Nintendo has made fans happy by saying they’re making “Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club,” the first new game in the Famicom Detective Club series in 35 years. This new game is set to come out on August 29, 2024. It keeps going with the old visual novel adventure series, which started on the Famicom way back in the late 1980s.
“Emio – The Smiling Man” tells a scary story about a creepy urban myth. The game’s main bad guy Emio, is a freaky dude who goes up to young women who are having a hard time. He gives them a paper bag with a smile drawn on it and wants their lives in return. People playing the game will dig into this spooky story trying to figure out if the legend is true and how it affects the people in it.
Emio – The Smiling Man (Image: Nintendo)
The Famicom Detective Club series got a new life when Nintendo redid the old games, “The Missing Heir” and “The Girl Who Stands Behind,” for the Switch in 2021. These new versions made the classic games look better sound cooler, and added voices for all the talking parts. It was also the first time people outside Japan could play them. These fresh takes on the old games got folks excited about the series again, which led to plans to make a brand new game in the series.
Yoshio Sakamoto, who’s been key in making and bringing back Famicom Detective Club, was pretty pumped about the new game. He said “Emio – The Smiling Man” came from years of ideas and stuff they learned from working on the old games and redoing them. Sakamoto made it clear that the team wants to give players something cool and real focusing hard on the story and how things move in the game.
The reveal of “Emio – The Smiling Man” caused a stir in the gaming world. People who love the series and new players got excited and curious about the game’s darker spooky story. This new direction is a bit different from the usual mystery stories in the older games giving a new spin to the popular series.
As the game’s launch gets closer, Nintendo plans to share more info about how to play, who the characters are, and what else happens in the story. The hype around “Emio – The Smiling Man” shows that people still like the Famicom Detective Club series and think there’s room for new and cool ways to tell stories in visual novels.
All in all, Nintendo’s bringing back Famicom Detective Club with “Emio – The Smiling Man” shows how much they care about keeping their old games alive and making new ones. The game’s got an interesting story and a team that knows what they’re doing. It’s set to grab the attention of both old fans and new players when it comes out on Switch next month.
