Summary
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Clubreached theNintendo Switch, with its initial reviews being overwhelmingly positive. In fact, its early critical reception has been so strong that the game is already one of the highest-ratedSwitchexclusives of 2024.
Following a few cryptic teasers, Nintendo officiallyannouncedEmio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Clubin July 2024. The game itself is the fourth entry in theFramicom Detective Clubseries of murder mystery visual novels. It was released as a Nintendo Switch exclusive on Thursday, August 29.
Emio – The Smiling Man Debuts to Strong Reviews
The game launched to an immensely positive critical reception, as underlined by the fact that it presently boasts a “Strong” rating onOpenCritic. That label is derived from its aggregate score of 79 and a 71% reviewer recommendation rate. This makesEmio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Clubone of thehighest-rated Nintendo Switch exclusivesof 2024.Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year DoorandShiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoilare so far the only two Switch-only titles that have been released since the turn of the year and managed to get an even stronger critical reception.
Whether this positive review buzz translates to strong sales remains to be seen. Nintendo, for its part, appears to be aware of the niche appeal of visual novels, which is why it went through the effort of making not one butthreeEmio – The Smiling Mandemos, which have later been combined into a single trial version of the game that is now available on the eShop. The three-part demo encompasses the visual novel’s prologue and first three chapters, thus offering a fairly comprehensive preview of the game. For reference,Emio – The Smiling Manhas 12 chapters in total, which take just as many hours to complete on average, according to crowdsourced data compiled by HowLongToBeat.
89
99%
84
85%
79
71%
78
72%
77
76
69%
75
60%
74
64%
70
52%
62
25%
WhileEmio – The Smiling Manis currently the third highest-rated Switch-only game of 2024, it may not retain its spot by year’s end. A fewbig Switch exclusives are still slated for release in the final third of 2024, starting withThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomon September 26.
The newZeldagame will then be followed bySuper Mario Party JamboreeandMario and Luigi: Brothership, which are scheduled to debut on October 17 and November 7, respectively. Given Nintendo’s track record, all of these upcoming titles have the potential to score even better thanEmio – The Smiling Man, especially considering their comparatively broader mainstream appeal.
