I’ve written about a bunch of diversified video game hardware over time, from novel consoles to retro objects to whatever you’re looking out to name the Playdate. However I will be able to’t private into narrative ever being eternally sore from making an strive out a application; such are the fun of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has turned its largest flop into an accent for the Switch, but the prices fervent — to your wallet, eyes, and neck — originate it a no longer easy sell. Noteworthy cherish the customary, right here’s a novelty for Nintendo sickos finest.
First released in 1995, the customary Virtual Boy regarded cherish a VR headset but wasn’t basically VR or a headset. As an different, the console equipped stereoscopic 3D video games that you just considered by a pair of chubby goggles that were propped up on a stand. It also rendered video games in gaze-searing crimson and murky, making for an expertise that had some likely but used to be in a roundabout draw gruesome and uncomfortable. It used to be a flop and used to be discontinued after factual a year, gathering a library of decrease than two dozen video games.
Now Nintendo has brought that very same expertise to the Switch. Virtual Boy video games were added to the Nintendo Classics assortment of retro video games accessible to Switch Online subscribers this week, but the twist is, on narrative of the novel nature of the customary hardware, you’d honest enjoy gotten to take an accent to in actuality play them. There’s a plastic re-advent of the Virtual Boy that’ll mosey you $A hundred, which is what I’ve been using, as effectively as a cheaper cardboard headset that’s a miles more more cost effective $25. Both draw, you’ll need both a subscription and an accent to play these video games.
Technically the video games will mosey in portable mode without one of the most accessories linked, but without the magnifying goggles, they’re displayed so shrimp that they’re in actuality unplayable. It looks one thing cherish this:
The plastic Virtual Boy looks cherish the customary hardware, entire with a untrue controller port and volume dial. However in actuality it’s an present an explanation for Switch (or Switch 2) case that turns it into one thing equivalent to a Virtual Boy. It works cherish this: The head of the Virtual Boy opens up, letting you slot in a Switch, sans Joy-Con controllers, internal. In case you shut it up, the Switch becomes the console powering the Virtual Boy-cherish expertise. See by the goggles, and to boot you’re awash in pixelated reds and blacks (even though diversified colors will be accessible put up-commence).
Since you don’t put on it strapped to your face, the Virtual Boy doesn’t enjoy the identical issues as a conventional VR headset, where you’re supporting a bunch of weight in your head. However it absolutely’s collected removed from pleased in my expertise. The stand is adjustable so you’d alternate the angle of the goggles, but I had a provocative time discovering an optimal viewing angle, no topic making an strive to play it a bunch of diversified programs. And man, these crimson graphics; they were provocative to locate at within the ’90s, and issues haven’t improved much. The Virtual Boy is a machine where you’d honest enjoy gotten to bring together frequent breaks to avoid wasting precious eyes and neck. Don’t originate the identical errors I did.
All that acknowledged, the Virtual Boy’s lineup is surprisingly attention-grabbing to play in 2026. There are seven titles accessible at commence, and whereas there are about a duds — I factual can’t seem to wrap my head all the draw by the principle-particular person robot fighter Teleroboxer — I’ve in actuality been enjoying playing 3D Tetris, Galactic Pinball, and the dwelling shooter Crimson Alarm. The standout will likely be Wario Land, a reasonably easy and sometimes clunky platformer but with 3D parts cherish enemies that soar out factual in front of you, making issues feel more demanding. It’s no longer a broad lineup by any stretch, but it supplies you a correct sense of what the Virtual Boy is all about. Which is to voice, there are some strong video games with orderly 3D gimmicks which will likely be fun in rapid doses. (Why the tentpole Mario’s Tennis isn’t accessible at commence, especially given the most contemporary commence of Mario Tennis Fever, is a mystery to me.)
Nintendo tends to enjoy an pleasant relationship with its maintain ancient past, most continuously glossing over its failures and doing a unfortunate job of celebrating what makes its video games so major. So on one hand, the existence of this Virtual Boy appears cherish one thing of a miracle. Few of us had a giant gamble to play the customary, and right here it is a long way accessible by Nintendo’s most a success platform ever. However it absolutely’s also a product that requires leaping by a bunch of hoops for a shrimp quantity of payoff. And because it’s tied to NSO, you’re spending $A hundred to play video games factual for so lengthy as you’d honest enjoy gotten a subscription or the carrier is full of life. After that, you’d honest enjoy gotten a costly paperweight.
The Switch model of the Virtual Boy is a application that’s queer, awkward, and of restricted allure — which, now that I contain it, completely re-creates the expertise of the customary.