Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~
Image: G-Mode

Update #2 [Tue 3rd Dec, 2024 15:15 GMT]: Since we last wrote about Hokkaido Serial Murder Case yesterday, the game has returned to the Nintendo Switch eShop in the UK, and we've also managed to uncover a little more information about what initially caused its removal in the first place.

After we published our update yesterday, the customer support for the publisher confirmed to us in a follow-up email that the issue was directly related to "the IARC rating (PEGI) standards in the EU region" — something that is now backed up by the game having been reclassified from a PEGI-12 to a PEGI-18.

Surprisingly, though, this had nothing to do with the Easter Egg that we mentioned in the original article but is instead related to the game's inclusion of "simulated gambling", according to the new eShop description.

This is a reference to the Black Jack mini-games that players can take part in, against both their assistant and various non-playable characters you encounter in the world. This has fallen foul of a change in the classification criteria that PEGI introduced in 2020, which states that games that contain "elements that encourage or teach gambling" will always be PEGI-18. What do you think of this decision? Let us know in the comments!

Update #1 [Mon 2nd Dec, 2024 12:45 GMT]: G-Mode has given us a response in regards to the news that its graphic adventure Hokkaido Serial Murder Case has recently been delisted in the UK.

In an email to Time Extension, the company's customer support told us, "We appreciate you informing us about the title no longer being available on the Nintendo Switch eShop in the UK. We will release a patch to address this issue by the end of today (Japan time)."

The company did not elaborate on what had initially caused the game to be taken down in the first place or exactly what this new patch will entail, but it seems like those who had planned on buying the game on the Nintendo Switch eShop in the UK will soon be able to purchase it again.

We'll let you know if we learn more.

Original Article [Fri 29th Nov, 2024 14:00 GMT]: Earlier this year, G-Mode released a remake of Yuji Horii's 1984 Famicom adventure Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsuku ni Kiyu for Nintendo Switch and Steam internationally, allowing Western players to experience an expanded version of the classic command-based detective story with English subtitles.

Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ proved to be a popular title in its native Japan, briefly topping the sales charts, and later gained some attention online after the discovery of an NSFW Easter Egg that paid tribute to a similar secret hidden in the original game.

But, as spotted by one of our readers named Coire, it appears that the game has now mysteriously been delisted from the Nintendo Switch eShop in the UK, meaning that, unless you already own a copy, you won't be able to play the game in the region on the Nintendo machine.

As of this moment, visiting the store page simply throws up an error message, while the game's website greets visitors with a 404 message.

As far as we're aware, G-Mode hasn't put out any official communication about the game's removal, but it's hard not to speculate that it may have to do with the previously mentioned Easter Egg, which featured a scene involving female nudity — something that might affect the game's current age rating or cause it to undergo a re-evaluation.

We've reached out to G-Mode for more information and will update this article when we hear back. For now, if you want to play the game, the Steam version is, thankfully, still available.