A programmer named Chris credits his Switch for locating a tumor in his right hand. According to Kotaku, whom Chris did an interview with via email, the HD rumble feature of the Nintendo Switch magnified the pain in his palm when playing Mario Kart 8, ultimately leading to doctors’ visits, subsequently finding an actual tumor.
The 28-year-old stated in a Reddit post that it began when playing Mario Kart, “I started getting a shooting pain from my right palm to the first joint in my index finger when the controller vibrated, especially when collecting coins [in Mario Kart].” Mario Kart makes big use of the Joy-Con HD Rumble feature when collecting coins, and noticed the striking pain. From there, he essentially stopped playing his Switch due to the pain experienced from the HD Rumble affect, something he didn’t find on PC when gaming with an Xbox One controller. Being programmer, he chalked up the pain due to coding on the daily; but the pain didn’t pass. After an agonizing six months had gone by, the doctors finally determined it was a tumor.
Chris commented on the eye-opening experience, saying that, “I definitely believe that if it hadn’t been for the Switch I wouldn’t have gone to the doctors until the mark started to raise from my palm months later.” He will undergo surgery to remove the tumor on Monday, and the likelihood of cancer developing sits at minute 5%.
Suffice to say that, while we can’t speak to the actual practice of the Switch locating more tumors, it is a classy niche area that Nintendo may have found itself in. Plus, maybe Nintendo could be a key developer in the medical hardware industry within the coming years; we’ll have to wait and see.
Caleb has been a gamer and Nintendo fan since picking up Pokémon Red for his Game Boy back in 1998, at the wee age of 4. He’s an avid Pokémon TCG collector, and is currently enjoying Breath of the Wild on Switch, along with PUBG on Xbox. He’s a fan of the outdoors when not writing, while also being an avid runner and world traveler. Give him a shout if you’re a fan of Arsenal FC.
Plays: Switch, 3DS, Xbox One, Pokémon TCG, and Various Board Games.