As someone who witnessed its initial release, I’m delightfully baffled that Nintendo is resurrecting the Virtual Boy. We aren’t just getting a passing mention or a trophy in a Smash Bros. game; we’re getting a full-blown revival, including a dedicated NSO app, a $100 authentic replica peripheral, and a $25 cardboard cutout for the Labo diehards.
All this for the console that married Game Boy visuals with Vectrex-style wireframes, stuffed them into a View-Master shell, and doused the whole package in a colour palette straight out of a 19th-century darkroom.
Yeah, that Virtual Boy.
For 30 years, Nintendo’s first rule of Virtual Boy was “You do not talk about Virtual Boy,” yet here we are in 2026, and Nintendo is embracing the most eccentric chapter in their storied history. I’m dumbfounded, but honestly, I’m here for it.
1995: Rose-Coloured Glasses
For most, the Virtual Boy is more meme than memory – particularly for European gamers who missed it entirely. When it launched, I was a video game columnist for the Journal-American, right in the heart of Nintendo of America’s backyard: the Seattle Eastside. My journalistic credentials earned me an early look at the Virtual Boy, plus day one copies of the console and all four launch titles.
My August 18, 1995 article covered the launch, and I was surprisingly optimistic, as evidenced by my headline “Nintendo’s 3-D gaming system first step in the right direction”. I saw potential in Mario’s Tennis and the wireframe wonder, Red Alarm, and I even theorised that if games kept coming out, the Virtual Boy would become as much of a household name as the Game Boy.
I was half right. It became a household name alright, just not for the reasons Nintendo’s marketing team had hoped.
A Silly Seven Months
By any measure, the Virtual Boy had a rough life. With only 22 games worldwide and fewer than 800,000 units sold, its owners belonged to one of the most exclusive clubs in gaming history.
The VB’s sales were so poor that in 1996, a little more than a year post-launch, my younger brother won an award at Sears for selling a single system. By that point, moving one unit was the retail equivalent of selling dirt to a desert dweller.
Frustration was palpable even within Nintendo’s inner circles. I remember visiting the offices of Golin/Harris, Nintendo’s marketing consultants, and hearing them complain that major magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) couldn’t be bothered to review Virtual Boy games.
EGM ignored it, but Nintendo’s Tripod made an appearance in my other writing gig at the time, the 3-2-1 Contact magazine. My colleague, Rusel, wrote reviews for the entire Virtual Boy launch lineup, while I had the more enviable task of reviewing Chrono Trigger on the SNES. I must’ve drawn the long straw that month.
The Trade I Won, and then Lost
The Virtual Boy came and went quickly, but I wound up with a complete set of Nintendo-published VB games. Apparently, Golin/Harris and the Big N were eager to partner with any journalist willing to peer into the red abyss.
Roughly a decade later, I traded my dusty VB collection for a sweet haul of SNES RPGs, including both Breath of Fires, Lufia 1 and 2, and every Square Enix RPG I didn’t already own.
I felt great about the trade at the time, but looking at prices now, yeah, I probably lost out in the long run. I undoubtedly won in the gameplay department, but with complete-in-box Virtual Boys selling for almost $1000, I clearly missed an investment opportunity.
2026: Nintendo Owns the Meme
My personal journey with the VB concluded decades ago, but Nintendo seemed to exile their red spectacles for even longer. So, why the sudden comeback? And why now? I have two theories – one practical, and one cheeky.
First, it’s hard not to see this as a nod to last year’s release of Red Viper, the impressive fan-made Virtual Boy emulator for Nintendo 3DS. After the homebrew community showcased an appetite for VB emulation, Nintendo may have taken the old proverb to heart: the best time to plant a tree (or re-release a tripod-mounted console) was 20 years ago; the second-best time is today (or February 17th 2026).
