Fans shocked as Nintendo warns its next game isn’t for kids

NINTENDO is known for its family games, having spent nearly four decades creating video games for players of all ages.

Games like Super Mario Brothers, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon have earned Nintendo its family-friendly reputation by often being bright, colorful, and low on scary scenes.

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That’s not to say that all of Nintendo’s games have been appropriate for children, with some of their published games, like Bayonetta 3 on the Nintendo Switch, earning a PEGI 16 rating, but the majority of their games have followed the trend.

The company’s next big game is an outlier, as it is rated PEGI 18 in Europe and the UK, and M 17+ in the US.

It’s called Emio – The Smiling Man and it’s the next game in the Famicom Detective Club series, which had two games on the NES before being remade for Switch in 2021.

Nintendo revealed Emio – The Smiling Man last month, following a spooky and mysterious week-long teaser campaign.

It’s the first new game in the series in 27 years, and it looks like Nintendo is doing everything it can to make it as scary as possible.

Nintendo describes Emio – The Smiling Man as a captivating mystery game in which players have to gather clues, investigate clues and solve a gruesome murder.

The ESRB, the American video game rating agency, recently released its rating summary for the game and it looks like it could get pretty intense.

The summary says that some scenes in the game depict strong violence, including a father slapping his children, a dead body hanging from a tie, and someone cutting their own face.

He also says the game will show dead bodies in pools of blood and will have plot points involving child abuse, murder and self-harm, as well as harsh language.

It’s safe to say, then, that Emio – The Smiling Man is definitely not appropriate for children, and parents should be careful not to let their children play.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is set to release in a few weeks, on August 29, 2024.

Fortunately, Nintendo fans won’t have to wait long for more family-friendly Switch games, with three more releases expected later this year.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, a new Zelda entry where you don’t play as Link, is set to release a month later, on September 26, 2024.

There’s also a new Super Mario Party game coming in October, and a new entry in the Mario & Luigi series in November.

For more on Nintendo’s upcoming games, check out our latest June Nintendo Direct recap.