All Virtual Boy Games

[Cube]

The Virtual Boy was a sort of “portable” games console released somewhere between the SNES and N64. Despite the name and the “headset” design of the console both making it sound and look like a Virtual Reality machine and other companies were experimenting with in arcades at the time, the Virtual Boy is not an attempt at Virtual Reality. Instead, the console focused on stereoscopic 3D – giving depth to the image by showing something different to each eye. In order to enhance this effect, the console was made so that it could only display red and black colours.

The Virtual Boy wasn’t actually something initially started by Nintendo, but a company called Reflection Technology. It was pitched to companies like Hasbro, Mattel and Sega, with the latter citing the concern with headaches and the red-only display (not to mention they were already working on too much hardware at the time). Eventually, Nintendo’s Gunpei Yokoi saw the device and instead of looking at the limitations as problems, saw how they could be utilised as an advantage. The technology was reworked into the Virtual Boy.

The console was released in 1995 and was a complete failure, with only 22 games released in North America and Japan combined, and the console not releasing at all in Europe. The build-up to launch was not smooth, though, as members of the media were unimpressed with the console at events and Nintendo fans were already anticipating the Ultra 64, not to mention that the PS1 was already out in Europe and less than a month away in America.

The expected complaints with the red and black screen were made, with more complaints about how you use the device. It didn’t strap onto your head, but came on a little stand which required you to hunch over or faff about to get the right height. The device was considered a failure, with up to 920,000 units sold in total.*

This wasn’t the end of Nintendo experimenting with stereoscopic 3D, as they later developed a form of stereoscopic 3D that doesn’t need glasses and doesn’t need to be placed close to your eyes – the Nintendo 3DS. The intended features of a Virtual Boy could now be experienced in a much better way. It seemed like a perfect time for Nintendo so do something with the games that were hidden away on the Virtual Boy, but nothing happened.

Emulation is a popular way to experience old consoles, but the unique features of the Virtual Boy means that on a PC, you’re not really getting the intended experience. There are emulators for some Virtual Reality headsets, but the resolution of the games really does not suit being close to the eye, not to mention that most games weren’t developed as Virtual Reality style games.

Then in 2024, a fully working Virtual Boy emulator called Red Viper was released for the 3DS. This emulated the Virtual Boy’s stereoscopic 3D in an extremely comfortable way and the games look extremely crisp (far nicer than any screenshot can portray). Even more bizarre is that some Virtual Boy games seem to use the 3D effect better than any 3DS game (although it should be noted that 3DS games had to be designed with the 3D slider and 2D) and pop out far more (my guess is that there was a “limit” Nintendo kept developers to in order to avoid headaches).

You can also change the red to different colours, although I found the red to have less chance of ghosting, but your eyes may vary. I also found it to be surprisingly clear, considering that I often have a lot of problems seeing red on black. This is the best way to experience Virtual Boy games, and I will be going though the full library, and a few unreleased games.

*Note: Most places seem to list 770,000 units sold, but I can’t find anywhere that lists an original source for this number. The 920,000 figure is from Issue 442 of Famitsu, with numbers provided by Nintendo, but I haven’t been able to see a scan to verify. Still, an actual magazine and page is more of a source than nothing.