Switch 2 game cartridges taste horrible, Nintendo has confirmed, just like Switch 1.
This may sound like a silly thing to write about (because why is someone tasting a Switch 2 game?) but, once again, the bad-tasting Switch cartridge coating is a safety measure.
Original Switch games are coated in denatonium benzoate, which on Nintendo’s own support page, the team describes this as “a bitter-tasting substance”. But don’t worry, it isn’t harmful to your health. It is often used in those polishes that are meant to deter wearers from biting their nails (a tactic my parents’ deployed on me when I was younger, I can still recall the taste very well).
“We don’t want anybody to be at risk of any unwanted consumption,” Nintendo Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta explained to GameSpot.
Nintendo had “indeed made it so that if [a Switch 2 game card] enters your mouth, you’ll spit it out”, Dohta continued. While I assume the likes of you and I would know instinctively not to pop a game into our mouths, small children may not think along those same lines.
Continuing, Dohta said he would not advise even trying just a cursory lick of a Switch 2 cartridge, no matter how tempting it may seem.
Nintendo Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto also joined in with the ‘why you shouldn’t pop a game cart into your mouth’ conversation, stating he did indeed lick an original Switch game, but only once and once was more than enough.
“Never again,” Kawamoto said, “I can’t believe that other people are trying that.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 is launching Thursday 5th June, with a retail price of £395.99 for the console, or £429.99 should you opt for the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World bundle.
For more, our Tom has already been hands-on with Nintendo’s upcoming console. You can read his Switch 2 impressions here.