Virtual Boy Review: Nintendo’s Oddest Switch Accessory Yet It’s A Museum Of The ’90s
On my desk is a Nintendo device that looks like something stolen from a cyberpunk optical shop. It is large, red and black, sits on a tripod, has the shape of eyes, and has Nintendo Switch 2 lies within. Hello, Virtual Boy, you’re back.
Nintendo did it a lot of strange consolations over the years, but Visible Boy was very strange. And the short lived. Released in 1995 and it was discontinued after a year, it came to life suddenly during my last year of college. I never had time to think about buying it.
It would have been perfect for me, a Game Boy fan who loved the idea of VR even back then. Nintendo has been flirting with virtual reality in the middle various forms decades, and the Virtual Boy was a huge turning point. But it wasn’t VR at all, really. It was a red and black monochrome 3D game console, a 3D Game Boy in tripod form.
Yes, there is a lot on the table.
I’m organizing a forum because right now you can order a $100 Virtual Boy recreation which is a huge, rare replacement device. It’s staring at me now, taking up a lot of space. It is too big to fit in a bag. It’s a tablet console, really, and Nintendo created this Virtual Boy viewer as a way to play a set of subscription-free games on the Switch and Switch 2.
Is it worth your money? I would call it a collection museum-piece, not a serious piece of gaming hardware. Anyway, my kid stuck his head in, played 3D Wario Land, and came out saying it was really cool. He loves old retro games. But I don’t know how many times he will stick his head out again.
I feel strangely happy playing the Virtual Boy, even if its existence feels fleeting now.
Nintendo’s first stab at 3D now feels like a museum piece
In comparison, I pulled my old one Nintendo 3DS XL in the closet where it was shot and started up, I’m also surprised that Nintendo actually made a handheld 3D game without glasses once. The 3DS is a very capable and advanced game system, but consider Virtual Boy a classic attempt to get there first.
The Virtual Boy was a monochrome red and black LED display, a tabletop-only device that could be held handheld or connected to a TV. The Nintendo Switch’s tablet-style game modes feel like an evolutionary link to the Virtual Boy, so it’s poetic that the Switch is making its way into the new Virtual Boy to power the games and render the display.
The Plasic Virtual Boy is just a weird set of VR glasses for the Switch, but with a red filter on the lenses. Also, you can’t wear it. You keep your head stuck in it.
Loads the Switch 2 into the Virtual Boy: you click on the top and slide it in. (Works with Switch, too.)
Awkward and easy to use
All the features in this console look like the old Virtual Boy but they don’t work: You can see a simulated headphone jack, a controller port, some kind of knob on the top. I just remove the plastic case and slide the Switch in, carefully, and disconnect it again. That’s all it is.
To control it, you use separate switch controllers or another controller that works with the Switch. Launching the Virtual Boy app — free on the eShop, but you need a Switch Online Plus Expansion Pack account, which costs $50 a year, or $80 for a family membership — splits the Switch’s display into two smaller, inverted screens. On Virtual Boy, it looks 3D perfectly. When I’m done playing, I pull out the Switch again.
The giant red-lensed Virtual Boy glasses rest on the table while you use any Switch-compatible controller to play games.
Like I said in the middle my first handa large foam-covered eye piece wide enough to accommodate large glasses, and would sink my face into it. Finding a comfortable angle to sit and play for a while is another challenge. Virtual Boy’s included tripod-like stand can adjust the angle, but not as wide as I’d like. I sometimes catch myself while playing, which hurts me. Leaning on the table with my controls in hand helps.
The front eye with the red lens can be removed, and later software updates will allow Virtual Boy games to be played in several color combinations beyond red and black. Also, you can detach the inner bracket to hold the Switch 2 and swap to the included switch-sized bracket. Switch Lite doesn’t work with Virtual Boy, however.
Weird is my kind of indie
All you currently get are seven of the 16 games that Nintendo has promised to release for the Virtual Boy. Believe it or not, there were only 22 games ever released for this show. The 16 will include two never-before-released, exciting new collector’s items.
But what surprises me now is that, diving into these weird retro games with their red and black NES-slash-Game Boy aesthetic, they feel strangely timely. The janky, oddball, almost-parallel-universe Nintendo vibe feels like an indie retro aesthetic that’s been around for a while now. After all these years, is the Virtual Boy now finally amazing?
Games like UFO 50 (a mix of new indie games made to feel like an archive of ’80s console games that never existed) and comforting indie like Panic Playdate (still my favorite little black and white handheld, home of all kinds of retro homebrew games) match my feeling of diving into these Virtual Boy games and find it.
Here’s what a Virtual Boy game looks like on the Switch 2 before it’s thrown on the headset.
Wario Land is probably the best: A side-scrolling Wario game with many levels of depth, giving me Game Boy Mario game vibes. Golf has a lot of holes and an identification system, and it’s comfortable and basic (and hard to get rid of). 3D Tetris has you drop blocks down a well to complete layers, with a Tron puzzle feel. Red Alert’s 3D wireframe design is similar to Star Fox, but boiled down to simple vector lines. Galactic Pinball has several tables, and it’s fun, very old school Nintendo 3D fun. Teleroboxer is a Punch-Out with robots, with a style that reminds me of the original Switch game Arms. And Mansion of Innsmouth is a 3D dungeon crawling game (in Japanese) where you try to get out before time runs out… or the monsters find you.
Other games coming this year include Mario Tennis, another Tetris game, a wireframe 3D racer, a 3D remake of the original Mario Bros game called Mario Clash and 3D Space Invaders. At the end of Nintendo’s release schedule, a good chunk of the Virtual Boy catalog will be there.
I stick my head into the Virtual Boy to play. It’s easy on the eyes, but it makes me feel bad about hunting.
The new thing is niche as hell
Is it worth it? Also, if you like weird and retro, and are fascinated by lost Nintendo 3D games, yes. But if you want Cutting-Edge, no.
Remember: You can buy a cheap $25 cardboard set for the Switch that lets you play Virtual Boy games, too (or use an old Those VR glasses Nintendo made in 2019, if you have one). That’s a logical approach. There are even unofficial emulators of Virtual Boy games on Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. But who said the Virtual Boy had logic?
The Cardboard Virtual Boy is similar to the old Labo VR glasses. I haven’t tried it yet.
A Nintendo game system that is a giant set of red glasses on a tripod is inherently absurd. And I welcome its strange tread into my home, because that’s just who I am. But it’s also a testament to Nintendo’s relentless interest in the bleeding edge of gaming. VR, 3D without glasses, AR, modular consoles… Nintendo is staring at the edge.
Is the Virtual Boy a sign that Nintendo could make its own VR or AR gaming system again someday soon, or as an extension of the Switch 2? Who knows? Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s famous video game designer, it sounds interesting and mysterious about it when I asked him last year. But there’s no real way to predict where Nintendo is headed. Virtual Boy is a museum monument to that.
