After the Virtual Boy, There’s No Cause Why Nintendo Can’t Convey Back Its Greatest Handheld

Nintendo doesn’t usually let followers in on its {hardware} plans, however in case you’re the kind of particular person to identify developments, it’s clear the Switch 2 will develop into the Mario maker’s every thing console. Nintendo has began providing extra {hardware} particularly tailor-made for taking part in its outdated, defunct consoles. The inevitable subsequent step is for the corporate to allow us to return to its hottest handheld ever, the Nintendo DS.

Today, Nintendo determined it was time to deliver again what is probably going its least widespread gaming {hardware} it ever launched. The $100 Virtual Boy for Switch 2 revives Nintendo’s first use of stereoscopic visuals and the odd bipod-mounted headset for taking part in them. That modernized system is a relic—a blast from the previous—that makes use of the Switch handheld {hardware} because the display. While Nintendo has been releasing new controllers routinely for its Nintendo Classics record from the NES all the way in which as much as the newest revitalized GameDice controller, that is the primary occasion of a selected system to really feel genuine—as in case you’re thrown again to 1995 and taking part in the bizarre 3D console for the primary time.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart

The DS was Nintendo’s best-selling system

While the Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s worst-selling console ever—solely managing to maneuver 770,000 models in its lifetime—the corporate’s top-selling system continues to be MIA from the Nintendo Classics record. The Nintendo DS first launched in 2004 however hit its stride with the DS Lite in 2006. Over its lifespan, Nintendo sold 154 million models. The firm’s next-best-selling system, the unique Switch, has bought 153.10 million.

Back in 2023, Nintendo filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office that gave us a glimpse of how a supposed system with a big display might connect to a handheld. Last month, Mike Odyssey on X noticed that Nintendo had up to date the patent for 2025. The hooked up display can be positioned at an “incline,” in response to the patent, and doesn’t describe a hinge system for the highest display to fold down onto the hand-held, so this attachment would have to be eliminated and transported individually in case you have been to take the Switch 2 on the highway.

Patents don’t counsel an organization will really make the product, solely that they’re exploring concepts and wish to shield them. Even if Nintendo is engaged on a dual-screen add-on for the Switch 2, that doesn’t essentially imply the completed product would look something like this proposed design. Now that Nintendo has gone again 30 years to its strangest console, it opens the potential of winding again the clock to each occasion of its previous {hardware}. The one lacking piece, past the Wii and Wii U (at the very least Super Mario Galaxy is getting one other remaster), is the Nintendo DS and the less-popular 3DS.

Nintendo must beat the emulators

The Switch 2 has extra capability for these peripherals due to its high and backside USB-C ports. A transfer towards extra Switch 2 retro peripherals makes extra sense once you perceive why Nintendo retains publishing its traditional library for Switch homeowners. Retro emulators, which recreate older consoles as software program, are rising more and more widespread with the technology of players who grew up with Nintendo’s older consoles. Nintendo can be one of many few corporations that rails hardest towards emulation in its campaign to fight piracy and shield its mental property. Nintendo has taken down a number of Switch emulators, together with Ryujinx, Citra, and—particularly—Yuzu. Nintendo has hindered GameCube emulator Dolphin from a full launch on Steam. The firm provides its personal emulation via its Nintendo Classics record as an alternative choice to the legion of gamers leaping on the burgeoning retro handheld scene.

And it couldn’t come quickly sufficient. While gamers have an excessive amount of selection for Game Boy-like units, the DS and 3DS are nonetheless new territory. In the previous couple of months, Ayaneo confirmed off its Pocket DS, a dual-screen Android handheld made for taking part in DS video games. Fellow handheld maker AYN announced its Thor dual-screen system as effectively. Meanwhile, Retroid crafted its personal $69 dual-screen add-on for its horizontally oriented handhelds to play two-screen video games. Nintendo will take its time to launch much more {hardware}. The firm rolls out its video games over time, so these desirous to return to the DS glory days must await one thing official.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart