It's pretty convenient for collectors when a console only has roughly a dozen games worth owning. That's part of why I bought a Jaguar from the bargain bin back in the day, after it flopped. Virtual Boy is an increasingly popular oddity to collect games for these days, and the prices on eBay will shock you.
Thank goodness for emulation. Thank goodness that affordable mobile VR headsets now exist as well, since we can finally play Virtual Boy games the way we assumed we'd be able to before the hardware was revealed to the public. At last, we can get our VR Nintendo on using a proper head mounted, truly portable system.
Just a refresher: This is what we thought the Virtual Boy was going to be:
Basically an Oculus Go, but with a wired gamepad. The heavy metal shielding necessary to satisfy FCC regulations is what convinced Nintendo engineers to make the Virtual Boy a desktop system you had to hunch over and peer into, rather than a properly head mounted unit like everybody wanted and was expecting. Part of me feels like they deserved to fail for promising so much and delivering so little.
At the same time, those of us who had high hopes for the Virtual Boy back in the day cannot help but despair that so few games came out for it...or that so few of them were any good. Below you'll find a complete list of the only truly good Virtual Boy games (in my opinion).
Bound High!
Galactic Pinball
Innsmouth no Yakata
Jack Bros
Mario Clash
Mario's Tennis
Niko-Chan Battle
Panic Bomber
Red Alarm
Space Squash
Teleroboxer
Vertical Force
Wario Land
Not for a moment do I feel the smallest shred of guilt for emulating these. Besides the fact that they are only now possible to play in comfort, and truly portably, Nintendo also had a golden opportunity to re-release all of these as Virtual Console titles on the 3DS.
That was a rare platform where these games could have been experienced very close to how they were originally intended to be experienced. In fact they'd work better on the 3DS since the small field of vision inside the Virtual Boy meant you were looking at an apparent rectangular 3D 'screen' anyways.
But because history played out the way it did, we had to wait 23 years to play these games the way we imagined. So, over the course of my vacation I'll be reviewing these 13 official games as well as a few homebrew titles, since I'll have my Oculus Go along for the trip anyways.
Stay Cozy!
Mario Tennis in VR... That must be a nice treat. Can't wait to read a review on it.
I'm surprised Virtual Boy had that many games. Nobody I know ever owned one of these. Used to play it at the video rental store, where it was available on display to try out. When I tried to rent it, they said you had to pay $100 as a deposit, and suffer late fees if you didn't bring it back in three days. No thanks.
I've never played any of these games.
Look forward to see what they're all about
I never played any game of this system, but I find it one of the fascinating attempts of Nintendo to do something new. They failed that time but this helped N3DS succeed when they did.
Nintendo is getting better at making their old library more available with the switch, but yeah putting the Virtual titles on the 3ds would make perfect sense.
I think these games will take us to the next world.
I have never played VR
Virtual reality games. ❤️
Bring it on
lol, they're refurnishing the old to back and better.
VR still gives me the chills tho, iont know why
Is it still with the red line style? Does it still give you seizures?
Yes and yes, haha. Although it never afflicted me, because I bothered to adjust the focus dial for my eyes. I think most kids didn't even realize they had to do that.
Oh my, you remind me of those days of Mario, I use to steal my mum's money to play that, I mean we, all kids do that, it was fun, there was a game where we all meet. 😁 😁.
This is new game alex .
But i am never heard this game . I am play my own game clash of clan . Clash of clan is amazing game . I hope your virtual reality game was amazing .
Thanks for sharing @alexbeyman
This is truly what it means to be a game historian.A tragically beautiful thing. Thanks for this. I never even heard of Planet VB before this article.
The Virtual Boy was a flop and it's not a system that's available 'new' anymore so I wouldn't feel bad about emulating either. That said I do own a Virtual Boy, in fact I have a few of them. I have my original one that was bought in store immediately after Nintendo announced they were discontinuing them.
I picked up the system w/ Mario's Tennis, 3 additional games (Teleroboxer, Vertical Force and Nester's Funky Bowling) along with the wall adapter. I believe I got all of that for under $60 dollars as everything was marked down to clear them out. The system alone retailed for around $180 dollars when it first came out, so I got a steal.
The other Virtual Boy's I own were found at thrift stores many years ago for a few dollars. I grabbed them because it's such a relic to find and they made me nostalgic seeing them. I suppose I just didn't want some kid to buy it that would break it, not really knowing the history behind it. :) Over the years, I've collected a few other games for the Virtual Boy from thrift stores, but it's been years since I've seen one now. Anyway, glad I found this post. I look forward to reading your game reviews of this old 'virtual' game system that disappointed but deserves some credit for trying something new.