by Donald Theriault - May 25, 2021, 10:00 am EDT
8
Nintendo’s second child of the Portopia Serial Murder Case is a short but sweet affair.
The Famicom Detective Club games really shouldn’t need a Machete order, but it has to be reminded up front: The Missing Heir is the first in release order, while The Girl Who Stands Behind is the first game in-universe. With that bit of chronological confusion dealt with, The Girl Who Stands Behind is a fine adventure experience that is also a bit of Nintendo history - though if Nintendo of America did bother to localize this game in 1990, it would’ve been beatable in a rental barring some Earthbound Beginnings-esque difficulty spiking.
Oh no, did I leave the heir at that rest stop!?
A few years ago while looking into things relating to Smash characters that didn’t make the cut, I came across the name Ayumi Tachibana and her series Famicom Detective Club. She was originally considered for a spot on Super Smash Bros. Melee’s roster, but was ultimately cut because the team rightfully didn’t believe she had enough recognition to warrant her inclusion. From that point on I found myself incredibly curious with the Famicom Detective Club games, none of which had ever left Japan. When remakes of both titles were announced in Japan I had some hope that maybe we would see them released in the West, but still did not believe they actually would. Cut to around a year later when they announced that both would in fact be making their way to the rest of the world, and I was reasonably excited to see what they were like. Did they live up to expectations or fall flat? Let’s solve this mystery together.
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With a game like Famicon Detective Club, you expect to feel like a detective. The clue is in the name, right? This remake, following 30 years after its original 1980s Japan-exclusive debut, is more about stumbling across the right answer than making you feel anywhere near like an investigator.
May 25, 2021 at 6:45AM PDT
When you think of a private detective, you might see a tough guy in a felt fedora, cigarette perched above his chiseled jaw, puffing moodily in an office chair with the blinds drawn. If Nintendo has anything to say about it, though, next time you picture a gumshoe it will be a skinny, teenage boy who can t remember his own name.
That s because the publisher has resurrected both Famicom Detective Club outings: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. This pair of adventure games debuted on the NES in the late ‘80s and cast players as a kid sleuth solving crimes in rural Japan. These remakes are impressively thorough, eschewing the pixelated graphics of the originals for a striking anime-inspired look and full Japanese voice acting. Mechanically, both titles are still products of their time and, as a result, progressing through the story can sometimes be frustratingly opaque. But, the stories themselves particularly The Missing Heir s are compelli