I thought we’d be talking about the Radiant Tale fandisc today, but instead we’ve got something much darker and weirder to discuss.
Without any explanation, Nintendo shared a mysterious new teaser trailer across social media today.
Titled only “Emio” in English and “The Smiling Man” in Japanese, the teaser is only a few seconds long and shows a man standing with a bag over his head that depicts a smiling face, with quick glimpses of other faces as well. Everything about it appears to be a teaser for a horror game, and the trailer shows that it’s rated M.
The Japanese trailer’s description includes a link to the official website. There aren’t any more details there yet, but that supports the idea that this is either developed or at least published by Nintendo.
As you can imagine, this has resulted in a ton of speculation. Many people have suggested this could be related to Eternal Darkness or Fatal Frame, but there isn’t much evidence for that besides those being the horror games Nintendo is most closely associated with. I would love to see a new Eternal Darkness game someday, but nothing in that teaser suggests the Lovecraftian atmosphere of that game.
Fatal Frame is a closer match since it has that sort of Japanese horror styling and presentation, but it doesn’t feel like a teaser for a story about ghosts. I’m also inclined to think a new Fatal Frame would be teased as Fatal Frame.
A few people have guessed a new Famicom Detective Club game. While I’d love that, this feels like it’s going too much in the horror direction to fit with that series (although I have to admit, “The Smiling Man” would be a title in the vein of “The Girl Who Stands Behind”).
All of that makes me inclined to think this mysterious “Emio” game is either a new IP or something obscure.
Rumors started circulating shortly after that it might be developed by Bloober Team, but there’s no basis for that beyond Bloober Team saying they were working on a game for Nintendo platforms. It’s not even remotely confirmed that their game is Emio, certainly not enough for people to be arguing about it as much as they have been.
Whatever the case may be, I’m excited at the potential of a new Nintendo horror game. What do you think Emio is?
