Even as Nintendo has endlessly mined its classic consoles for nostalgic re-releases in recent decades, the company has seemed to completely ignore the existence of the Virtual Boy—its abortive 1990s dip into the world of early virtual reality.
Subscribers to Nintendo Switch Online in the US and Canada will soon be able to purchase that $100 dock, which Nintendo says “recreates the form of the original Virtual Boy hardware,” or a slender $25 cardboard alternative.
It’s been a long wait Nintendo says 14 Virtual Boy titles will be made available to Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers over time.
Even the 3DS Virtual Console—which would have seemed like a natural place for a Virtual Boy resurgence—never got official support for the retro system.
Today’s Virtual Boy announcement, of course, comes with a hefty added dose of nostalgia and represents a long-overdue official recognition of an often-ignored part of Nintendo history.
Despite Nintendo’s decades-long obsession with nostalgic re-releases of its classic consoles, the company has seemingly ignored the Virtual Boy—its failed foray into early virtual reality in the 1990s. With Nintendo’s first-ever official re-release of Virtual Boy games in February of next year, that will finally change—at least for gamers who spend $100 on a necessary Virtual Boy-shaped Switch dock (or a less expensive cardboard holder) to enable them.
You’ll “need this dedicated accessory” to play Virtual Boy games on a Switch, according to Nintendo’s announcement, which implies that flat-screen play on a system without one of the specialized docks won’t be feasible. Additionally, the less expensive cardboard model appears to be made for wider availability, even though “purchase limits apply” to the plastic Virtual Boy replica (which is probably a collectible with limited supply).
Additionally, Nintendo states that “Joy-Con or Joy-Con 2 controllers are required to play,” implying that a duplicate of the Virtual Boy’s distinctive dual D-pad controller will not be available, unlike other vintage Nintendo pads.
The wait has been long.
According to Nintendo, subscribers to the Switch Online Expansion Pack will eventually be able to access 14 Virtual Boy games. Both incredibly difficult-to-find third-party games like Jack Bros. and cult-classic Nintendo first-party titles like Virtual Boy Wario Land and Mario’s Tennis are included in the final software list. Additionally, an original cartridge for Virtual Bowling can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars.
After all these years of disregard, it’s a little surprising that Nintendo is finally recognizing these games at all. A Virtual Boy revival would have seemed to fit right in with the 3DS Virtual Console, but the retro system never received official support. Rather, fans of Nintendo’s least successful console—which is thought to have sold fewer than 800,000 units—have been forced to use unofficial emulators or search for rare original hardware and software, one of which recently added full-color support beyond the red tints that the original console typically displayed.
Nintendo is employing a switch-docking technique for stereoscopy here that is somewhat reminiscent of the 2019 Nintendo Labo VR, which introduced the concept of virtual reality (VR) by putting the original Switch into a cardboard sleeve with a lens attached. This experiment, which we dubbed a “fine, serviceable, decent” introduction to virtual reality at the time, appeared to be intended for young children.
Naturally, the announcement of the Virtual Boy today involves a significant amount of nostalgia and marks the long-overdue official acknowledgment of a frequently overlooked aspect of Nintendo’s past. Despite all of its flaws, Ars’ own Benj Edwards thoroughly described Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi’s philosophy of “lateral thinking with withered technology” in a book-length treatise on the Virtual Boy.
