In September 2019, Nintendo revealed that remakes of the first two Famicom Tantei Club games were heading to the Japanese Switch sometime this year. Today, the Kyoto-based game company announced the games would be delayed until 2021.
The first in the adventure game series, Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha, was released on the Famicom Disk System in 1988. Directed by Game Boy designer Gunpei Yokoi and co-written by Yoshio Sakamoto of Metroid fame, the game was a detective yarn in which the protagonist investigates a mysterious death. A prequel, Famicom Tantei Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo, followed in 1989.
Nintendo is publishing the remakes, while Tokyo game company Mages is developing. In today’s announcement, Nintendo states that the games are being delayed to 2021 “to improve quality,” and asked customers for their understanding.
Back in 2019, Nintendo showed how the updated versions would be full-on modern remakes.
The original games were ported to later Nintendo hardware, even appearing on the Virtual Console, but have never been released outside Japan. There’s no word on an international release for these remakes.