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Nintendo is probably best known for its legendary home consoles: the Super Nintendo, the N64 and perhaps most iconically the NES. Yet the company was no stranger to hardware when it released its game changing (pun probably intended) gray box back in 1983. Nintendo had, in fact, released previous gaming machines like the Color TV System in its six eventual iterations as well as the Game & Watch. Of course most Nintendo aficionados already know all this.
But what some may not know is that Nintendo had been dabbling in amusement tech long before Mr. Game & Watch ever juggled his first ball or Jumpman ever…well, jumped. All the way back in 1969 Nintendo released what has gone down as one of the most unusual products in its long history—a “Love Tester” designed to rate how much two people loved each other.
What Was The Electronic Love Tester and How Did it Work?
The “Love/Lie Detector” as it was known in the West was designed by the legendary Gunpei Yokoi, who would later go on to create the Game & Watch and GameBoy handhelds. It was one of Nintendo’s very first electronic games and was also a rare case of a Nintendo product that shipped outside of Japan during this period.
The Love Tester retailed at ¥1,800; it ran on one AA battery and came with a carry pouch. The gadget consisted of a central unit with an On/Off switch and a “love” meter measuring from 0-100. Attached to each side of the meter via cords were two metal balls. Participants held hands to measure their love for each other, with each holding one of the metal balls.
In reality, the device measured electrical conductivity between the pair. While the Love Tester probably didn’t create any lasting love affairs, it’s probably for the best coming from a company whose name literally means “leave luck to heaven.” Of the gadget Yokoi said,
The Love Tester came from me wondering if I could somehow use this to get girls to hold my hand. … I wound up holding hands with quite a few girls thanks to it.
Yokoi also stated that he “loved explaining that the meter gave better results when people kissed the girl.”
A Simple Toy with a Big Legacy
Nintendo’s Love Tester came out in a time when it was still considered inappropriate in Japan for couples to so much as hold hands in public. And while they were relatively tame even then, the television ads that ran for the toy have a cult status even to this day.
The Electronic Love Tester got two officially licensed remakes in 2008 and 2010 by Taito and Tenyo respectively. The latter went for an extremely faithful remake while Taito’s version was a bit more modern aesthetically, however it could only be obtained by winning it in a UFO Catcher arcade claw game, which is only found in Japan.
The gadget has made several in-game appearances too, and there’s a good chance you’ve spotted it somewhere before.
- As the lie detector DooDad in WarioWare: Twisted! (GBA)
- As the Prototype Detector in Pikmin 2 (GC and Wii)
- As a collectible item in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
- As an easter egg in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS)
- As a character in Chee-Chai Alien (GBC)
- As a collectible in WarioWare Gold (3DS)
- As the Compat-I-Com Gaddget in Mario Party Advance (GBA)
In addition to being a quirky albeit fascinating piece of Nintendo history, the Electronic Love Tester is now a highly prized collector’s item.
