Nintendo’s new Virtual Boy is extra enjoyable to take a look at than to play

Though the Virtual Boy was each a industrial and important failure, the console’s infamy is a part of what has made it such an interesting piece of Nintendo’s historical past. Original items are nonetheless going for tons of of {dollars} on bidding websites, and hobbyists have spent years retaining the Virtual Boy alive by way of emulation and homebrew video games. For an extended whereas, it appeared like Nintendo needed nothing greater than for the general public to neglect that the Virtual Boy ever existed. But over time, the corporate has grow to be extra snug acknowledging and even joking about the system through references in video games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Tomodachi Life, and Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Looking again on the Nintendo 3DS and newer experiments just like the Nintendo Switch and Labo, it wasn’t precisely stunning to be taught that the Virtual Boy was being resurrected as a Switch peripheral designed for use whereas enjoying traditional Virtual Boy video games on Nintendo Switch Online. There’s a nifty poetry to Nintendo’s worst-selling console being reimagined as a elaborate peripheral for its most profitable system of all time. Everything in regards to the new Virtual Boy’s launch speaks to Nintendo being assured sufficient to revisit one in every of its largest failures and switch it right into a flex that’s fairly actually designed to prop up the Switch household of consoles.

When I not too long ago spent a while enjoying with the brand new Virtual Boy, although, Nintendo’s confidence on this $100 aspect quest didn’t really feel completely justified. The headset / stand combo is a beautiful piece of retro tech that’s snug sufficient to shove your face into. And though I used to be type of hoping to expertise some disorienting visible weirdness, the console’s stereoscopic lenses didn’t depart me with a headache. But there’s a clunkiness to the best way the Virtual Boy’s video games performed that made the machine really feel extra like an aged novelty moderately than a system I may see myself spending some critical time with.

The main promoting level to this factor is that it’s faithfully re-creating elements of the unique console that labored whereas smoothing over among the roughness that led to it flopping within the ’90s. But if retro nostalgia isn’t actually your jam, you may wish to move on the plastic mannequin and contemplate dusting off your previous Labo package.

As somebody who by no means performed the unique Virtual Boy and tends to seek out VR headsets uncomfortable to put on, I used to be pleasantly stunned at how nicely my face match into the brand new peripheral, which is supposed to face on a desk and be used with a controller after you insert your Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 into it. Unlike my cardboard Labo headset — which was liable to letting exterior mild leak in — the plastic Virtual Boy was capable of plunge me into whole darkness whereas I used to be sitting in a well-lit occasion area.

That darkness made the redness — which might be personalized to different colours — of the Virtual Boy’s monochromatic recreation choice display pop as I browsed by way of the restricted library of 3D titles. Nintendo says that by the top of this yr, it plans to launch 14 completely different Virtual Boy video games by way of its Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription package deal, which prices $50 a yr for particular person accounts and $80 for household plans. The first batch of Virtual Boy video games is due out on February seventeenth when the $100 peripheral and its cheaper $25 cardboard counterpart are being launched.

During my time with the Virtual Boy, I discovered myself charmed however somewhat underwhelmed whereas enjoying video games like Galactic Pinball, Teleroboxer, and a brand new port of The Mansion of Innsmouth — a title that had beforehand solely been launched in Japan. The video games ran completely tremendous and appeared like what you’d anticipate from some extent in Nintendo’s historical past when it was experimenting with a brand new option to make its video games really feel immersive. As spectacular as this lens know-how may need been when the unique Virtual Boy was launched, it pales compared to what Nintendo managed to perform with the 3DS, and it by no means managed to completely trick my eyes into considering that I used to be enjoying a recreation in 3D.

Ironically, it was extra aesthetically simplistic video games with vector graphics like 3-D Tetris and Red Alarm that felt like they had been actually pulling me in with their novel strategy to presenting three-dimensional area. There’s additionally one thing to be mentioned for the truth that enjoying these video games in any kind has grow to be rather more troublesome over time. This new peripheral won’t precisely set off a brand new wave of Virtual Boy recreation preservation, however it’ll make them infinitely extra accessible — particularly for people who weren’t round throughout the unique console’s transient lifespan.

Though Nintendo didn’t give me hands-on time with the cardboard Virtual Boy, I got here away rather more concerned with making an attempt that out and seeing what these video games may seem like on a Labo. The plastic mannequin undoubtedly seems to be cool and can most likely scratch a sure itch for individuals who want they’d been capable of personal a Virtual Boy again within the ’90s. But in 2026, these sorts of 3D video games simply really feel a bit too dated to warrant the worth of admission for those who aren’t already paying for an NSO subscription.