A Strange Horror-Themed Teaser for a Project Named “Emio” suddenly appeared on Nintendo’s YouTube channels and social media.
Accompanied by the hashtag “#WhoIsEmio,” the bizarre 15-second teaser is already sparking speculation that the family-friendly company might just be developing (or at the very least publishing) an adult horror game.
The adult-rated teaser reveals very little information and certainly doesn’t show any gameplay. A human figure wearing a paper bag over his head appears sporadically on screen, with several jump cuts highlighting various features like the bag, his coat, and his hands. The Japanese text for “Emio” – which means laugh or smile – is then shown at the end.
The Nintendo Switch splash screen at the beginning of the teaser shows that this is indeed a Switch-related project, and the ESRB “Mature” rating indicates that it will most likely be a game.
Nintendo is no stranger to inserting darker or more mature themes into its games, but it has been known to shy away from developing games that would require more than a “Teen” (or PEGI 12) rating. In fact, there are only a handful of “Mature” rated games that Nintendo has released – including Bayonetta 3, the Devil’s Third on the Wii U and the cult classic GameCube Eternal Darkness: Requiem for Reason.
It remains to be seen whether “Emio” is a project developed internally at Nintendo – or simply something the company publishes. That said, the game has a custom landing page on Nintendo’s Japanese website, reinforcing the idea that this may well be an internally developed project.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the game as more details are revealed. A horror game developed by Nintendo is an extremely appealing prospect, especially given the company’s often tricky deployment of mature themes in otherwise family-friendly titles.