Virtual Boy - Nintendo Switch Online Review

The Virtual Boy has always fascinated me. Not necessarily from a tech perspective, not necessarily from a software perspective – more from a historical perspective. It was one of legendary toy and game hardware maker Gunpei Yokoi’s last forays at Nintendo and, while it failed to impress reviewers and consumers in the mid-90s, it’s managed to pop up from time to time when we consider Nintendo’s history (all hail the Virtual Boy, right?).

With its black and red colour palette and stereoscopic 3D display, the Virtual Boy was the precursor for many of Nintendo’s ideas in times to come. It launched in Japan in 1995 and had a very limited release in the USA, and that’s it. Being from Australia, we never received it and the only way to get one was to import it. I was this close to buying one in 2016 when I was on a study exchange in Japan, but my suitcase just didn’t have enough space in it after everything else I had bought in my short time there. So when Nintendo announced the Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Online and Nintendo AU reached out to send me a copy of the hardware to play the illusive titles, I was tickled pink, to say the least!

The Good

When Nintendo announced Nintendo Labo, many laughed. Selling cardboard seemed an odd decision and we questioned how deep Nintendo would take the idea. While it may seem that Nintendo Labo is behind us, being used as a cheaper alternative to play the Virtual Boy’s library is genius! I should explain: there are two ways to play Virtual Boy on Nintendo Switch Online: either in an accurate recreation of the original Virtual Boy where you pop it open and insert your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 or in a smaller cardboard VR goggle headset where you slide your device in and play in handheld mode, holding it up to your face. Nintendo sent me both and I can safely say that both options have their upsides. The more expensive Virtual Boy model recreates the exact feeling of playing a Virtual Boy and makes for a wonderful mantelpiece, while the cardboard goggles offer a simpler and inexpensive way to play through the Virtual Boy library. Which one you buy (if any) ultimately depends on your preference, but both options provide competent methods.

Playing through the initial Virtual Boy titles on the Nintendo Switch Online service feels like looking through the goggles into Nintendo’s more eccentric history. We’ve played many of Nintendo’s older games; that’s not new, but the Virtual Boy’s library has always felt elusive and unattainable. These games, while simple in their designs, have a quirky charm to them, coming at a time when developers were experimenting with the possibilities of stereoscopic 3D, 16 years before the release of the Nintendo 3DS. Virtual Boy Wario Land is a genuinely good entry into the series and (VB) Red Alarm and 3D Tetris do some genuinely fun things while taking advantage of the 3D visuals. That being said, only the former seems to offer anything substantial, but we’ll get to that.

TL;DR

• Both models do the job well (but one looks better on the mantel)
• Game library offers a fascinating look at Nintendo’s eccentric history

The Bad

While I’m likely to play most of the Virtual Boy’s library with the cardboard goggles for the sake of convenience, I do really enjoy the more expensive headset for its accurate recreation of the original hardware. That being said, there’s something missing. Something very important. What I’ve loved about playing retro games on Nintendo Switch Online is being able to play with wireless versions of the original controllers. A game controller can bring on a wave of nostalgia and transport you to a time where life was simpler, but the illusion of playing Virtual Boy games using the recreated headset withers away when playing with modern Joy-Cons or Pro Controllers. I understand that Nintendo may have been asking consumers a tad too much to invest in a controller in addition to a headset just to play a library of only 22 games, but for purist sycophants like me, the smoke and mirrors dissipate a tad as a result. That being said, if you have a Nintendo 64 Switch controller, this is apparently the best alternative, according to this video.

And as I just touched upon, the library is limited to just 22 games. It’s not quite the robust library of the Super Nintendo or the Game Boy where we can expect a constantly expanding library for years to come. The writing is a bit on the wall with this one, but I suppose we all knew that coming in.

This ultimately leads me to my final point: that this package is, for all intents and purposes, a novelty for the die-hard Nintendo and retro gaming fans. It’s a nice feeling to be able to play these games that I’ve wondered about for so long, but will I be anticipating the launch of each and every new Virtual Boy release on Nintendo Switch Online? No.

TL;DR

• No Virtual Boy controller makes it feel incomplete
• The library is unsurprisingly limited
• Ultimately a novelty

Final Score: 7/10

The Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Online is ultimately a novelty, but I love it all the same. For me personally, it feels like a long chapter finally finished, albeit with some caveats here and there. And in the end, it’s nice to have the model of the Virtual Boy on top of my cabinet; it may just be a shell of the real thing, but only I ought to know that when people come to visit.

Thank you for checking out our Virtual Boy Nintendo Switch Online review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the product for review purposes and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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