Seven years later, Nintendo fans beat Switch game even the devs didn’t

For every massive success Nintendo releases, there’s an oddball that confuses everyone. In 2017, that was the two-player party game 1-2 Switch, a collection of accessible mini-games. Think Wii Sports, but without the cutesy Miis, or Mario Party without the brand recognition. Players would be prompted to do anything from milking digital cows, to inflating fake balloons as fast as possible. The casual party game sold a few million copies, but by and large the world seems to have forgotten Nintendo’s inclusive experiment. Except for at least two people, who recently sought out a record that defied the very people who made the game.

A gamer with the username Elfilin tells Polygon that they initially bought the game when it was released and they were in high school. It quickly became a favorite for introducing people to video games regardless of their background.

“I’m a big fan of Nintendo’s deeper, technical games, like Super Smash Bros., but with 1-2-Switch, I can pluck someone off the street and they might beat me in a Quick Draw,” Elfilin says, referring to mini game where players have to draw fake guns out as fast as possible, cowboy style. Elfilin thus brought 1-2 Switch to college, where it became a running bit that helped them develop a social life.

“It’s honestly a good ice-breaker when you’re just getting to know someone,” Elfilin says, noting that half of the games encourage players to maintain eye contact as they’re instructed to do things like thrust their butts at one another.

One of the games included in 1-2 Switch is called Plate Spin. As the name implies, players must balance platters using their Joy-Con. The twist is that players can try and mess with one another in real life while the game periodically shrinks the dishes further. It’s a fun game, but a tough one. Most of the time, matches of Plate Spin don’t last very long. Here’s one video from IGN in 2017 where the round lasts just barely over 20 seconds; here’s one where the match is over about 10 seconds in. Curiously, Plate Spin includes a 2 minute timer while the events unfold. A friend of Elfilin’s noticed this in 2024, and asked if they’d ever managed to get to the end of it.

“I said that I’ve never done it, and that I haven’t been able to find anyone online posting them beating it or even acknowledging that it could be beaten,” Elfilin recalls. “It was then that my friend agreed to join me in attempting this Herculean task.”

Over the course of three separate sessions, the duo pushed themselves to the limit in what is a surprisingly demanding game. You’ve got to move your hands the entire time, and so does your partner. If either of you fails, then the timer is over and neither of you gets to see what happens at the end. It didn’t take long for Elfilin’s arms to start getting sore, and the pair had to start using cushioned stools to rest their appendages.

Strategies had to be developed. Though it was difficult, the players realized that Plate Spin telegraphed some of its nuances. If you go slowly, the plates wobble. If you go too fast, the sticks holding up the plates go off-center. Recovering from speediness was possible, though — you could simply stop moving for a few seconds. The two resorted to trying to go as quickly as possible until the game gave its telltale warning.

Adjustments had to be made as the plates minimized every 30 seconds; the two had to maintain the same pace while the radius of their spins progressively got smaller. Easier said than done. It took six hours and plenty of soreness before the two got to see the timer hit zero.

So, what happens? See for yourself:

The audience roars, and the game acknowledges the player’s feat before calling a draw. It might sound silly — and it is — but to their credit, it’s something seemingly no one has done before. There’s no evidence online of a Plate Spin ending, which makes sense, because it’s not exactly the sort of thing that would typically bestow gaming glory, like a speedrunning world record in a popular game. Though it’s a first-party game developed by Nintendo itself, most people never played 1-2 Switch. If they did, they probably didn’t get through every single mini-game in its entirety. That includes the very people who made the game themselves.

After posting about the feat on Reddit, a game tester on 1-2 Switch came out of the woodwork to reveal that even folks internally hadn’t seen the ending of Plate Spin.

“As one of the testers on that game, congrats! I dont think any of us beat it in-house,” wrote a user named cellShock_r, which belongs to an account that has a history of posts revolving around game development prior to the thread. “Tbh I’m surprised we even bothered making it.”

Elfilin says that they technically accomplished this achievement last year, but with the launch of the Switch 2, it seemed like a good opportunity to brag about something outside of their immediate friend circle.

“There was clearly a lot of effort put into programming the mechanics of the minigame, which I appreciate,” Elfilin tells Polygon.

“It’s a big flex to be able to say that I’m the only person to complete a first-party Nintendo game, especially one that has sold 4 million copies.”