Nintendo have a warning on at least one of their minigames in Mario Party Superstars, asking users not spin the analog stick with their palm.
During the launch of the original Mario Party in 1999, some children were becoming injured. Certain mini-games such as Tug o’ War required players to spin the analog stick quickly. Soon, kids were using the palm of their hand on the stick, rather than their thumb or finger. As a result of the Nintendo 64’s textured joystick, they soon began to suffer blisters and even friction burns.
After 90 complaints to New York’s attorney general’s office, Nintendo of America offered gloves to anyone who had been injured. Estimates state this could have affected up to 1.2 million gamers, and cost Nintendo up to $80 million USD [1, 2], along with the $75,000 USD in legal fees.
Fast forward to today, and (as VGC reports) social media has seen plenty of gameplay clips and screenshots of Mario Party Superstars ahead of its official launch. This is the second time a major Nintendo game has leaked this month, with Metroid Dread leaking three days early.
As some have noted on Twitter however, the infamous Tug o’ War minigame now has a warning [1, 2]. The warning states “To avoid irritation to your skin and/or damage to the control stick, do not rotate it with the palm of your hand.” It is unknown if there are similar warnings on other stick-spinning focused minigames.
As the images were shared on Twitter [1, 2, 3] discussion seems to indicate that some believe the warnings will not be adhered to. Some even suggested the mini-game not be included at all if Nintendo were that concerned but did not wish to provide a glove.
Some were also concerned if the analog sticks of the Nintendo Switch Joy Cons would be able to endure rapid rotation from impassioned players. The warning does note avoiding damage to the control stick.
As previously reported, the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons have issues with drifting–which is when the joystick remains untouched, yet input is still registered. After numerous lawsuits [1, 2, 3, 4], free repairs, apologies, and consumer advocate group denouncement [1, 2, 3]; Nintendo stated that the Joy-Con analog sticks have improved with every iteration; with the OLED Model having “all the improvements.”
Mario Party Superstars aims to bring classic minigames and boards from across the series into one package, including those from the Nintendo 64. Mt. Minigames mode will also return, where players can battle it out in competitive survival courses and cooperative tag matches.
Mario Party Superstars launches October 29th, for Nintendo Switch.
