Nintendo has been trying to rectify analog stick drifting issues on the Nintendo Switch Joy-cons for quite awhile.
When customers send in their controllers for repair, they might receive back controllers with new or refurbished analog sticks to solve drifting issues.
It’s a Mario
Recently fans has discovered an interesting detail with the refurbished parts used. It seems like Nintendo has a special way of differentiating refurbished analog sticks from new ones – by marking them with a stamp of Mario wearing a bow tie! Nah we are not kidding.
This was first uncovered by Reddit user redditinchina, and confirmed by @MarioBrothBlog on Twitter. (see below)
Underside of a Nintendo Switch analog stick (extracted from a Joy-Con) received back from Nintendo of America after refurbishing. These are marked with a stamp of Mario wearing a bow tie after being repaired to distinguish them from units that have not been faulty in the past. pic.twitter.com/4g8qU0P8ZO
— Supper Mario Broth (@MarioBrothBlog) September 27, 2019
While it is not exactly clear when Nintendo started using this stamp for refurbished analog sticks it’s a cool little detail. Nintendo likes to hide easter eggs in such places, you might recall the message early Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers had, right?
