Today I Found Out

Are Nintendo Products Really More Durable Than Other Consoles? (2020x86)

Air date: Apr 15, 2020

If you're looking for something fun and free to do while in lockdown, go “”, the small business based in Kyoto was started by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing cards that are used to play multiple games – much like the more common standardized 52 playing card sets. (And if you’re wondering about the name, it’s generally thought that it comes from the Japanese name “Nintendou”, roughly translated “Nin” means “entrusted” and “ten-dou” means “heaven”, so basically “leave luck to heaven”.) However, today, of course, the company is arguably best known for the series of gaming consoles it has produced over the years, many of which are rumored by fans to be practically indestructible. In fact, numerous videos exist online of people subjecting Nintendo devices to a host of extreme tests in an effort to test the limits of their legendary longevity. As a result we have examples like a Gamecube surviving being hit by a sledgehammer, NES cartridges surviving being run over by cars or put through a washing machine, and even a 3DS surviving being set on fire. All of this has led to a legend that speaks of a rare element known simply as Nintendium. The exact properties of this mysterious element vary from source to source but it is generally described as being hugely durable and virtually impervious to damage. Nintendo supposedly discovered this element in the early 1980s and have since used it in every console they’ve ever produced, leading to them possessing similar levels of durability. While there’s no such thing as Nintendium in real life- or at least so Nintendo wants their competitors to believe- the fact that consumers came up with such a rich and bizarre narrative in an attempt to explain how Nintendo consoles are seemingly so much more hard-wearing than the consoles of its competitors speaks volumes about the durability of their products. While we initially figured that many of the rumors su