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A Comprehensive Review of Nintendo-Related Medical Literature

From “Nintendo Incontinence” to “Wiiitis” and “Surgerii,” Nintendo has a long history of showing up in scientific and medical journals.
​Screengrab: ​YouTube

​If you're as competitive when you play video games as I am, you've probably thrown a controller at your brother at some point. Maybe that's just me. In any case, things can get intense in the living room, and there's a whole compendium of medical reports of Nintendo-inflicted medical emergencies.

To determine whether a Nintendo product is a safe Christmas gift or not (spoiler alert: it is), researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands did a complete review of Nintendo-related medical literature. The team, led by Maarten Jalink, said it chose Nintendo in part because of its long history and in part because the Wii and its controllers have created a new class of medical injury.

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"There have been reports of Nintendo related injuries and other problems, which range from mild to life threatening," the team wrote in the British Medical Journal. "We therefore decided to gather all reported cases of Nintendo related problems to see whether a Nintendo is safe to give as a Christmas present."

This is the game that caused Nintendo to issue protective gloves.​

Overall, the team found 1198 journal articles that specifically referenced "Nintendo," "Game & Watch," "Famicom," "Game Boy" (and "Gameboy"), "Virtual Boy," "iQue," and "GameCube." Of those, just 38 were specifically about Nintendo-related injuries, and most of those were case reports. Here's what the team discovered.

Nintendo Epilepsy - In the earliest Nintendo-related medical condition reported in the literature, a 13-year-old girl suffered a seizure after playing the original Super Mario Bros on her NES for three hours straight. A followup study found that epileptics who played a Mario-like game were more likely to experience seizures than those who watched TV.

Nintendo Incontinence - Two papers published in the early 1990s described a total of four boys who were too busy playing Mario to go to the restroom. "All cases were successfully treated by explaining how to pause the game."

Nintendo Neck - Attributed to people who played Game Boy all day. Probably similar to texting neck people get these days.

Nintendo Elbow - Not too many specifics on this, but a 12-year-old had pain in his right elbow after playing his Nintendo "a lot."

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Nintendo Hallucinations - One paranoid schizophrenic was described as having "persistent auditory hallucinations of video game music."

Nintendinitis - This is a class of nonspecific hand injury. In different journals, it's been described as occurring when someone's thumbs freeze up or get tendinitis from playing too much Nintendo. One guy who got eczema on his fingers said it was from playing too much Nintendo.

Most famously, however, Nintendo had to hand out protective gloves to owners of Mario Party,  ​because rotating the Nintendo 64 joystick too much can "lead to palmar ulceration." Anyone who has ever tried that wind-up mini game knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Wiiitis - The introduction of the Wii brought on more serious injuries, from people who got too into Wii Sports or other games. We've got cases of inflamed shoulders and elbows, hurt necks, carpal tunnel syndrome, and two partial tears of the Achilles tendon.

Wii Knee - One woman suffered from a dislocated knee while serving a tennis ball in Wii Sports. Another tore her meniscus while playing Wii Bowling. Also … Wiiknee? Seriously?

Surgerii - These are the serious injuries, some of them life-threatening. One woman needed medical intervention after suffering a hemothorax (pooling of blood near the lungs) after she fell while playing Wii Sports. Two patients have had strokes while playing the Wii. One guy fractured his spine, and others have broken their hands while swinging the Wiimote around.

So, there you have it. The verdict, however, is that "most reported problems related to use of the Nintendo are mild, and, given the number of gaming systems sold, the prevalence is low."

"Overall, a Nintendo is a relatively safe Christmas present," the researchers concluded.