I keep wondering when Nintendo will return to VR — I actually asked Shigeru Miyamoto about it earlier this year. Well, Nintendo is returning to VR, sort of: Virtual Boy is back, baby. Retro games and a Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch and Switch 2 are coming February 17th next year.
The Virtual Boy was one of several things the company announced during a Mario 40th anniversary livestream on Friday, including new remasters of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.
The ill-fated 1996 stereoscopic game console was one of the long-lost, weird wonders of Nintendo history, which has been revived in recent years with an emulator that allows games to be played on modern VR headsets. Nintendo is making it an official part of the Switch experience, albeit with a new Switch Online game library for the virtual boy. There’s also a new red and black accessory that you’ll need to play the games too.
While the games are free (with a subscription), the accessory will cost you: $100 for the authentic plastic recreation or $25 for the cardboard version.
The plastic Virtual Boy accessory that Nintendo showed off during Nintendo Direct looks exactly like the old Virtual Boy, bulky and weird as ever. A Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 will fit inside it to play 3D black and red games. There’s also a cardboard version for playing games, presumably for a much lower price than what a plastic Virtual Boy recreation will cost.
The games themselves will be part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, with Nintendo promising 14 titles to be released over time, including Tetris.
Nintendo has a long history with VR. The Nintendo Labo VR, which was released in 2019, was also a cardboard kit for the Switch that played various VR games with cardboard accessories. The Nintendo 3DS had its own 3D display (but no Virtual Boy games), and it shipped with AR games at launch. The Mario Kart ride at Universal’s theme parks already uses an AR visor to project an overlaid experience. The Mario Kart Live RC Car Game also uses built-in AR effects.
I’ve been wondering if Nintendo would ever support plug-in VR or AR headsets on the Switch 2, and so far Nintendo hasn’t indicated any interest—the Switch 2 won’t even work with plug-in display glasses without a bulky adapter. But the virtual boy shows Nintendo is still curious… or nostalgic. Or both. We’ll see you next year with this face for a full review.
