Faceball - All Virtual Boy Games

[Cube]

Nester’s Funky Bowling

• NA release: 26th February 1996
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Saffire
• Publisher: Nintendo

The North American bowling game uses a mascot that was only known in North America: Nester from the Nintendo Power magazine. While the game could really have used any cartoon character, it does add a lot of charm to the game. After you bowl, you get presented with a split screen with the pins on the bottom and Nester’s (or his sister’s) reaction on the top, giving the game a bit of personality. On top of this, it also has plenty of the fun animations you get from bowling alleys for splits, misses and strikes.

As a bowling game, it functions quite well. It’s slightly simpler than Virtual Bowling, with no accuracy setting, but the pins react in a much more realistic way. This, combined with the presentation, makes it quite enjoyable.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

There’s plenty of bowling games.

[Helmsly]

13 hours ago, Cube said:

The North American bowling game uses a mascot that was only known in North America: Nester from the Nintendo Power magazine.

Hypothetically, had the Virtual Boy come out in the UK and they had thought about bringing this game here as well, I wonder if they would have changed Nestor to Seal from Nintendo Magazine, being as we never got Nintendo Power here.

[Jonnas]

On 3/27/2025 at 9:39 AM, Cube said:

 

I know I'm a bit late to this, but... what the actual hell is this boxart!? The girl in the middle looks like an off-model animation frame. Did someone send an early draft in the mail by mistake? And then forced a colourist to make the best out of it? Good grief!

[Cube]

3D Tetris

• NA release: 22nd March 1996
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: T&E Soft
• Publisher: Nintendo

The final published game for the Virtual Boy is a version of Tetris specifically designed for the Virtual Boy. Yet, despite being Tetris in an extra dimension, the Virtual Boy actually hinders this one as the depth does not help in any way. Luckily, the game has various ways of making the puzzle look clear, but it highlights how the depth is not integral to the game play – this kind of concept was done in the non-Tetris-affiliated Blockout.

The problem with 3D Tetris is that it’s either too slow or too difficult. There’s very little middle ground between it being slow with simple shapes to going fast with really difficult to use shapes, some of which aren’t even individual blocks (one, for example, is four individual squares with one empty space between each other). In that very brief middle period, the game is enjoyable, which shows the concept can work, but it just takes too long to get there and then it is over very quickly.

Poor

Remake or remaster?

The idea should be revisited.

[Dcubed]

I've never really liked Blockout, but I don't think that the idea has no merit.  I think a top-down Tetris game could be really cool if they nailed the speed and controls (Both of which have always been bad in historical versions of Blockout).

Shame that TTC has never really revisited the concept since.

[Jonnas]

This 3D Tetris game kinda looks like Tetrisphere in parts. Speaking of, I would imagine Tetrisphere would actually look pretty cool in 3D.

12 hours ago, Cube said:

Also, I'm sorry, is that a block with hair and tits?

[Cube]

Faceball

• NA release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Locomotive Co., Ltd.
• Publisher: Bullet-Proof Software

The first of the two prototype games I’ll be looking at is a first person shooter, one which is actually quite old. It started off as MIDI Maze on the Atari ST and was a very early shooting game that let you daisy chain consoles together for 16 player multiplayer in the first FPS deathmatch game. It then gained a bit of infamy as Faceball 2000 on the GameBoy, where developers Xanth wanted to also have 16 players, but Nintendo rejected the cables that would have come with the game so it only officially supported four, although the code for 16 player is still in the game and someone managed to get 15 players working using GBA link cables spliced into Game Boy link cables.

The Virtual Boy sequel seems like it would have been a decent version of the game. I was disappointed that it does not make use of the two d-pads for increased movement (they just do the same thing), and you can’t even move and turn at the same time. The levels take place in small arenas consisting of regular walls, destructible walls and glass walls. It’s not a particularly smooth game, but it’s decent enough. There were only ever plans for two player deathmatches in this version. This prototype only has a small number of levels, but fans of the Virtual Boy have created a version with a lot more levels.

Fine

Remake or remaster?

A collection of the different versions of MIDI Maze/Faceball (including multiple cancelled versions) would be interesting as a kind of “documentary” game, like the sort of thing Digital Eclipse make.

[Dcubed]

A natural fit for the platform.  Especially seeing as how you have to stick your face into the thing.