Nintendo’s long-running Mario Kart series will be coming to mobile platforms soon, but on top of mobile-focused gameplay and graphics, one of the features that it will be missing from the Switch version is apparently hand tumor detection. 28-year-old Redditor ChrisChalms spoke to gaming news outlet Kotaku about the strange find. Precise tactile feedback via HD Rumble is something that’s often talked about in the mobile space, and the Nintendo Switch has the feature and uses it to great effect. In Mario Kart, specifically, a very short and strong rumble would hit every time you pick up a coin, and the fact that this rumble, and seemingly no other stimuli, caused Chris great pain in his right hand drove him to get it checked out.
Talking to Kotaku about the issue, Chris said that he wrote off the pain as a repetitive stress injury from work at first. This is a very common injury for programmers and gamers alike, so being both, Chris thought it perfectly normal. He shied away from Mario Kart at first, then eschewed the Switch entirely, opting to play PC games using an Xbox One controller. The Xbox One controller is a high-quality, feature-packed peripheral, to be sure, but the lack of HD rumble meant it didn’t set off that same pain for Chris. Eventually, on top of the fact that only playing the Switch would hurt his hand, Chris noticed a bruise-like mark that had showed up out of nowhere. This made him go to doctors, who told him to monitor it. As soon as it began to raise and become painful with any hand movement, Chris knew to go immediately to the doctors. The tumor was caught early and is scheduled for removal soon. By doctors’ analysis, it has a 5% chance of being malignant.
For those not in the know, the Nintendo Switch is the first console to toe the line between a portable and a full-power home console, and its detachable Joy-Con controllers are what made this find possible. The Joy-Cons can be taken off the main console to dock it or to play mutliplayer games, or they can be clipped to the Switch to take it on the run. The HD Rumble feature works in both modes.
