Nintendo announced that the Emio—The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club demo has been updated via the Switch eShop. More specifically, the second chapter of this demo is now available.
Student Eisuke Sasaki has been found dead in a chilling fashion, with a smiley-faced paper bag over his head. Now, it’s up to the Utsugi Detective Agency to track down clues and crack the case.
The third chapter demo will be released on August 27, 2024.
Famicom Detective Club is a series of text adventure games by Nintendo that came out in the 1980s. They were created by Yoshio Sakamoto, of Metroid fame, and drew inspiration from Portopia before becoming a reference in the genre themselves.
In the series, players must investigate areas using a mix of point-and-click exploration and text commands. Each game tackles a different crime case, drawing inspiration from classic murder mystery novels.
In 2021, Nintendo released remakes for Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. The development came as a partnership between Nintendo and Mages, who used detailed 2D animations to flesh out the experience further.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will take the Utsugi Detective Agency to investigate a new case of serial killings. This time, people are showing up with paper bags covering their heads.
The case is reminiscent of a string of unsolved murders that became an urban legend. According to the stories, a smiling man (Emio) granted his victims an everlasting smile by covering their heads with paper bags with a smile drawn on top of them.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will come to Nintendo Switch on August 29, 2024.
