It’s a rare day when Nintendo publishes an M-rated game, but we’re about to see the eighth one in the company’s entire history soon. Across social media channels today, Nintendo of America has been teasing a mysterious new game titled “Emio.” Emio is a Japanese phrase that roughly translates to “Smiling Man” and… yeah, that’s absolutely what the teaser shows. In some countries, the 15-second teaser is even age-restricted.
So what could this game be? There’s nothing to really glean from this teaser, but if we dig into Nintendo’s past of publishing M-rated games… then we draw a bunch of blanks. There are only three titles that could be related to this, which include Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and Geist from the GameCube followed by Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on Wii U (which later received a port to other platforms). The other M-rated games are action titles with heavy Japanese influence.
An image from the teaser trailer for Emio.
It would be astonishing if Emio wound up being a successor to Eternal Darkness, but I’m not sure that will happen. The imagery in the teaser makes me think of Slenderman, but Japanese horror folklore includes several figures similar to that pasty white creep. This could possibly be a project from Bloober Team as the company said last year it was working with developer Draw Distance on a game for Nintendo platforms, though Draw Distance has since left the project and Bloober is currently busy with finishing the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Whatever it winds up being, it’s exciting that Nintendo is publishing another M-rated title.
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
