People Licking The New Nintendo Cartridges Have Discovered They Taste Terrible
... Okay.
Remember the good old days of Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64? And remember how you used to have to blow on the game cartridges to clear out the dust before plugging them in and playing? It truly was a golden era of gaming.
Nintendo’s latest console, the Switch, has just gone on sale in Australia and early adopters have discovered its game cartridges have their own peculiar quirk: they taste like absolute shit.
No one knows why people started licking the cartridges in the first place, but everyone agrees that the flavour of the small, black pieces of plastic is just awful.
This does not look appealing at all.
It turns out a lot of people, including allegedly serious journalists, have tried tasting them.
I put that Switch cart in my mouth and I'm not sure what those things are made of but I can still taste it. Do not try this at home.
— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) February 25, 2017
Okay, so, turns out Nintendo Switch cartridges taste awful so kids won't eat them. I, uh, just licked one and can confirm: TASTES BAD MAN.
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) March 1, 2017
I just licked Zelda because of this and yup, can confirm: is gross https://t.co/4x3TQn9Ym9
— Alex Hern (@alexhern) March 1, 2017
The folk over at Gamespot even put together a video of their staff licking the cartridges and absolutely hating it.
Leaving aside the fact that’s it deeply weird to lick game cartridges, why do they taste so bad? Did Nintendo predict people would try and eat them and do it on purpose?
Well, yes. That’s exactly what happened. In a statement Nintendo confirmed that the cartridges are coated in a material that makes them taste bitter. The company added denatonium benzoate, a bittering agent, to the cartridges to try and discourage consumption.
Given how many people have started licking them, explicitly because they taste bad, I’m not sure the plan worked. Though it might dissuade young kids from putting the small cartridges into their mouths, which is a good thing.