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Nintendo Social Networks

Strange New Social Media Trend: Licking Nintendo Switch Cartridges (macon.com) 117

Posted by EditorDavid from the bad-taste-in-videogames dept.
Now that the Nintendo Switch has launched, "lots of people are just licking their video games," reports McClatchy. According to IGN, the tech company coated the cartridges, which are roughly the size of a SIM card, in a bittering agent called denatonium benzoate, which is also used in rat poison and antifreeze to deter human consumption. The chemical is also used to deter nail-biting, per the Telegraph. Nintendo used the chemical as a safety measure to stop small children and pets from eating the cartridges. While there is no adverse health effects from consuming denatonium benzoate, it does leave a sour, bitter taste that lasts for hours, according to taste testers from BBC News, Quartz and IGN. But even as more and more people take to social media to let others know how bad the cartridges taste, more and more people seem determined to try it in what some are calling the Nintendo cartridge challenge...
"Humanity deserves no faith," opines Slashdot reader RavenLrD20k. But meanwhile on Twitter, one gamer was already complaining that their morning coffee tasted like a Nintendo Switch cartridge.
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Strange New Social Media Trend: Licking Nintendo Switch Cartridges More

Strange New Social Media Trend: Licking Nintendo Switch Cartridges

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  • Whatever floats their boat... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mattMad ( 1271832 ) on Sunday March 05, 2017 @04:01AM (#53979023)
    If I want to taste something really bad, I just start cooking. Much cheaper than buying a Nintendo!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      parent said, "If I want to taste something really bad, I just start cooking."

      LOL. I miss read it as " I just start cocksucking. "

      My bad!

  • waste of money (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05, 2017 @04:35AM (#53979053)

    Paid over $300 for this new console, and all it's done is leave me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by RogueyWon ( 735973 )

      Meh, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I've found a few things to like about it; the screen is good quality (first time for that on a Nintendo handheld device). The UI is pleasant and functional (compare and contrast with the XB1's). Plus, Nintendo finally step into the 21st century by abandoning region locks and the whole "multi region account switching" thing is pretty easy, which is nice.

      But there is also a lot wrong with it, and I'd be lying if I said I don't have a bit of buyer's remorse. The ergonomics are b

      • In the long term, this thing is an express ticket to RSI-town. Nintendo have forgotten or ignored some basic design and ergonomic principles that everybody else has known about for years.

        Nintendo has never had ergonomically good controllers, unless you count the NES Advantage (which had lousy buttons, so you probably shouldn't. I wonder if you can hack full size arcade buttons into there.) Every single controller they've ever made has had awful ergo. The original NES controller really stands out as RSI-inducing, the SNES controller wasn't much better especially as it was a slippery little sucker, the N64 controller was a fucking train wreck (shifting your hand position in the middle of a ga

        • You haven't named the Gamecube controller, which to me was a wonderful design that I still use to play emulators on my PC (using an adapter, of course).

          • You haven't named the Gamecube controller, which to me was a wonderful design that I still use to play emulators on my PC (using an adapter, of course).

            You must have small hands. Mine are huge and it makes me cry. And since they're Nintendo and it's their way or the highway they only ever make controllers sized for Japanese.

            I will add that every single nintendo handheld ever has had awful ergo. I have all the old ones (my newest one is a DS) and they are all bad. And so was the virtual boy, which incidentally has the controller most similar to the gamecube, at least in shape.

            • It would make me cry to have huge hands, too. Nobody but the really stretched out hags would want me to fist them.

              Yes, I *have* had my small hands complimented for that.

          • The Gamecube controller was absolutely awful. The right analogue stick was an abortion... a hideous shrivelled nipple which was of no use whatsoever in-game.

            I kinda get what they were going for, with the face buttons. Until the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox generation, there tended to be one controller button that was used more than the others, so why not make it bigger. Unfortunately, they did that just as console games were getting more sophisticated and button usage was getting more evenly spread. So they ended up w

            • I guess you're too young to ever had played with an Intellivision controller. Your list would be quite different.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dissy ( 172727 )

                I guess you're too young to ever had played with an Intellivision controller. Your list would be quite different.

                While that may or may not be true for the parent poster, the Intellivision was my first game console, and despite the fact its controller was likely the worst designed ever, that still doesn't change the fact nearly every other Nintendo designed controller is also very bad.

            • I did like that right analogue stick. I also liked the consoles with only one analogue stick - those are the N64 and Dreamcast. These forced games to use only one stick.
              The N64 game pad would have been good if they had fixed that silly problem with the stick eroding.

              The Game Cube controller also had that clicking on the analog triggers, that was innovative.

      • The GameBoy advance micro had an excellent display, too.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by guises ( 2423402 )
        Do you have a Wii U? If so, how would you compare the gamepad to the Switch with the Joycons attached? Ergonomically speaking, I mean.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mentil ( 1748130 )

          WiiU + Switch owner here. The Switch (with joycons) is smaller than the WiiU gamepad in every dimension, and is noticeably lighter. The joycon buttons are smaller and more tightly grouped. The analogue sticks are smaller and stiffer, their ridges have notches in the cardinal directions to help you tell what part of the stick you're touching. I often accidentally click in the left stick when moving it around quickly, whereas I don't recall that happening on the WiiU gamepad. The center of balance of the Swit

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by guises ( 2423402 )
            Well, thank you. That was very thorough. I've been quite happy with the gamepad and was hoping that the Switch would feel similar. From your description it seems that there are quite a few differences, but it sounds that they're more like trade-offs than like a bunch of negatives. So that's encouraging.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Snufu ( 1049644 )

      You're licking it wrong.

  • "Oh, you're a real comedian, Dave," Goldberg said, stubbing out his roach and jamming a cork into the glass vial which he had been filling from the petcock at the end of the apparatus' run. "Any day now I expect you to start slipping strychnine into the goods. That'd be pretty good for a yock, too."

    "You know, I never thought of that before. Maybe you got something there. Let a few people go out with a smile, satisfaction guaranteed. Christ, Will, we could tell them exactly what it was and still sell some

  • I do love to blow and lick.

    My cartridges.

  • i.e. the constant trend of increased number of people with lower intelligence, due to successful procreation in spite of cognitive inadequacies.

  • That's another one.
    And it tastes awful!

  • As if you wouldn't touch it.

    Personally I now have this urge to find out what a switch cartridge tastes like.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by qubezz ( 520511 )
      The bittering agent is used in several consumer products. Probably the most pervasive is vehicle antifreeze, where bittering is mandated in a majority of states and therefore almost universal. Pop your radiator lid, dip your finger, and have a taste; it's either sweet and inviting (although maybe a bit metallic) or a putrid bitter that just lingers after you spit and swish.

      • Actually my comment was more in relation to all the posters here who said everyone is an idiot for doing this. Humans are inquisitive and generally non-trusting.

        I heard the cartridge tastes bitter if you lick it. I now have a desire to check that too, just like I have a desire to check if paint is still wet when the sign says wet paint.

  • To Be Fair, Licking Consoles Isn't New (Score:5, Informative)

    by rsmith-mac ( 639075 ) on Sunday March 05, 2017 @06:43AM (#53979231)

    In all fairness to the, uh, interesting people doing this, they're not completely off their rockers. Licking consoles was a thing before social media even existed.

    A then-unknown Jessica Chobot (who these days hosts shows for Nerdist) basically started the whole thing by licking a PSP [encyclopediadramatica.se] as a gag photo in 2005. Since then, someone, somewhere (usually Chobot, it feels like) licks a launch console.

    The only novel change here is people licking the cartridge instead of the console, and that's due to the aforementioned use of a bittering agent. Maybe Nintendo got it wrong here and needs to go into licking controls instead of motion controls...

  • When I was a kid my parents tried that anti nail-biting paint. I used to lick it off and ask for some more.

  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by andydread ( 758754 ) on Sunday March 05, 2017 @08:48AM (#53979601)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Immunity (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    UK NHS:
    We use denatonium benzoate at work to test the fit of masks designed to prevent the inhalation of biological agents. We have to don our PPE(mask) of choice and then a large hood. An examiner sprays an aerosol of denatonium benzoate into the hood to see whether the PPE fits.

    I can personally claim to be immune/insensitive to the effects/taste of denatonium benzoate. Testers have sprayed the agent directly onto my tongue and eyeballs and I have not been able to tell. Apparently it's a genetic thing/bug

  • People are so stupid, I have no faith in humanity anymore.

  • Too much news (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sunking2 ( 521698 ) on Sunday March 05, 2017 @10:48AM (#53979957)
    This is what happens when you have a society that can no longer make things that are productive and all become journalists and bloggers with nothing of use to write about. Nintendo did this to try to curb an issue they saw. Someone with no real news to report decided to try to make this news. Now it's an issue for no real reason. I'm not against reporting whatever you want, just noting how pathetic society is in its need to consume 'news' that really isn't.

    • Now it's an issue for no real reason.

      Actually I think this is more what happens when people without a clue who don't read up on things have an opinion. In this case the only reference at all I have found to this being an issue is you claiming it is. Every other article simply points out the trend.

      I'm not against reporting whatever you want, just noting how pathetic society is in its need to consume 'news' that really isn't.

      The news has always reported on trends in their back pages. Even dead tree papers had columns dedicated to stupid things people do. The difference is that now it's all online you seem to seek out this stuff and then through confirmation bias declare t

    • Wait... are you talking about people licking carts or buying a Switch?

  • My cats wouldn't do that, and neither should you.
  • Bobby is sent to his room, but finds a way to make his own entertainment: "The clock radio smells like my Game Boy, but it tastes like my library card. I wonder if it smells different when it's on?"

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