On August 29, Nintendo will release its most surprising game in decades. Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is an unlikely revival of an NES visual novel series that hasn’t had a new entry since 1989. That’s not even the shocking part: It’s an M-rated game about a masked serial killer. It’s certainly not the kind of game you’re expecting from Nintendo, especially in 2024.
That wasn’t always the case, though. While Nintendo has a kid-friendly reputation these days, it has occasionally dabbled in darker projects over its long career. Just look back at the GameCube’s Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a gory horror game that Nintendo published. Emio is a throwback in more ways than one, both bringing back an old series and an older version of Nintendo willing to experiment with new audiences.
Is Nintendo going full blood and guts? Not likely. I’ve now played the opening prologue and first two chapters of Emio, which are far tamer than the M-rating may signal (save for a cuss word or two). Even so, I’m already finding myself enthralled in a creepy killer story and detective gameplay that feels refreshingly old school. It’s not the Nintendo game anyone expected, but I’m glad it exists already.
From Mario to Emio
Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a visual novel with point-and-click gameplay elements. It continues the story of the Utsugi Detective Agency, which finds itself investigating a murder after a teenager turns up dead. As characters warn me that the body is a grisly scene, I brace myself for some disturbing visuals. Instead, I simply learn that the killer has placed a paper bag over their head with a smile drawn on it. Not exactly scandalous imagery.
The horror is fairly light in Emio‘s opening chapters with no explicit imagery to speak of. I’m told the victim was strangled and I get one creepy sequence teasing the mysterious killer, but it’s all fairly light. The M rating seems to be more tied to mature language so far. I don’t expect to see any nightmare-inducing violence in a modern Nintendo game, but I’m hoping the later chapters get just a bit more visceral to sell its sinister vision.
While I may have come to Emio for its surprising rating initially, I’ve found myself staying for what’s already shaping up to be a good mystery. What I know so far is that the murder appears to be connected to a series of killings 18 years prior, as well as an urban legend about a bag-wearing “Smiling Man.” The early chapters set the stage for a slow-burn mystery that I’m eager to see through. In Chapter 2, my pool of suspects start to widen as I meet suspicious students and teachers. I’m already taking mental notes, which is the sign of a solid mystery.
Emio doesn’t just use writing to make players feel like a detective. I have a sidebar full of options at my disposal that let me poke and prod each scene. In addition to questioning characters, I can click around the screen in search for clues, use my phone to make a call, stop to collect my own thoughts, and refer to my journal that keeps track of each character I meet. All of that helps the experience feel a bit more active than your standard visual novel, as I have more options than simply choosing dialogue prompts.
None of it is terribly unique for the genre, but that doesn’t bother me so far. If anything, Emio feels classic in a way I appreciate. Its simple UI and light music tracks still make it feel like its NES predecessors, even if the illustrations are more modern. That old-school feeling works within the story too, which is still set around the same era. As soon as I was handed a clunky brick cellphone, the classic style felt right at home.
I’ve got my quality-of-life nitpicks (its lack of touch controls is odd), but there aren’t any red flags so far. Nintendo seems to be delivering a straightforward serial killer mystery with just enough interaction to keep me engaged. Its success will entirely come down to how well it pays off its creepy premise. I just hope that it nails the landing or else I fear that Nintendo may take its M-rated experiment back to the graveyard.
Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club launches on August 29 for Nintendo Switch. Two demos are available now on the Nintendo Switch eShop, with a third coming on August 27.