Nintendo’s creepy new game is getting 3 free demos

By Carli Velocci August 16, 2024

Key art of The Smiling Man in Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. — Nintendo

Nintendo is giving players the chance to check out the new Famicom Detective Club game’s first few chapters for free ahead of the game’s release for Switch.

Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is launching on August 29, but Nintendo is releasing a three-part demo on the eShop. Players can check out the prologue and chapter 1 starting the “evening” of August 19, followed by chapter 2 on August 22 and chapter 3 on August 27. If they decide to go ahead with the full game (which is now available for preorder for $50), players can also transfer their progress.

In this mystery adventure thriller, you’ll work to discover who’s behind a series of unsolved, eerie murders. A student is found dead with a paper bag over his head. Is it the work of the Smiling Man, an urban legend? Or is it something more grounded in reality but just as dangerous?

Emio is the first new game in the cult horror series in 35 years. It was announced with a spooky teaser on social media, prompting many to wonder if Nintendo was getting into more mature horror development (at least stuff that’s more intense than a Luigi’s Mansion game). A reprisal of a series that hasn’t gotten a new entry since, as you might’ve guessed, the Famicom retro console days in the 1980s was still a surprising reveal nonetheless.

Famicom Detective Club has two games: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind, both of which were only released in Japan. There have been re-releases, and Nintendo released remakes for the Switch in 2021.

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Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

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