Nintendo uses a bitterant called denatonium benzoate applied to its Nintendo Switch cartridges to dissuade people from putting cartridges in their mouths. It’s a substance that tastes absolutely foul, often used in similar situations — to keep people from consuming things they shouldn’t be, like antifreeze. While a Nintendo Switch cartridge might not be poisonous, you could choke on it. Children, especially, are at risk; they put all sorts of things in their mouths.
A Nintendo spokesperson confirmed to Polygon in 2017 that it uses this non-toxic coating to “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.”
With the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, it’s natural to wonder, What does a Nintendo Switch 2 cartridge taste like? Probably quite the same. Nintendo technical director Takuhiro Dohta didn’t confirm that it’s denatoium benzoate, but he did say that it’s designed so that if you put it in your mouth you’ll spit it out. He advised not to try tasting it in an interview with GameSpot.
“We don’t want anybody to be at risk of any unwanted consumption,” Dohta said. “We have indeed made it so that if it enters your mouth, you’ll spit it out.”
Nintendo wasn’t offering taste samples of Switch 2 cartridges during Nintendo’s console preview event, and it’s unclear yet if anyone has tasted the cartridge. We’ll all likely have to wait until the console is released on June 5 to consider for our selves if we want to find out by putting one of the $80 cartridges in our own mouths. It sounds like Dohta hasn’t — and won’t — be salivating at the chance to lick Mario Kart World, though: “When the Nintendo Switch was being developed, I did lick it once, but never again. I can’t believe that other people are trying that.”
