After a three-decade hiatus, Famicom Detective Club has returned with a new game. Emio – The Smiling Man is the first game in the series since The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind launched for the Famicom Disk System. The game launched today, August 29, exclusively on Nintendo Switch, but physical editions are proving hard to come by. Emio – The Smiling Man is only in stock at GameStop right now; Best Buy and Target are sold out, and Amazon/Walmart aren’t carrying it at this time.
$50
Emio – The Smiling Man only has a $50 standard edition in the US. A collector’s edition with English language support is available to import–if you can find a copy in stock. The digital version is available on the Switch eShop for the same price.
The visual novel follows a duo of investigators looking into the murder of a student whose death may be tied to the Smiling Man urban legend. Your job as an assistant private detective for the Utsugi Detective Agency is to figure out if the murder marks the return of Emio. Ayumi Tachibana, an important protagonist from the first two games in series, is a playable character for the first time.
It probably goes without saying based on that description, but Emio – The Smiling Man is one of the rare Nintendo-developed/published games that carries a Mature ESRB rating–it’s certainly not one of Nintendo’s typical kid-friendly releases.
If you want to check out the previous games in the series, The Girl Who Stands Behind and The Missing Heir, consider picking up The Two-Case Collection for $60. This digital collection includes the remastered versions of both games, which received a big overhaul for Switch in 2021.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club | Producer Overview Trailer
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