I fell victim to this one on authentic “retro” N64 hardware, which has a hard plastic analog stick. Got an enormous blister right on the palm of my hand trying to win this tug of war. Of course, my young brain was able to hyperfocus on the game and completely tuned out any sense of pain in my hand. It was quite gruesome when I finally beat it and realized my hand was torn to shreds. I was at my neighbors place and I remember how shocked their mom was. She applied some cream that I think was meant for severe burns.

Nintendo would later run a campaign where they’d send you fingerless gloves for free to try to do some damage control on all the negative press when reports started popping up.

That does bring back memories. Painful memories. Rented that game back in the day. Then, I spent an entire day at a friend’s pool trying to keep my hand above water because young me thought the water was bad for the wound. Swam the entire day like I had a question nobody would let me ask.

I remember getting a bruise on my palm from doing that so much at my grandma’s. And I wouldn’t stop, so I had it there for months.

Just plug in lil bro’s Mad Catz controller.

I wish there was warnings about handing my long-nailed partner the new controller before playing FIFA. Apparently when you’re making your guy run faster by applying hydraulic press levels of force to the joystick, using your thumbnail on the rubber helps stop sweat slips.

That was a tactic for spinning Bowser in Mario 64.

Instruction unclear. Dick got irritated.

Oh. I didn’t know that

I don’t remember what minigame but it was for Mario Party for the GameCube. It required pressing A really fast and we found out you could drag your knuckles back and forth across the button to cause damage to both your opponents and your hand.

I’m reminded of a required minigame near the end of Star Fox Adventures based purely around button mashing. The requirement needed some dozen attempts when I was a kid and lead to strats involving rubbing a spoon on the controller.