Nintendo announces Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club after last week’s creepy teaser
Nintendo has officially revealed Emio – The Laughing Man: Famicom Detective Clubthe next match in the Famicom Detective Club series.
Emio – The Laughing Manthe first new entry in the series in over 30 years, is coming to Nintendo Switch on August 29. A sneak peek was revealed last week with a mysterious trailer and a first look at the title character, Emio.
Thanks to a brand new trailer, we now know that it will be a horror game that will see players investigate a brutal death and its connection to an urban legend as a member of the Utsugi Detective Agency.
“A college student has been found dead! His head was covered with a paper bag with a creepy smiling face drawn on it – just like the victims of Emio, the Laughing Man – an urban legend killer who allegedly places such a bag over the heads of his victims,” the synopsis reads.
“As an assistant private investigator, it’s your job to help the police solve this crime, which echoes a series of unsolved murders from 18 years ago. Has a serial killer returned, or is this the work of a copycat? Are these crimes inspired by the Smiling Man story, or its origins?”
Famous characters from the Famicom Detective Club series will also return, including the protagonist from previous games, as well as Ayumi Tachibana, who will now be playable for the first time “in certain parts of the game.”
The first two matches, The Missing Heir And The girl standing behind youwere released 30 years ago for the Famicom Disk System. The team behind the series is currently working on Nintendo Switch remakes for both.
Series producer and writer Yoshio Sakamoto also provided some insight into the making of Emio – The Laughing Man in the latest trailer. According to the developer, while he was working on the remakes in 2021, he wanted to expand the series with a brand new game.
Sakamoto explained that the urban legend was the result of everything he and his colleagues had learned and ideas they had gathered while working on the previous games and their remakes.
“It’s the result of a lot of in-depth creative conversations and work with the intention of going all out on the script and animation,” Sakamoto said. “I can say with confidence that this is the Famicom Detective Club series at its best.”