Nintendo is, relatively speaking, a family-oriented company. Their games are aimed at kids, their parents, and everyone in between with bright colors, wholesome storytelling, and extremely approachable game design. That said, there are exceptions to this rule, like in this creepy 15-second teaser uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel last week. A man in a trench coat wearing a paper bag with a smile drawn on it stares into the camera while a distorted music box plays in the background. The only additional context we got was the hashtag #WhoIsEmio, leaving fans scrambling to figure out what exactly this was hinting at.
Today, that mystery has been cleared up. Emio, also known as “The Smiling Man,” is the star of a new game in the Famicom Detective Club series, which hasn’t had a new entry in 35 years. The game was revealed today alongside a video featuring series producer Yoshio Sakamoto, who wrote the first two games and went on to direct titles like Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. According to him, they decided to make this new entry during their time developing the Famicom Detective Club remakes back in 2021.
“In Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, a student has been found dead in a chilling fashion, his head covered with a paper bag with an eerie smiling face drawn on it,” a press release reads. “This unsettling visage bears a striking resemblance to a recurring clue in a string of unsolved murders from 18 years ago, as well as Emio (the Smiling Man), a killer of urban legend who is said to grant his victims ‘a smile that will last forever.'” Players will assume the role of a private investigator and set out to solve the case and stop the killer for good.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will be released for the Nintendo Switch next month, on August 29. Hopefully, the titular killer won’t murder too many people before then.
Are you excited to see this series revived? Let us know in the comments!
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