Everyone loves Nintendo. The iconic Japanese video game developer has delighted the world with the family-friendly adventures of Mario and his buddies, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing and Splatoon (among many, many others). Now it seems they have a new franchise coming. So, what’s their newest announcement? Perhaps another cuddly dayglo platforming adventure?
No, it’s whatever the heck Emio is:
Okay, seriously, who is Emio?
Right now we have very little to go on. We’re going to presume that Emio is the trenchcoated figure with the paper bag on his head with a crude smiling face drawn on it. Then again, the Japanese text at the end of the video translates to “Smiling Man”, which is pronounced “Emio” in Japanese.
Just about the only other thing we have to go on is that whatever this is has been rated M (Mature) by the ESRB, which is granted to games that: “May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.”
Nintendo has rarely strayed into the horror genre – let alone M-rated horror – though GameCube classic Eternal Darkness was a lot of fun. I guess arguably the Luigi’s Mansion series is horror-themed, but if this is some kind of cryptic teaser for a fourth entry it looks like Luigi will need some serious therapy by the time the credits roll.
Whatever this is, it’ll be a sharp divergence from pretty much anything Nintendo has ever published as a first party. Perhaps, with Switch 2 on the horizon, they’re seeking to diversify their output and appeal to an older audience.
All I know is that if Nintendo are as good at scaring people as they are delighting them with flights of creative whimsy, we’re going to be sleeping with the lights on after this bizarre title is released.