I, for one, loved this thing. And the only reason I was ever able to own one was because of their downfall also coincidentally happening about the same time EB Toys was going out of business, so I was able to get the Virtual Boy and most of the games for under $50 due to the extreme discounts.
That’s literally how I got mine, though from Babbages when they were still a thing. I think I paid like $35 + tax for the unit (which came with Mario Tennis) and Wario Land.
Loved it, but I can see why it failed. Still, 3D Mario Tennis was amazing.
AND warioland!!!
The virtual boy is Nintendos coolest console that deserved to fail. It had some good games in it’s tiny library. It brought some cool concepts to the project. But the virtual console deserved to die.
Yeah, it was a cool concept, but the execution was terrible. For all its faults, the one I can’t overlook is the fact that it required 6xAA batteries (that it would chew through in 2-3 hours). LIke, WTF? Its design literally required you to use it on a table/stationary location. They sold an AC adapter for it, but it was a separate purchase.
EB Toys??? We had KB Toys (or Kay Bee Toys), and we had Electronics Boutique. Which sold video games and small electronics.
But you had EB Toys???
KB! I meant KB! lol
They’ve been gone hella long I just conflated the two.
If you’ve got a modded 3ds, Red Viper works extremely well to emulate Virtual Boy games, if you’re curious about them. Arguably it’s a better experience than playing them on a Virtual Boy.
The Wario game is pretty good if you liked the original Game Boy Wario games.
Mario Clash is a fun take on the original Mario Bros game which didn’t need to be 3D, so I’m a little disappointed they haven’t revisited it.
Jack Bros. is notable for being Atlus’ first release in the West, and I remember having some fun with that one.
Mario Tennis was also pretty good, but there are probably better Mario Tennis games by now.
How many consoles can say that ~28% of their library is worth checking out? Haha
Pretty sure I still have a headache from using one in a Blockbuster in the 90s.
At the heart of Yokoi’s design philosophy lay a concept he called “lateral thinking with withered technology.” Yokoi’s design philosophy can be summarized as an approach that emphasized finding novel uses for existing, inexpensive technology. His philosophy arguably runs counter to conventional game industry wisdom where newer, flashier, cutting-edge technology is (assumed) better.
I think this is still Nintendo’s philosophy. I see a lot of people complaining that the Switch is “outdated hardware” compared to PlayStation and Xbox, not understanding that they’re not trying to make the same thing.
I loved my virtual boy when I was a kid. It felt like the future or something. It didn’t have a lot of great games, but I did get most of the best ones when blockbuster video started clearing out their inventory and sold games for like $5 each.
