stuck in purgatory until he can work off his debt to society and earn his right in eternal paradise.  His job: a reaper for the DoD, Department of the Dead.  It's initially Manny's job to collect new dead people and sell them the best travel packages he can to paradise.  However, eventually learns that the DoD is running a crooked game, stealing peoples first-class travel tickets and selling them to make a quick buck.  The game takes place over a 4 year span, starting with the DoD, becoming a hotshot casino owner, becoming a captain of a cruiser, and finally til the point where you take down the chairman for the DoD.  Along the way you encounter terrific characters, all with fantastic voice acting.  There's also some tricky puzzles as well, but they all make sense.  Environments are extremely beautiful and stylish, and the characters themselves all look very memorable, regardless of the fact that they are all literally walking skeletons (with the exceptions of demons, including the adorable Glottis).

Hopefully, the Monkey Island series needs no introduction.  Once again you take control of Guybrush Threepwood, now married to Governor Elaine Marley-Threepwood (though she tends to "neglect" to say  Threepwood), or is she?  It turns out that the people in town forgot about their lost Governor of Melee Island, and now Elaine must run for office against an obvious villian who promises good times and free grog for everyone.  It's Guybrush's job to help her get elected, research the Marley bloodline, and ultimate take down the zombie pi----, er... antagonist. 
Expect to see some familiar faces (if you played the previous games), some recycled but-still-hillarious jokes, and top it off with an interesting but-sometimes-tedious Monkey Kombat mechanic.

Grim Fandango does what you'd expect it to do based off the surface: Provide an awesome film noir story while blending in some excellent puzzles and a wide array of characters and backgrounds.  EFMI, however, starts to lost sight of what originally made it great.  The game seems to take a bit more of a boring beaurocratic storyline, with such goals as hiring a lawyer and listening to presentations on time shares.  Monkey Kombat is interesting but gets old quick. 
It's a shame that EFMI couldn't live up to the awesomeness that was Curse of Monkey Island, but thats not to say it's terrible.  How ever if you were looking for something fresh and original, then you can't go wrong with Grim Fandango.