Also just announced: new patents on covers opening and closing and adjustable legs.
Virtual Boy games will all release at full price individually.
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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On the one hand this is a blatant cash grab.
On the other, compared to the $1000 for Jacks Bros this is the deal of the century
So they‘re selling a literal piece of plastic that becomes utterly useless the moment you lose access to their subscription service. Also, 14 games that they plan to release over time? Damn they must hate their customers with a passion.
If the recent pathetic patent filings were not enough to finally wake you up to what an awful company Nintendo are I don't know what to tell you.
I'm one of the Virtual Boy's only fans. I don't own a Switch 2 and don't have plans to. I might just buy the accessory as a display piece.
lol the actual Virtual Boy only had 11 titles.
It's a VB-themed redesign of the Labo VR kit. Should presumably be compatible with everything Labo VR supported (like, three titles I think?). Maybe the fact that they're bringing it back means they might reuse it in the future?
This doesn't have the head tracking capabilities of the VR kit, as you only insert the Switch which doesn't have a gyro without the joycons.
Apparently they're selling two versions. One is the full scale VB, and that's clearly a collector's item. The other is the VB-themed Labo VR.
I like how the comment there is basically AVGN quote.
Also, seriously, with VR being a thing now, why don't they make Virtual Boy 2 with Power Glove 2 as a controller?
As much as we like to shit on Nintendo now for how expensive they are; they are still the cheapest console. By a lot.
No way they can create a quality VR experience and keep the price below everyone else.
For those with homebrewed 3DS, download Viper3DS And for those with Meta Quest, play VirtualBoy Go.
Both emulators are now in competition with this blatant cash grab so I suggest you make haste with either of these options
I think it's a fun novelty, but locking the actual software behind the Online+ Expansion pack instead of including it with the (no doubt expensive) accessory is a bit crap.
These games should have been like maaaaybe $5 each on the 3DS a decade ago. Maybe $30 for a physical cartridge with all of them bundled.
thought this was a very early april fools joke with the literal 1/100 scale Virtual Boy "accessory"
I mean as someone who is old enough to remember calling Blockbuster every 30min to see when they got the thing in stock to rent out...sure have at it I guess. But man you REALLY need to take breaks otherwise your retinas will crust over. Although when you are done playing it was neat to see the entire world in a shade of red afterwards.
I was a kid when this was in blockbuster, and I remember playing it in the store using the demo setup. I was glad to have tried it, but I was good after that, lol.
Wario Land is still a really great game on it even today that doesn’t deserve to be locked on flawed hardware (the motherboard disconnects one of the lenses over time and it’s a pain to repair), and Red Alert is one of those games in which the limitations actually, probably accidentally, give it a really unique hypnotic style, and the dual gamepad controls (also used to nice effect in Teleroboxer) ensured it didn’t just feel like a regular Nintendo game of the time. I don’t doubt it inspired actual classics like Rez.
I get the hate for the Virtual Boy - most games on it barely feel complete, it was uncomfortable to use, it made your pupils dilate - but it is a fun and important piece of weird gaming history, and Nintendo acknowledging it as such and finally officially allowing people some way to play those games again (knowing full well it’s going to get a lot of hate) is still a good thing overall for classic game preservation.
I mean
The game is called Red Alert for a reason
I don‘t think it does anything for game preservation. What is it preserving exactly? Not the titles. Those are subscription based. A piece of plastic where you can insert your handheld in? Just get a cheap VR headset for your phone. And if Nintendo thought Wario Land was so great then why did they stop making those games like 2 decades ago?
And if Nintendo thought Wario Land was so great then why did they stop making those games like 2 decades ago?
Because the last games didn't sell so well, and because the staff that worked on them have other projects.
Just because a game didn't get infinite sequels forever doesn't mean no one can appreciate the originals. By that logic, Chrono Trigger must be one of the worst JRPGs of all time to you.
Like everyone else here, I’ve got no love for Nintendo’s business practices, but the owner of the software having officially endorsed ways of playing their stuff on modern devices (let alone replications of original hardware, like with their old controller releases) has basically always been a good thing, both for average Joe consumer that’s interested in game history and doesn’t know what a ROM is, and for the emulation community who wouldn’t ever pay for this stuff but can often build off the tech (or educate us on the problems with it). Is any of this the ideal? Of course not, locking ancient games being a subscription is typical megacorp horseshit. But a kid being able to pick up a brand new Switch 2 and play Game Boy Arkanoid and Virtual Boy Teleroboxer on it is something.
Art of all forms shouldn’t be virtually inaccessible to the masses outside of methods of questionable legality (although, make no mistake, I think those methods are good too, and these things can coexist).
Whether or not the games are objectively “good” or popular is totally beside the point. Just because I can easily download a pirated version of some forgotten 80’s b-movie doesn’t mean it’s not a good thing when it finds some form of new life through an overpriced official boutique blu-ray release.
If anything with today’s tech why don’t they bring back the power glove with the switch control updates
I remember trying this demo as a kid and the pain of my eyes still haunts me today. Hard pass
There are clones and a ton of emulators. Strange decision...but hey if they want to burn their money ok!