Virtual Boy: The failure that became immortal

I can't remember exactly when I first heard about Virtual Boy, but it was long before the internet and probably in one of the imported magazines I used to buy for an unreasonable amount of money at my local best-stocked newsagent or in the Swedish magazine Super Power.

I was a Nintendo fan and had fought console wars with Sega fans during the legendary 16-bit era with Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, and was now ready for a new generation. Sony's collaboration with Nintendo on a CD add-on had collapsed and they were now going to release their own console that looked promising, and Sega had both 32X and Sega Saturn in the pipeline. In addition, Jaguar had just been released and EA founder Trip Hawkins was ready with the beastly 3DO, which looked set to take over the entire market.

Exciting, but where was Nintendo in all of this? Well, just as they had come in far behind the Mega Drive with the Super Nintendo (and thus allowed them to take over half the console market), they seemed to be late this time too. There was talk of a dream collaboration with Silicon Knights, who manufactured computers that Hollywood used for special effects at the time. We would apparently get to experience this at home in real-time in what was later called Ultra 64, before it finally became Nintendo 64... but that was a few years down the line.

Around the time the PlayStation and Saturn were released in Japan, we in Europe heard for the first time about Nintendo's interim solution, namely Virtual Boy. I, who loved Nintendo as much as Hulk Hogan and Optimus Prime, sceptically read about the device and tried madly to keep my hopes up, but instead of improbably epic and surrealistically technologically advanced titles like Battle Arena Toshinden, and Wipeout for the PlayStation, and Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA for the Saturn, I would get to play Teleroboxer and Galactic Pinball in one colour. Red.

The whole point of the system was that it offered true 3D graphics, and the device's creator - Gunpei Yokoi, the legendary man behind successes such as the Power Slash, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and Game Boy - later revealed that red diodes were the cheapest. Colour was never even an option, and it was also more difficult to achieve good depth in the image. Other things that seemed unclear were whether it was a portable or stationary device, and was it even possible to play multiplayer?

The device was launched in Japan in the summer of 1995, about six months after the PlayStation and Saturn, to rather weak hype. The two CD-based consoles dominated all media coverage with their incredibly cool games. It was almost impossible to comprehend that Ridge Racer for the PlayStation and Panzer Dragoon for the Saturn were real games when you saw pictures of them in gaming media, after having played exclusively pixelated games on the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. Virtual Boy, on the other hand, did not work at all in pictures. It looked like ugly Super Nintendo games with a single colour, and the 3D thing could not be conveyed through magazines.

The device was later released in the US as well, when reports began to emerge about how awful it was to actually use. People's eyes watered even after short gaming sessions after staring into the red diodes, and the stand was difficult to adjust properly, so people tended to sit with their necks protruding, which led to neck problems and back pain. In addition, there were frequent reports that the device gave users headaches and made them feel nauseous.

Nintendo soon realised its mistake and pulled the plug on all support. The Virtual Boy was dead and never even made it to Europe. A total of 770,000 units were sold and 22 games were released. To put this into perspective, many people felt that the Wii U was such a huge flop that Nintendo should have pulled the plug on its console manufacturing and switched to becoming a third party, wile the Wii U still sold nearly 14 million units, i.e. nearly 20 times more. To compare it with another sales flop, the Mega CD add-on for the Mega Drive sold twice as much as the Virtual Boy.

But how did Nintendo even end up here? What made them think this was the best way to counter Sony and Sega's progress while waiting for the Nintendo 64?

The question is valid, but not entirely easy to answer. The creator, Gunpei Yokoi, left Nintendo just one year after the Virtual Boy flop and tragically died in a car accident in 1997, aged only 56. He would certainly have had a lot of exciting stories to tell with hindsight, but we know that the project, codenamed VR32, was launched in 1991, the year after the Super Nintendo was released in Japan (it came to Europe in 1992). The goal was to deliver something truly innovative that would reinforce people's perception of Nintendo as a company that pushed boundaries.

The technology used was something called Private Eye, created by Reflection Technology. Their version was an early precursor to virtual reality, but so primitive that several companies declined to try to do anything with it, including Sega. And those who know their Sega history from the 90s know that it was certainly not much new technology they turned down, which should have been a huge warning sign.

As mentioned above, many people also felt nauseous from the concept, which was also very expensive, something Nintendo tried to solve by simply removing the gyro mechanics. What remained was a device that essentially functioned as binoculars (there was nothing "virtual" about it, despite the name of the device) and displayed primitive graphics in three dimensions, but could only be played for short periods of time.

Shigeru Miyamoto himself is said to have been moderately interested in the device and spent his time on the Nintendo 64 instead, and the Virtual Boy was launched before it was actually completely ready, precisely so that Nintendo would have something new during a period when strong competitors were threatening to establish themselves in the market and take market share.

In a way, it may have worked anyway, because the fact that the device was so bizarrely strange has made people remember it. The Virtual Boy is a device that has never really disappeared from people's consciousness, and it's constantly talked about more than, for example, the Atari Lynx, Neo Geo CD, PC-FX, and Sega Pico, all of which sold about the same amount. Nintendo itself has never shied away from its flop, but rather embraced it. Virtual Boy makes an appearance in countless games and has a permanent place in the Nintendo Museum.

And the fact that I am now writing this is because Virtual Boy is coming to Switch Online + Expansion Pack this week with a number of games, including two previously unreleased ones. A niche product, to say the least, which also requires you to purchase a cardboard or plastic Switch holder from Nintendo's website (although third-party alternatives are likely to become available).

But interest is high. "Everyone" knows about Virtual Boy, but very few have ever tried this monumental but fascinating failure, which actually did produce some good games, games that actually take advantage of the hardware they run on and are impossible to play if you remove the 3D effects. We will be back shortly with a review of the Virtual Boy accessory, and we conclude this article with the five best games released for the format.

Virtual Boy top 5:

5. Galactic Pinball

Pinball in 3D may not sound that exciting, but the presentation was first-class and the depth of field gave it, um, an extra dimension. What's more, pinball is perfect for the Virtual Boy, which is best suited to shorter gaming sessions.

4. Red Alarm

What's the best way to demonstrate three dimensions? With a three-dimensional shoot 'em up, of course. Red Alarm feels a bit jerky today, but the red-coloured graphics give it a slightly cyber feel, and in terms of gameplay, it still delivers good entertainment.

3. Jack Bros.

The Western world's first encounter with the Megami Tensei series was in the 1995 spin-off Jack Bros. I was hesitant to include this because it's one of the few Virtual Boy games that would work just as well without the device, but the adventures of Jack Frost, Jack Lantern, and Jack Skeleton are still good enough for the list.

2. Teleroboxer

Technically the most impressive title, where you really fight in three dimensions, giving an unmatched sense of physics. It's also fast and snappy, and still holds up today in terms of gameplay.

1. Wario Land

Wario moves smoothly between dimensions in what is by far the best Virtual Boy game, which also feels lavish in a way that other titles do not. Tight controls, authentic Nintendo level design, and a clear visual structure make it feel like a "real" Wario adventure worth experiencing in its entirety.