Random: Nintendo Acknowledges Virtual Boy After Decades of Passive Denial

Nintendo has acknowledged Virtual Boy many times in the past.

Its in Tomodachi Life https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bk3IFpfCMAA6mzz.jpg

How some of the Virtual Boy titles and the original NES 3D experiment 'Rad Racer' (push SELECT while racing) haven't wound up on their first successful 3D handheld is beyond me.

@b_willers Isn't it in Game and Wario, too? In the kid's bedroom, the minigame where you hide from your character's mom.

Virtual Boy Mini Classic Edition pre-loaded with its entire library of 14 games coming soon.

Cool. :]

But 'several million units sold'?

Hasn't 3DS sold like 60 million units?

...All hail Virtual Boy...

The Virtual Boy has appeared and been referenced in plenty of games before now. It's in Tomodachi Life, it's in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, it's in Game & Wario and it's respective stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, it's in the collection room in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it's titles are listed in the chronicle of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Reggie Fils-Aime is seen playing one in a promo for the 2015 Nintendo World Championships. Nintendo has never really denied the Virtual Boy's existence.

Virtual boy has some really good games, I enjoy playing mine tbh. Stupid beyond belief but fun.

@sleepinglion quite likely, not played that. It's in one of the pokemon stadium games too as a background object I think. It has been referenced many times.

http://www.planetvb.com/content/misc/pokemon_stadium_2/pkstad23.JPG

@Shugo i don't know which has more or less of a chance in making it to the virtual console: gamecube games or virtual boy games. every single game everm ade for a nintendo console should be in the eshop.

I'd like Virtual Boy on VC too but I doubt Nintendo considers its library of 22 games (plus at least a couple that were probably finished but never released) worth its time developing VC (and probably not even half of those games are eligible when you consider legal rights).

We need a port of the Wario Land game from this console to the 3DS.

Would be nice to play it with a new palette of colors.

@OorWullie You heard it here first!

@OorWullie I would get that.

Missed opportunity to bring these games to 3DS Virtual Console.

Maybe it's a tease for an VR Virtual Boy box similar to the upcoming NES Mini! With improved VR display. No more sickness!

It's more of an inside joke than denial

@YouSeemFRAZZLED Ha, or it has a deku seed effect and they're dazed!

I remember that Mega64 video with Reggie playing it last year - good fun indeed!

As for Virtual Boy, I never got any headaches playing it, but it wasn't a great machine and didn't have many games that used a 1st person perspective.

Some of the homebrew games are quite interesting, especially Street Fighter II!

I still love ya Gunpei Yokoi!

Hmm, isn't the NX announcement supposed to come soon? Maybe they're getting ready to reveal the NX is a spiritual successor to a certain red tinted system...

Virtual Boy NX confirmed!

Of course this will never happen, but I would love it if Nintendo partnered with Sony or Occulous to bring the VirtualBoy games to VR.

All hail the virtual boy!
I always get a little smile seeing the VB in a Nintendo game. Just nice to see Nintendo reference or joke about it.

Pretty sure Nintendo have acknowledged the Virtual Boy a few times before now, but okay...

I have only experienced it via emulation (yes, people actually made Virtual Boy emulators!), naturally without any semblance of 3D effect to experience. The impressions meet the expectations from a system that was forced into production before Yokoi had time to develop the idea fully (and ironically, shortly before the price drop in the component field would make it possible to have colours BESIDES red). But some games did look interesting and I personally wouldn't mind a VC release with updated palette or even a remake. All fittingly on 3DS with which, indeed, Nintendo does what Nintendidn't back then. Except for the whole "virtual" part which some speculate would have sounded more convincing given a greater number of first person perspective in games rather than the grandly immersive ability to stare at tennis matches and platformer hijinks and maze adventures through a periscope of sorts. But then again, I've never been keen on virtual reality anyway. Also, VB gamepad sure seems to have influenced some things in the industry.

Overall, a sad page in Nintendo's history (mostly for how Yokoi was misblamed for this stuff), but nothing to disown in my opinion.

Yikes, even the packaging is making me nauseous...

"in the early days of the console, many believed that it would be a failure" - actually, nobody thought the 3DS would be a failure back then, and certainly not because of the 3D.

Also, Virtual Boy has been acknowledged many times in the past, as others pointed out.

If These games come out on the 3DS I'm buying them all, immediately. It's the one Nintendo system I don't own so that would be welcomed.

The first time I saw Nintendo acknowledge its existence since pulling it from the market was in the first Picross DS.

But it probably has made cameos even earlier.

Faulty premise in this article.

Hopefully not posted prior to the released info of the NX. Nintendo is all, "Remember this junk? Well part two arrives March 2017".

Nintendo actknowledged it many times before. It has its games listed under Brawl's chronicles, it's in Tomodachi Life, and Reggie even played one in their E3 2015 announcement video. Heck, he even joked about it! "These games are great!" Knocks everything of the table.

A friend of mine got it at launch when we were kids. He had Teleroboxer and Mario's Tennis. I would like to pick one up one day to try our Wario Land.

@CB85 The Virtual Boy sold 750,000 units 😛

Wario Land VB port on the 3DS when?

@EXP Don´t forget Nintendo Badge

@Simbabbad five seconds on google showed me the dozens of articles from major sources claiming the 3DS was absolutely going to fail. 2010, 2011, even as late as 2013 all spoke of the complete and total failure the 3DS was going to be. Remember when it came out for $250, only a few thousand were sold, and people assumed Nintendo was about to close up? Only for them to drop the 3DS down to $160 and create the Ambassador program? Even Nintendo was certain they were failing.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=3ds%20going%20to%20fail

The greatest console of all time!

...No I can't even say that with a straight face. I think the VB was just ahead of its time. Cool concept but poor execution. That said, I've always wanted one even if only for the collector value of it.

@russellohh Oh yes I remember 3DS was definitely not looking too good, but after the price drop and the Ambassador program the 3DS's sales went up and it's been a success story ever since! My question in regards to this, though, is WHY couldn't have Nintendo done something similar to this with Wii U?

It's the only Nintendo console I didn't own. I remember desperately wanting one back in the day. Disappointed to find out it was being discontinued. Only to find out later for good reasons and that I wasn't missing out on much

@KrakenSoup releasing games woulda been nice. i got my wii u at launch for like 260, while the PS4 was still 600. Its been about 50 years since then, and i cant wait to play the Wii U

fire emblem
Mother 3
Fzero
Metroid
or 20 other titles...

@UmbreonsPapa a year after it came out, local game stores had the system for under a buck and the games for a quarter. Some of those games are now still only $5-10, but the system often goes for 80. I should have bought 100...

I never once got a headache from this system or from the 3ds. Guess my brain was ready for this stuff.

Virtual Boy VC for NX....

I think they should be released on the 3ds Eshop .. I would buy them !

I have a Virtual Boy, and I don't think the console is as bad as it's often called, nor as headache-inducing. The problem is that there's pretty much no games worthwhile, save for Wario Land.

I would be curious if it would be possible to port the games over to virtual console for the 3DS. I would be interested in trying some of the games but I imagine it wouldn't be that simple to get them on the 3DS.

Nintendo has referenced Virtual Boy plenty of times. Hotel Mario and the Zelda CD-i games, on the other hand...
I'd like to see someone make a fan-remake of one of those games to see if Nintendo would shut it down, and by doing so, acknowledge that those games exist

Some people really need to learn the difference between a (condoned) cameo and an official acknowledgement...

You know what if Nintendo does VB Mini I would definitely snap it up not sure how it would work tho lol.

There is a saying "if you haven't made a mistake, you've made nothing.
I don't even think it was a mistake.

Plenty of companies would be glad of the sales Nintendo achieved with the VB. Nintendo are not ashamed of the VB.

I have much love for the Virtual Boy. A high percentage of the games were actually pretty decent. My favorite title on the system is Galactic Pinball. It's my favorite video game pinball ever. Virtual Boy also had two Tetris games! Sure, one of them was Japan-only, but luckily the VB is region free.

I've been waiting for VC releases of Virtual Boy games on 3DS since DAY ONE, figuring this was the perfect system and time for Nintendo revive some old classics that no one has played really, esp the Wario game and Tennis

The VB is awesome!

@nab1 Well no, Panic Bomber is quite good as well. If you are into shooters Red Alarm is super interesting, and vertical force gets the job done as well. There is even a way to play Bound High which was not actually released. There is a healthy hombrew indie scene for the console for many years now. PlanetVB.com will certianly appeal to you if you wanna get more outta that FREAKING BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF NINTENDO.

@ShadJV You're talking about the Famicom right?

"THESE GAMES ARE GREAT!"

@nhSnork Right, I love the VB in general, but it's definitely the controller that was the most significant improvement brought by the console.

You could even say that every "normal" controller these days is just a VB controller with analog input added. We did not do that much since then. But do we really need more anyway? That controller was revolutionary.

As many has stated, Nintendo has acknowledged the VB many times before. Which brings me to ask the question, what's going on lately here at NintendoLife with the misleading/sensasionalist headlines? Why do they have to do such yellow-press practices? Is not like this site is in need of traffic. I hope the this isn't a sign of the quality of reporting deteriorating for this place.

The Virtual Boy has a full, unlockable costume in Mario Golf World Tour on 3DS to add to the list - and maybe this is the big N testing the reaction to Virtual Boy before introducing the system to 3DS Virtual Console? 😎

About expletive-ing time.

You got it all wrong, see.

This was actually the NX reveal.

kinda wanna see them on 3DS virtual console

I remember thinking the VB was so cool when I first saw pictures of it in Nintendo Power. But I was a kid and couldn't afford it, then it vanished before I ever got to play one. Motion sickness be damned it's the only Nintendo console or portable I haven't tried.

I played Wario Land VB on a Kiosk for 15 minutes in High School.

I only ever played Red Alarm once with a blockbuster rental unit. I wanted the console after that but I think my parents figured out it was a dud after it dropped off store shelves after just a couple months.