Nintendo’s new M-rated murder mystery already has me hooked

On August 29, Nintendo will release its most surprising game in decades. Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is an unlikely revival of an NES visual novel series that hasn’t had a new entry since 1989. That’s not even the shocking part: It’s an M-rated game about a masked serial killer. It’s certainly not the kind of game you’re expecting from Nintendo, especially in 2024.

That wasn’t always the case, though. While Nintendo has a kid-friendly reputation these days, it has occasionally dabbled in darker projects over its long career. Just look back at the GameCube’s Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a gory horror game that Nintendo published. Emio is a throwback in more ways than one, both bringing back an old series and an older version of Nintendo willing to experiment with new audiences.

Is Nintendo going full blood and guts? Not likely. I’ve now played the opening prologue and first two chapters of Emio, which are far tamer than the M-rating may signal (save for a cuss word or two). Even so, I’m already finding myself enthralled in a creepy killer story and detective gameplay that feels refreshingly old school. It’s not the Nintendo game anyone expected, but I’m glad it exists already.

From Mario to Emio

Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a visual novel with point-and-click gameplay elements. It continues the story of the Utsugi Detective Agency, which finds itself investigating a murder after a teenager turns up dead. As characters warn me that the body is a grisly scene, I brace myself for some disturbing visuals. Instead, I simply learn that the killer has placed a paper bag over their head with a smile drawn on it. Not exactly scandalous imagery.

The horror is fairly light inEmio‘s opening chapters with no explicit imagery to speak of. I’m told the victim was strangled and I get one creepy sequence teasing the mysterious killer, but it’s all fairly light. The M rating seems to be more tied to mature language so far. I don’t expect