About a week ago, Nintendodropped a teaserthat looked like it could have been ripped fromSilent Hill. It involved a person wearing a trenchcoat and a paper bag on their head, and there were some squeaky horror cuts. Our only clues were the video’s title, Emio, and the words “Smiling Man.”
We receivedmore clarification today. The bad news is that it’s not a newEternal Darkness. The good news is that it’s a new entry in theFamicom Detective Club. The series began in 1988 with two games on the Famicom Disk System, then immediately went dormant. They were remade for the Switch in 2021 asFamicom Detective Club: The Missing HeirandFamicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind, which was the first time the games were localized in other languages.
The new game will be calledEmio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. According to the announcementinterview with producer Yoshio Sakamoto(director of the original games, people stay at Nintendo for a long time), the mystery will focus on an urban myth wherein a man will “offer girls a paper bag with a smile drawn on it in exchange for their life.” Seems like a bad deal to me.
TheFamicom Detective Clubgames were part of this wave of mystery visual novel/adventure games that hit home computers and the Famicom in the ‘80s. They weren’t unique game changers, but Nintendo’s own take on a trend. I’ve wanted to play them since getting into the Famicom Disk System library, but I haven’t tried the remakes. They’re expensive. I wanted to review them, butCJ beat me to it(for a number of reasons) and I never circled back.
I guess I’ll have to try and cram them into my schedule sinceEmio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Clubis out on Switch July 15, 2025. There will be a physical version available.
