Mario Party's Most Dangerous Mini-Game Is Back

Nintendo's throwback title "Mario Party Superstars" brings back the boards and mini-games from the Nintendo 64 "Mario Party" games. Apparently, Nintendo wants to bring pain and suffering to a new generation as well, because one of the included mini-games sent people to the hospital by destroying kids' palms.

Early leaks for "Mario Party Superstars" (which releases on October 29, 2021) showed several mini-games  that will make their debut on the Nintendo Switch, including the infamous "Tug o' War." The mini-game is a 3-on-1 game where one player (dressed as Bowser) has to beat the other three in a game of tug o' war. The game was played by rotating the thumbstick as fast as possible, which lead to pain back in the Nintendo 64 era. Kids would use their palms to move the thumbstick faster, cutting themselves or burning their skin against the hard plastic. Eventually, Nintendo offered protective gloves to prevent players from mutilating themselves (via CNET.)

Now, two decades later, Nintendo made the choice to include "Tug o' War" in "Mario Party Superstars," but it included a plan to prevent a new generation from destroying their palms. The plan is incredibly simple. 

@KirbyCheatFurby shared a screenshot from the game shows there is a warning that reads "to avoid irritation to your skin and/or damage to the control stick, do not rotate it with the palm of your hand." And, just like that, Nintendo will be absolved of responsibility for those that choose to hurt themselves. No protective gloves necessary. 

That being said, @KirbyCheatFurby shared their concern about the mini-game, writing, "I'm not really concerned about the palm pain, more so the fact that this will probably REALLY damage your switch joy-cons or pro controller, and those things are NOT cheap."

While you could just not use your palm to win the "Tug o' War" mini-game, on the Nintendo 64 it was a necessary tactic to actually beat the skilled CPUs. It's unknown if the CPUs in "Mario Party Superstars" will be tuned in a way where palming the stick isn't necessary, but this all brings up an interesting point. While Nintendo has gotten better at handling Joy-Con drift over time, it is interesting that the company would include a mini-game known for destroying controllers and people's hands. While it remains to be seen if rotating the Joy-Con thumbsticks at max speed will destroy the controllers, anyone picking up "Mario Party Superstars" this week might want to listen to the in-game warning.