Nintendo’s new Virtual Boy is more fun to look at than it is to play

Although the Virtual Boy was a commercial and critical failure, the console’s reputation is part of what made it such a great part of Nintendo’s history. Original units still sell for hundreds of dollars on bidding sites, and hobbyists have spent years keeping the Virtual Boy alive through emulators and home games. For a long time, it seemed like Nintendo wanted nothing more than for audiences to forget the Virtual Boy ever existed. But over time, the company became more comfortable with recognition and even recognition Joking about the system through references In games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tomodachi’s lifeand Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Looking back on Nintendo 3DS And newer experiences like Nintendo Switch and Laboit wasn’t entirely surprising to learn that the Virtual Boy existed It was revived as a switching peripheral Designed for use while playing classic Virtual Boy games on Nintendo Switch Online. There’s an elegant haircut to Nintendo’s best-selling console reimagined as its own luxury peripheral The most successful system of all time. Everything about the new Virtual Boy release speaks to Nintendo being confident enough to revisit one of its biggest failures and turn it into a flexible device literally designed to support the Switch family of consoles.

When I recently spent some time playing with the new Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s confidence in this $100 side quest wasn’t entirely justified. The headphone/stand combo is a great piece of retro technology and comfortable enough to put your face in. Although I was kind of hoping to experience some disorienting visual weirdness, the controller’s stereoscopic lenses didn’t give me a headache. But there’s a clutter in the way I played Virtual Boy games that made the device feel like an outdated novelty and not a system I could see myself spending some serious time with.

The main selling point of this thing is that it faithfully recreates aspects of the original console that worked while smoothing out some of the roughness that led to its failure in the ’90s. But if nostalgia isn’t really your jam, you might want to pass on the plastic model and consider it Dust off your old Labo kit.

As someone who never played the original Virtual Boy and tends to find VR headsets uncomfortable to wear, I was pleasantly surprised by how well my face fit the new peripheral, which is meant to stand on a table and be used with the console after a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 is inserted into it. Unlike the cardboard Labo headset—which was prone to letting outside light seep in—the plastic Virtual Boy was able to immerse me in complete darkness while I sat in a well-lit event space.

This darkness made redness – which Can be customized to other colors – From the Virtual Boy’s monochrome game selection screen, appearing as I browse through the limited library of 3D titles. Nintendo says it plans to release 14 different Virtual Boy games through it by the end of this year Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack Subscription package, which costs $50 per year for individual accounts and $80 for family plans. The first batch of Virtual Boy games are scheduled for release on February 17 when the $100 peripheral and its cheaper $25 cardboard counterpart are released.

During my time with the Virtual Boy, I found myself fascinated but somewhat frustrated while playing games like Galaxy pinball, TeleroboxerAnd a new port Innsmouth Palace – A title previously released in Japan only. The games ran quite well and looked like you’d expect from a point in Nintendo’s history when they were experimenting with a new way to make their games feel immersive. Although this lens technology was impressive when the original Virtual Boy was released, it pales in comparison to what Nintendo was able to accomplish with the 3DS, and has never been able to fully trick my eyes into thinking I’m playing a 3D game.

Ironically, they were aesthetically simpler games with vector graphics like 3-D Tetris and Red alert I felt like they were really drawing me in with their new style of presenting 3D space. There’s also something to be said for the fact that playing these games in any form has become more difficult over the years. This new peripheral may not spark a new wave of Virtual Boy game preservation, but it will make them more accessible — especially for people who weren’t around during the original console’s short lifespan.

Although Nintendo didn’t give me hands-on time with the cardboard Virtual Boy game, I became more interested in trying it out and seeing what these games might look like on Labo. The plastic model certainly looks cool and will likely scratch a certain itch for those who wished they could own a Virtual Boy in the ’90s. But in 2026, these types of 3D games seem to be very few also Dated to guarantee the price of admission if you are not already paying for an NSO subscription.