Highlights
- Nintendo’s unexpected foray into horror with Emio the Smiling Man shows its continued commitment to diversification and experimentation.
- Emio challenges Nintendo’s family-friendly image, signaling a deliberate move toward darker, more mature content.
- By venturing into M-rated horror games like Emio, Nintendo aims to stay innovative and relevant in the ever-evolving gaming industry.
Nintendo recently dropped a 15-second teaser for an ostensible horror game, referred to colloquially as either Emio or Emio the Smiling Man. Nintendo has stayed away from proper horror for quite some time now, so this reveal came as a surprise to many onlookers, especially those who associate the brand with a universally family-friendly image.
Of course, this is a completely reasonable assumption. Though there are some outliers, such as Metroid, nearly every flagship Nintendo franchise can be considered an all-ages affair. Huge IP like The Legend of Zelda and Mario, though they may dabble in some darker themes here and there, never cross the line into mature content. In many ways, this has helped Nintendo stay relevant for so many years: its best-selling properties steer clear of controversy and feel timeless due to their separation from specific real-world trends or problems. Having said that, it shouldn’t actually be such a huge surprise that Nintendo is branching out with something like a true horror title.
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Nintendo Has Always Committed to Experimentation and Diversification
Recent Nintendo Games Prove the Company’s Aversion to Staleness
While some Nintendo series like Pokemon have been accused of lacking innovation between titles, most big-budget games from the company actually take some big swings. This is especially evident when looking at some of the company’s more recent releases, like Tears of the Kingdom, which is designed around a radically inventive, complex mechanic in the form of Ultrahand. Then there’s Echoes of Wisdom, which is putting Zelda herself in the driver’s seat with a unique gameplay mechanic of her own, while adopting a top-down perspective—something that is not often seen in the world of modern AAA gaming. Nintendo also regularly innovates within the Mario franchise, with titles like Super Mario Maker and Princess Peach: Showtime! leaping away from established formula.
This stands in stark contrast to other big publishers like Ubisoft or Activision which, for better or worse, tend to stick to a tried-and-true framework rather than risk a failed experiment when it comes to flagship franchises. On the one hand, this tendency can be seen as Nintendo sticking its neck out, adhering to its creative goals over everything. While this is likely true to an extent, there’s a far more pragmatic benefit here as well: Nintendo’s ability to diversify helps it stay ahead of industry trends. This is one of the main reasons why Nintendo is rarely, if ever, seen as playing second fiddle to another gaming company—it’s hard to predict what it will do next.
A Horror Game like Emio the Smiling Man Helps Grow Nintendo’s Brand and Influence
Although Emio the Smiling Man certainly stands out in Nintendo’s modern release portfolio, it’s not the first time the company has published a more mature title. M-rated games like No More Heroes and Bayonetta 2 have helped Nintendo draw in an older audience, providing raunchy and bold experiences that can’t be found in legacy franchises like Mario. Emio wouldn’t even be the first horror game that Nintendo has published, as games like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and Geist have represented the genre, exclusively on Nintendo hardware.
At the time of writing, it’s not clear if
Emio
is being developed by an internal Nintendo studio or a third-party team. The former scenario would be a first for Nintendo, as the aforementioned Nintendo-published horror games come from third-party studios.
Emio has already been rated MA 15+ in Australia, with the Australian Classification Board citing content like cruelty, domestic abuse, and suicide references as reasons for the restricted rating. Needless to say, it’s shaping up to be a considerably dark, disturbing, potentially uncomfortable game at odds with what Nintendo is known for. But it’s becoming more and more clear that Nintendo may not want to be “known for” any one thing. With AAA gaming steadily becoming more homogenized, NIntendo might actually be protecting its brand by taking greater risks, like an M-rated horror game.
Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console launched in 2017, capable of being played in handheld mode or docked to a television. The Switch Lite, a handheld-only model, followed in 2019, with an OLED refresh coming in 2021.