10 Lies About Famous Video Games You Probably Believe

2. Blowing On A Cartridge Fixes It - Any Nintendo Game

GTA san andreas bigfoot
8bitredcat

This lie isn't so much about a single game, but Nintendo games as a whole.

Perhaps the most persistent and widespread myth about Nintendo's cartridge-based media on NES, SNES, and N64 is that, if a game doesn't load on your first attempt, you should remove it, blow on the exposed connector to clear out the dust and re-insert it into the console.

In more recent years this has been confirmed to be nothing more than a faintly absurd placebo effect, as all you're really doing is taking the game out and putting it back in, giving the console another chance to read the cartridge's connector.

Still, so many of us swore by this tactic for years, despite many N64 cartridges literally warning the player not to blow on them, given that the moisture in even a faint blow could theoretically damage the cartridge.

Though cartridge blowing has been debunked, Nintendo fans have largely moved on to licking their Switch cartridges instead, which is a whole other can of worms.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.