Nintendo has announced Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, the first new entry in the series in over 30 years, and it will launch for Nintendo Switch on August 29. Last week, Nintendo hinted at the game by dropping a spooky teaser.
Once again, the player works as an assistant private investigator with the Utsugi Detective Agency, and must solve the mystery behind the death of a student whose head was covered by a paper bag with a smiling face drawn on it. Eighteen years ago, there were similar incidents with the victims of Emio, the Smiling Man, a killer of urban legend who did the same. Along with returning series protagonist Ayumi Tachibana, the duo will work together to figure out if Emio has returned, or if it’s just a copycat crime.
In 2021, Nintendo released remakes of the first two Famicom Detective Club games: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind, which were released in 1988 and 1989, respectively. Series producer Yoshio Sakamoto is returning to handle the brand-new game.
“Both games were designed with the image in mind of a mystery movie that you progress through and solve,” he explained in an introduction video. “While we were working on the remakes of those games for Nintendo Switch in 2021, I thought that we definitely need to continue this series with a brand-new game.”
In GameSpot’s Famicom Detective Club review, we said, “The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind, while mechanically similar, offer pretty different takes on the detective game. Do you want to slowly unravel the conspiracy behind a powerful woman’s death in a quiet village? Or, would you rather chase down a murderer in a high-octane, spooky thrill ride? The former is better executed, but both are worthwhile opportunities to dust off your magnifying glass.”
