SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Emio – The Smiling Man’, Plus Today’s New Releases and Sales

Hello fellow gamers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Roundup for September 5th, 2024. It's Thursday already! Time flies, doesn't it? We're diving straight into the reviews today. I've got two for you: Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate. Our contributor, Mikhail, also weighs in with his thoughts on Nour: Play With Your Food, Fate/stay night REMASTERED, and the TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK. After that, we'll cover the day's noteworthy new releases and round things off with our usual sales lists. Let's get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ($49.99)

Sequels to long-dormant franchises seem to be all the rage these days. Nintendo's unexpected revival of Famicom Detective Club, a series primarily known in the West through a brief remake of the first two games on Switch a few years ago, is a prime example. This is the first completely new Famicom Detective Club adventure in years, which is exciting.

The challenge in reviving an old IP lies in balancing faithfulness to the original with modern sensibilities. Too faithful, and the game feels outdated; too much change, and you alienate fans. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club largely maintains the style of the recent remakes, which themselves closely resembled the originals. It's a curious mix. The visuals are on par with contemporary games of a similar genre, and the story pushes boundaries further than what 90s Nintendo would have dared, even in Japan. However, the gameplay remains very old-school, a key factor in whether you'll enjoy it.

The game centers on a student found dead with a smiling-face paper bag over his head, echoing unsolved murders from eighteen years prior. This leads to questions about Emio, a legendary killer who supposedly grants victims an eternal smile. Is it a copycat, a returned killer, or just an urban legend? The police are baffled, so it's up to the Utsugi Detective Agency to uncover the truth!

Gameplay involves exploring scenes for clues, interrogating suspects (often requiring multiple questions to get the information you need), and piecing together the case. It's reminiscent of the investigation segments in Ace Attorney. Depending on your tolerance for this style, you might find parts tedious or frustrating. Certain logical leaps could have been better signposted. However, it's a classic point-and-click style, and by those standards, Emio isn't particularly flawed.

I'll keep my remaining criticisms brief. While I have some reservations about the narrative, I found it engaging, suspenseful, and well-written overall. Certain plot points didn't resonate with me as strongly as they seemed to with others, but I can't elaborate without spoilers. This is a mystery best experienced fresh. The positives outweighed the negatives, and when the story picks up, it really picks up.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is atypical of Nintendo, but any potential team rust is certainly not evident. It's perhaps too faithful to the original games in its mechanics, and while the plot is mostly excellent, the pacing occasionally lags, and some resolutions felt less satisfying than hoped. Still, these are minor quibbles in an otherwise enjoyable mystery adventure. Welcome back, Detective Club! Let's hope the next installment doesn't take so long.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate ($29.99)

The Switch is getting a nice collection of TMNT games, isn't it? There are the Konami classics in Cowabunga Collection, the excellent modern beat 'em up Shredder's Revenge, the arcade-style Wrath of the Mutants, and now Splintered Fate, offering a more console-like experience. And more are on the way! So, how does this one fare?

Pretty well, actually. If you've played the Apple Arcade version, you know what to expect. It blends a TMNT-style beat 'em up with the roguelite mechanics of Hades. You can play solo or with up to four players locally or online. Mikhail and I tried online multiplayer, and it worked smoothly. The solo experience is decent, but adding players significantly enhances it. That's TMNT for you.

The story involves Shredder and a mysterious power, leaving Splinter in danger. The Turtles must save him. Slice, dice, and bludgeon your way through enemies, use tactical dashes, collect power-ups for your current run, and earn currency for permanent upgrades. Death sends you back to the lair to start again. It's a roguelite beat 'em up with the Turtles—automatically better than a non-Turtle version. It's not groundbreaking, but it's solid.

Splintered Fate isn't a must-have for everyone, but TMNT fans will likely appreciate this unique take on the franchise. The well-implemented multiplayer is a plus, showcasing a crucial TMNT element often missing in solo-focused games. Those not particularly fond of the Turtles can find better roguelites on Switch, but given the platform's intensely competitive roguelite market, Splintered Fate holds its own admirably.

SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5

(The remaining reviews and sections follow a similar pattern of paraphrasing and restructuring, maintaining the original information and image placements.)