Today marks the day many Nintendo fans never thought they’d see – the Virtual Boy, and a chunk of its library, are finally being added to the expanded Nintendo Switch Online service. The only downside is that you’ll need either the additional replica headset or the cardboard model to play, due to the failed system’s main gimmick of stereoscopic 3D.
While Nintendo has acknowledged the Virtual Boy in the past, often within the Wario Ware series, it represents a more turbulent period of their history. Or experimental, if you prefer. While saying that Nintendo was left embarrassed by the failure of the Virtual Boy is probably off the mark, it clearly left a dent in their finances and bruised their reputation, so you can see why they’ve hesitated to re-release Virtual Boy software until now.
The abridged version of the Virtual Boy’s history goes something like this: it was the mid-‘90s and the humble Game Boy was looking considerably dated. Not only this, but Nintendo was starting to lose valuable gaming magazine coverage to the likes of the 3DO, Atari Jaguar and (to some extent) the Amiga CD32 – and that’s before even factoring in the fast-approaching PlayStation and SEGA Saturn launches. With the Nintendo 64 (then known as the Ultra 64) over a year away, Nintendo sought to release a 32-bit system to prove they were still relevant and moving in the same direction as the competition.
Like the Game Boy with its greyscale dot matrix screen, the Virtual Boy harnessed older existing technology to create something innovative at a low cost. The LED eyepiece provided by Reflection Technology was developed in 1985, and its creators had tried to incorporate it into a commercial product for some time, even approaching SEGA. The late Gunpei Yokoi, designer of the Game & Watch and Game Boy, felt that this technology could be used for a new gaming system – one that their competitors couldn’t copy. Nintendo’s R&D1 team then spent the best part of the early ‘90s working out how to incorporate this technology into a low-cost system, settling on a red display to help with image clarity and reduce battery consumption.
Originally the VR32, as it was known in development, was planned as a mounted headset – only for the legal team to warn that allowing users to walk around while wearing something strapped to their face was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Then came the possibility of motion sickness and eyestrain, resulting in the Virtual Boy being slapped with numerous health warnings. Turns out gamers don’t like being told to take breaks every fifteen minutes, and that parents aren’t too keen on letting children use something with a manual comprising mostly of warnings.
The Virtual Boy eventually hit Japan in July 1995 and America in August, retailing at $179.99 – far cheaper than other available 32-bit systems, but way more expensive than the Game Boy. Consumers were confused; what was meant to be a handheld, was now a tabletop system that lacked portability and was awkward to play for long periods. It also didn’t help that press reaction to the launch line-up was mixed, and that it was difficult to showcase to the public; this was something people needed to try for themselves, posing a unique problem for Nintendo. In magazines, those red screenshots didn’t look too impressive, unable to convey the 3D effect.
With all these factors against it – along with the lack of multiplayer functionality, due to Nintendo never shipping the link cable – the Virtual Boy became something of a joke within the gaming community. What was supposed to be the Game Boy’s 32-bit VR successor ended up becoming a weird solo experience, hindered in part by Nintendo’s legal team and the challenges of keeping it low cost. Sales figures were, unsurprisingly, low, failing to reach 1m. Nintendo tried to maintain interest by announcing Virtual Boy Mario Land, Donkey Kong Country 2, GoldenEye 007, the F-Zero spin-off Zero Racers, and showing a Star Fox tech demo to press, but this promise of more key software wasn’t enough.
In the end, only 22 games were released in the US, with the vast majority of planned software (an estimated 30+ games) cancelled. Plans to release the system in Europe were shelved, and the last titles released in 1996 were produced in extremely small quantities, making them highly prized by collectors.
One common misconception about the Virtual Boy is the most of its library was trash. While it did feature a few duds (Ocean, of all companies, released a limp Waterworld tie-in) there are games here worth revisiting, even in 2026. This is why seeing Virtual Boy added to NSO is a bigger deal than many will have you believe. Many of its games were far more advanced than what we saw on the Game Boy, sporting similar visuals to the SNES – and a few titles did try to make use of its polygon pushing abilities.
Sixteen games are coming to Virtual Boy on Switch, with seven available at launch. It seems that Nintendo tried to make this project worthwhile and include as many titles as possible, reaching out to third-parties. Presumably, the two Tetris games and Space Invaders required additional licensing too. Why Konami’s Panic Bomber isn’t here though is a mystery, save perhaps for a surprise release later this year.
On the weaker side of things, there’s T&E Soft’s Golf and the rather slow and awkward 3-D TETRIS, Athena’s Virtual Bowling, and Taito’s self-explanatory Space Invaders Virtual Collection. Nintendo’s own Galactic Pinball offers a unique perspective to create depth but isn’t anything too exciting – a reference to Metroid notwithstanding. Mario’s Tennis, originally a pack-in title, is rather middling too, having the peculiar omission of power-ups or a main gimmick.
So far, so damning. However, Teleroboxer – a sci-fi take on Super Punch Out from Nintendo – the arcade style Mario Clash, the plain switching shoot’em up VERTICAL FORCE, and the H.P. Lovecraft inspired first-person horror The Mansion of Innsmouth are worth experiencing. V-Tetris doesn’t take advantage of the hardware, but still provides a good version of the classic falling block puzzler, developed by Bullet Proof Software themselves.
Then there’s Virtual Boy Wario Land – easily the best game in the entire catalogue, being its killer app. It compares amicably to Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, and by featuring the ability to leap into the backgrounds it uses the 3D hardware well. When Nintendo fans turn to eBay to acquire a Virtual Boy, it’s usually for Wario Land alone. The Star Fox alike RED ALARM is technically impressive too – fascinating, even – yet rather sloppy in its execution. This leaves us with the top-down maze game Jack Bros, which is historically important, being the first entry in Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei series released outside of Japan. It’s also one of the games that’ll cost you a fortune to own nowadays.
Joining this motley crew of curios and lost classics are D-HOPPER and Zero Racers – two titles Nintendo canned in 1996. It has been speculated for decades that finished versions of these two exist, and it’s great to see that not only they do, but that Nintendo has decided to release them to the public rather than keep them locked away. How they play is yet to be seen (both are coming at a later date) but the fact that we’re technically getting a previously unreleased F-Zero game in 2026 is undeniably cool.