Nintendo Is Teasing an Unsettling New Horror Game With a Creepy Smiling Man

Nintendo really woke up this morning and chose chaos by dropping a deeply upsetting short teaser for what seems to be a new horror game. We’re not sure of the title just yet, but it might be called Emio, or possibly Smiling Man.

What the heck was that? Nintendo fans are baffled. There are almost no details as to what this “Emio” thing is. Apart from the trailer, the only other info we have is that Nintendo tweeted about it across its U.S., Europe, and Japanese accounts this morning with the hashtag #WhoIsEmio?. There’s an official Nintendo website, too, which just features the creepy dude standing there and occasionally, briefly, changing his expression. And we’ve confirmed that the kanji in the background of all these teases reads “laughing man” or “smiling man.”

So why is everyone so worked up about this? It’s not necessarily that there’s anything abnormal about teasing a work of horror like this. Plenty of films and games have played up horror elements by being deliberately vague and sudden in their reveals. But Nintendo is, uh, not exactly known for that kind of thing! It’s just out of character for them to surprise drop a trailer for what seems to be an M-rated horror game on a random Wednesday morning with no other context.

We don’t even know who’s making Emio. People are speculating that based on the fact that it has an official Nintendo website, this may be a first-party game, which would be even more out of character for Nintendo. That said, a number of individuals have pointed out on social media that noted horror developer Bloober Team announced just two days ago it was working on something called “Project M,” which is apparently coming to Nintendo platforms and is expected to be announced this year. Could this be Project M? Or something else entirely?

Whatever the case, we’ll have to wait to find out, but the prospect of a new horror game made by Nintendo, of all companies, is an exciting one to imagine. Until then, we’ll have to make do with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].