Nintendo surprised everyone with a mysterious and creepy teaser trailer for something called Emio. While the company hasn’t offered much information, Emio is definitely not what one would expect from the usually family-friendly Nintendo.
What is Nintendo’s Emio teaser trailer?
Nintendo announced the new trailer on social media with the hashtag #WhoIsEmio?, a question that many will ask themselves after they watch it. It’s worth noting that Nintendo age-restricted the video as it “contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing.”
After the Nintendo Switch logo, the 15-second Emio teaser trailer opens on a blank wall. After a burst of static, a man appears wearing a trench coat and a paper bag with a jack-o-lantern smile drawn on it. There’s more static and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of the man’s hand, where he appears to be missing a finger. The teaser trailer follows this with more distortion and a brief glimpse of the man wearing a bag with a Cheshire cat face on it. The eerie sound of a child’s piano accompanies the unsettling visuals.
Nintendo’s creepy Emio teaser concludes with a string of Japanese characters translating to “Smiling Man.” The phrase is pronounced as “emi otoko” or “emio” in Japanese.
As for what Emio is, no one knows. Nintendo doesn’t normally do horror, though third-party horror games like Outlast and Layers of Fear are available on the Switch. Still, the company might decide to shake things up with an M-rated in-house horror game. With the Switch 2 on the horizon, Nintendo may be more willing to experiment. Whatever the case, the company is clearly going for viral marketing with Emio’s creepy trailer and mysterious hashtag.
