Nintendo gets dark with detective game Emio

Sure, it’s not straight-up horror as the early teasers suggested, but even still, Emio — The Smiling Man is among the darkest games Nintendo has ever made. It’s a murder mystery that doesn’t skimp on the murder and throws in an unsettling urban legend for good measure. More than that, though, it’s just a really great mystery on a platform that has steadily become an ideal home for them.

Emio is actually the continuation of a decades-old franchise from Nintendo called Famicom Detective Club. Created by Metroid designer Yoshio Sakamoto, the games originally never launched outside of Japan, until a pair of surprise remakes hit the Switch in 2021. Emio is the first entirely new entry in the franchise since the late ’80s — but even still, not a lot has changed.

As with its predecessors, Emio plays out like a visual novel, where your actions are determined by a series of verbs on a menu. This is how you “look” at a crime scene or “ask” a witness questions or “review” your notes. Sometimes, the actions are contextual — you can’t talk to someone if there’s no one there — but there are almost always a few things you can do at any given moment. If not, you can always “think.”

It’s not the most elegant way to engage with the world, but it is functional. It also necessitates a lot of reading and repetition. You often have to press witnesses by asking the same questions over and over, and the only way to learn what happened is to listen to people. That combination is something of an acquired taste, and also one that only really works with the right narrative — which is where Emio shines.

The game tells the story of a series of murders involving a killer who both wears a paper bag with a creepy smiley face and also puts one on his victims. At the outset of the game, a recent killing appears to connect to a series of murders 18 years prior and also possibly ties into an urban legend about a person named Emio who kills with nearly identical methods. You play as a young assistant of a private investigator, working alongside the police to put the various pieces together.

Because there are so many moving parts and — at first — only loose theories holding them together, I had a lot of fun doing all of the asking, looking, and reviewing. It’s very satisfying when things click into place. There are plentiful threads to pull on, which shift the story into even darker and more disturbing directions as the scope becomes clear. Even without the horror element, there’s plenty to be creeped out about in Emio.

The game also joins a sizable lineup of similar mysteries on the Switch, which feel right at home due to its portable nature, like the video game equivalent of a good book. Outside of Famicom Detective Club, there’s Ace Attorney, Murder by Numbers, or Coffee Talk, to name a few. Emio’s gameplay might feel a touch dated in comparison, but its core mystery carries it through.

Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is available now on the Nintendo Switch.