Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club review: Nintendo’s unexpectedly mature turn

Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club MSRP $50.00 Score Details Pros

Gripping mystery
Well-developed characters
Payoff is worth it
Throwback visual novel format

Cons

Some bloated writing
Light on deduction

A fleet of adults hover over a teenage boy’s corpse. Marks on his neck indicate that he’s been strangled to death, while an odd paper bag placed over his head bears the smiling trademark of a serial killer who preys on sad children. Police officers and detectives swarm the scene, clinically hunting for clues around the lifeless body to track down the killer. None of them are asking the important question: What is it that’s making local kids so distraught that their town has become easy pickings for a killer drawn to pain? It’s a job fit for a “Boy Detective.”

In Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, Nintendo revives a classic NES mystery series in order to tell the most mature story the publisher has ever put its name on. That’s not because of its creepy killer, occasional swears, or blood-soaked corpses. Though Emio is advertised as a supernatural horror game, its real heart lies in a quiet, grounded story about the invisibility of childhood trauma and how it tends to evade adult eyes.

Despite thin detective gameplay that may be light on actual deduction, Emio — The Smiling Man makes up for that with a slow-burn visual novel story that goes in completely unexpected directions. Its grisly tone and M-rating may feel surprising for a Nintendo game, but Emio meets young players at a level Nintendo is uniquely positioned to reach them at.

Childhood trauma

A sequel to the NES’ Famicom Detective Club series, Emio — The Smiling Man puts players in control of two teenage sleuths working out of the Utsugi Detective Agency. They’re roped into a murder case after a local school boy is strangled and a paper bag adorned with a smiley face is placed on his head. That doesn’t just line up with a series of murders that rocked the town 18 years prior, but