Nintendo’s mysterious horror game – glimpsed last week via a brief and bizarre teaser trailer – is in fact a new entry in the Famicom Detective Club series.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will launch on 29th August, Nintendo confirmed today, showing off a first look at the game’s artwork, featuring its creepy paper bag-headed villain.
If you’re unfamiliar with the retro adventure series, this is a Nintendo-developed franchise originally released in the late 1980s. Two games were released, but only in Japan. And there they remained for more than 30 years, until a Nintendo Switch remake of the pair launched worldwide in 2021.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club – A chat with producer Yoshio Sakamoto Nintendo veteran designer Yoshio Sakamoto, of Metroid fame, is returning to the series for Emio – The Smiling Man, Nintendo confirmed today.
In a brief developer interview, Sakamoto said the game’s creepy villain will pop up in-game after previously being thought of as an urban legend. It’s up to you to investigate a murder and discover the truth behind the paper bag-wearing myth.
More concrete detail on the game from a Nintendo press release reveals that you will play the role of a junior private investigator aiding local police with a murder case. A student has been found dead, his head covered with a paper bag bearing the same smiling face as the legendary Smiling Man, who was also linked to other murders in the past.
“Has a serial killer returned, or is this the work of a copycat? Are these crimes inspired by the Smiling Man story, or the origin of it? Players will discover the answers and more as they investigate in Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club,” Nintendo writes.
