“Well, that was ominous”.
The most upvoted comment on the latest Nintendo trailer, Emio, couldn’t have better captured what I felt after watching it. Nintendo is no stranger to surprise trailer drops, but they’re typically backed up with a little bit more information than some weird visuals locked behind an age verification.
The video is only 15 seconds long, and we see a man with a bag over his head, black smiling eyes, and a mouth drawn over where it should be. His fingers twitch and clench as the camera depicts different angles of a dark room that he stands in. Then, the video ends with only a few Japanese characters; no other text or narration is to be found throughout. When scanned into Google’s Translate app, the Japanese text reads something akin to “Smiling Man.” Honestly, that only makes the vibe of the trailer feel more sinister than before I translated it.
Nintendo Drops Ominous Emio Trailer
The short video and the caption #WhoIsEmio make the trailer feel strange. The drop is even stranger because the video is M-rated, so viewers need to sign in and verify their age. While surprise trailer drops are something that we can expect from the gaming brand, the decision to opt for an M-rating is odd. Nintendo has published only a handful of rated-M games in the past, the most recent being Bayonetta 3 and Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. However, none of those games were actually developed by Nintendo itself.
Since no other videos of the same trailer are posted to other gaming brand accounts, I assume that Emio will be exclusive to Nintendo. Considering that, I’m also assuming that Emio will be Nintendo’s first first-party game within the horror genre. It’s difficult to imagine what’s to be expected of that.
Before that, the rating was tacked on to more niche titles like Devil’s Third and Geist. In fact, many gamers tend to associate Nintendo with games that are not nearly as violent as those on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. While it’s possible that this game won’t necessarily be something violent, it’s definitely going to be terrifying. At least, it’s terrifying enough to justify the rating.
We can only wait until Nintendo decides to release more information. Hopefully, that will be within the coming months because, honestly, what could they possibly be teasing with that? Everyone truly wants to know who Emio is, Nintendo!
