Famicom Detective Club[c] is an adventure game duology developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System. The first entry, The Missing Heir,[d] was released in 1988, followed by a prequel released the next year titled The Girl Who Stands Behind. In both games, the player takes on the role of a young man solving murder mysteries in the Japanese countryside.

The duology was the first writing project for Yoshio Sakamoto, before he found greater success and recognition with Metroid. The games were inspired by Enix's 1983 adventure game The Portopia Serial Murder Case, horror films by Italian director Dario Argento, and detective novels by Japanese writer Seishi Yokomizo. Both games were only released in Japan and received positive reception from critics.

Nintendo revisited the series on the Super Famicom with a remake of The Girl Who Stands Behind and an episodic Satellaview broadcast featuring a new story, BS Tantei Club: Yuki ni Kieta Kako. In 2021, Nintendo released new remakes of The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind for the Nintendo Switch, developed by Mages. The remakes were localized and released outside Japan, receiving ratings that reflect appropriateness for teen and above audiences only. A new entry in the series, Emio – The Smiling Man, is currently being developed by Yoshio Sakamoto and Nintendo, being set to release on August 29, 2024.

Games in this series

Release Date 1988-04-27

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