Man, the Virtual Boy must've been the most amazing thing ever,
since all these memes are praising it.
If only I had a chance to play it for myself
and be a witness to the Virtual Boy's indescribable greatness…
I actually own one of these.
The Virtual Boy is a pretty infamous part of Nintendo history.
What was going to be the company's first ambitious foray into 3D gaming ended up being
a rushed commercial disaster of a product and their lowest selling console to date.
The numerous factors that led to the Virtual Boy's demise are pretty well-known at this point.
In case you're not familiar with the history of the Virtual Boy's conception, here's
a brief summary.
In the 90s, a company named Reflection Technology pitched a stereoscopic 3D display technology
to Nintendo, which led Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of the Game Boy, to envision a unique and
innovative idea for a game console.
But many cost-cutting measures had to be taken, such as using a single color display and replacing
a head-tracking function with a stationary stand.
And as Nintendo was also devoting resources to the upcoming Nintendo 64, the development
of the Virtual Boy was extremely rushed, and even Yokoi himself didn't want its current
state to be released.
The final result was all the ingredients of a commercial disaster: a high price, terrible
game library and a red-and-black display that caused many health concerns.
Nowadays, the Virtual Boy has become one of the gaming community's favorite punching bags,
next to all these things, but it's also become a pretty novel collector's item,
and not a lot of people have actually had an experience playing it first-hand.
I wasn't expecting to actually own one myself until I came across one being sold online
at a reasonable price for a rare console.
So in this video, we're going to take a closer look at the actual Virtual Boy, as
well as the four games I currently have for the system.
The design for the Virtual Boy itself is actually pretty cool-looking.
Back in the 90s it probably would've screamed
"LOOK AT THIS FUTURISTIC GADGET WHICH IS THE BENCHMARK OF TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGY"
which is basically what every piece of 90s hardware strived to achieve.
But then they decided to place it on a stand and now it's just a derpy robot.
But anyway, back to the system.
The stereo speakers are located on the sides, and you'd think they'd be sorta quiet
as this is a single-player system but nOOOOPPE.
SHUT U-
Most of the stuff you need is on the bottom, with a volume control, headphone jack, controller
port, as well as an external port which would supposedly be used for a link cable.
But that never happened due to the short lifespan of the system, so now only one person gets
to shut themselves away from reality instead of two.
This is also where you put in the cartridges, oddly enough with their labels facing down
instead of up which really urks me.
The controller itself is probably the most fascinating part to me.
First of all, it's actually the part that houses the power supply and power switch.
You could use an AC adapter but I don't have one so I'll just have to use 6 double
A batteries, which gives a reported 4 hours of battery life.
It might seem a bit small at first glance but trust me, you won't be playing this
thing for 4 hours straight.
It features two D-Pads which actually feel really great.
This was before the Nintendo 64 introduced the first proper analog stick, so for games
that require moving in a 3D space, the D-Pad was made to have a larger curvature, which
makes it more comfortable to just place your thumb on the middle and move it in all directions,
as opposed to just pressing each direction individually.
It's actually a pretty good solution even though it doesn't allow for analog movement.
Other than that, you have the standard A, B, Start, Select and shoulder buttons.
In general, the controller just feels great to hold on your hands, the two hand grips
on the sides feel really nice.
I always wondered why they went back to having only A and B buttons on the Virtual Boy and
Nintendo 64 after the famous diamond arrangement on the SNES, but I suppose it's because
they didn't want to over-complicate things and confuse players after adding in an extra
set of directional buttons, especially with the Virtual Boy where you can't exactly
look down at the controller while playing.
And now onto the magical stereoscopic 3D display.
Its implementation on the Virtual Boy is actually pretty genius.
Back in the 90s LEDs were uncommon and super expensive, so besides from using a cheaper
red LED to cut costs, the display of the Virtual Boy when taken out is actually
only 1 pixel tall!
A mirror inside the headpiece oscillates rapidly when the Virtual Boy is on, mapping every
pixel pattern onto a full image.
You might think that makes the resulting image pretty blurry, but the final images you get
are actually really sharp.
Of course, it would be hard to capture the actual display on a camera, so here's an
approximate mockup.
The image itself doesn't actually take up that much of your field of vision, but is
still very clear.
I'm actually pretty impressed by this display method.
And in case it doesn't look clear enough for you, there's a slider and knob at the
top for you to adjust the focus and the distance between the two screens for each eye.
Now as for if it actually causes massive headaches like some people say it does…
...no.
Well, obviously it does put a bit of strain on your eyes, as the visor closes off any
external light source and just leaves you staring at a bright red LED screen, and that
is bound to cause some tiredness after playing for a long period.
Personally though, I haven't found it to be that big of an issue since it's not like
I play this thing every day but hey, your mileage may vary.
So that just about covers the system itself.
Looks like a VR headset from the future but in reality it's just a really bulky monochrome
3D display.
Now let's get to the games.
As you can imagine, not a lot of games were actually released for the Virtual Boy, and
as of this video, I only own 4 games for the thing, so I guess that's enough to look
at for one video.
There may be a second part to this video once I've acquired more games, but who knows.
Also, as a side note, recording clean gameplay from the Virtual Boy itself, let alone 3D
footage is basically impossible, so for the sake of this video I'll be capturing 2D
footage from an emulator instead.
Well then, let's begin with Mario's Tennis, which was a pack-in title for the Virtual
Boy in North America, as well as the more obscure first game in the Mario Tennis series.
Oh and by the way, Nintendo requires every Virtual Boy game to throw up a warning screen
and a calibration screen for adjusting the focus before the actual game starts, and the
tune that accompanies the startup screen of Mario's Tennis is actually pretty catchy.
So Mario's Tennis is well…what you'd probably expect from a tennis game in the 90s.
You can choose from a singles or doubles match, choose a game mode, difficulty and length,
then pick from a cast of 7 characters.
Kinda odd that they left Bowser out but still kept Donkey Kong Jr. in.
After that it's standard tennis videogame fare, you move around and hit the ball back
and forth.
The camera is placed slightly lower than your average tennis videogame though, to emphasize
the use of the 3D effect to judge where the ball is headed.
And I'd say it's a decent effect even if the court itself looks pretty plain.
It's actually kinda hard to play this game in 2D, so make this one of the games that
actually makes good use of the Virtual Boy's 3D effect.
You use A for hitting regular shots and B for lob shots, as well as being able to adjust
the direction your ball goes with the D-Pad right as you make a shot.
Man, I remember choosing Easy but Toad is sorta kicking my butt.
That's what happens when you can't accurately judge distance in 2D.
Go figure.
If you hit the ball at the peak of its height then you'll be able to hit a fastball.
If you manage to score with a fastball your character does a little unique win animation.
Neat touch.
Surprisingly, after an intense 20-minute match, I actually managed to catch up and beat him.
Good game, Toad, now get out, I don't want you eating up any more of my recording disk
space.
All in all though, it's still a pretty basic tennis game.
Serves its purpose as a simple pack in title, but it might be a bit too simple for most
people's tastes.
I mean, I guess you could say that Ultra Smash is a return to the series' roots!
Captions: Akfamilyhome
Next up is what many consider to be the hidden gem of the entire Virtual Boy lineup: Virtual
Boy Wario Land, the second installment in the Wario Land series.
I completely dig 2D platformers so let's check this one out.
The story begins with Wario taking a rest after landing in the Awazon river basin
Anyway, Wario spots three creatures carrying treasure towards a waterfall.
He follows them to a treasure vault but a trap door sends him deep underground.
So now it's up to Wario to climb his way back up and get the treasure.
Since this game is only the second installment in the series, it shares more gameplay similarities
with Super Mario Land than the later Wario Land games.
There's Question Blocks floating around, you grab coins and power-ups, so on and so
forth.
But of course, this is still a Wario Land game, so Wario has his own unique moves like
the famous shoulder bash, being able to throw stunned enemies as well as ground pound.
Power-ups hidden in blocks also give him special abilities like having a stronger shoulder
bash or being able to shoot fire.
The main objective is simply to get to the end of the level, but you also have to find
a key within the level that gives you access to the exit, so exploration still plays a
role here.
In addition to that, each normal level also contains an optional hidden treasure, and
collecting all of them nets you a different ending, which I won't spoil here.
I mean, it's not like I haven't actually beaten the game yet or anything euhfhhgfhefh
Finding all of these collectibles often requires you to search for every nook and cranny for
hidden doors and passageways, or have a specific power-up, which might make it hard to nab
everything during your first time through.
There isn't any sort of level select, and the only form of backtracking is to literally
ride the end level elevator back to the previous level, so uh, yeah it's virtually impossible.
The level design is pretty much what you'd expect from a typical Nintendo platformer.
But seeing as this game IS on the Virtual Boy, there are some neat little 3D gimmicks
being used here and there.
For starters, Wario can jump between the foreground and background with special blocks for more
exploration.
Enemies can also swoop in from the background or move between planes.
It's the stuff you'd expect from a modern 2.5D platformer but the ideas here are still
implemented pretty well and the game looks pretty fantastic in 3D.
Well, minus all the red…but y'know you get my point.
Okay man that's just super cheap.
Occasionally we stumble across a boss in between levels and the game's first boss is this…uh…
...creature...that keeps throwing a ball and chain towards Wario.
You're supposed to jump on its head when he's in the foreground to hurt him but it's
guarded by that ball and chain and it's actually quite hard to land a precise hit
since Wario's jumps are actually a bit on the floaty side.
Kinda ironic considering…y'know, he's Wario.
I died a couple of times on this boss but managed to get lucky enough to finish him off.
And with that we get a
WEEEHEE COIN PARTY
Overall, this game is a classic case of a fantastic game being released on a poor console.
It's definitely a game that Nintendo should officially re-release someday.
I know some might say they're not doing it since they're trying to sweep the Virtual
Boy under the rug but considering their jokes about it in recent years I don't think that's
the case.
"These games are great!"
Moving on, we have a third party game, V-Tetris!
This is a Japanese-exclusive release, and is not to be confused with 3D Tetris, a completely
separate game where you drop blocks in a 3D space at less than 10 frames per second
what a great fun video game.
Okay never mind, that let's just go back to V-Tetris, which is actually a licensed
variant of the original Tetris, developed by Bullet Proof Software, the same developer
that made the other Nintendo versions of Tetris.
So let's see what the Virtual Boy allowed them to do with the traditional Tetris formula.
Really?
That's how fast lines fall on the lowest difficulty?
What is this, Baby's First Tetris Game?
Never mind, I'll just turn the speed up to make things more normal.
So the first thing you'll notice when playing this is that: yes, this is literally just
2D Tetris.
Which sorta begs the question of why this is on the Virtual Boy in the first place,
seeing as the only things that are 3D here are the line clear effects and the background
images.
Well, aside from the score-based Type A mode and clear-based Type B mode we all know and
love, this version adds in a Type C mode.
It's essentially Type A, but this time around the play field is cylinder shaped, and can
be scrolled through with the shoulder buttons.
It certainly makes for an interesting challenge, since lines are still defined by the current
portion of the playfield you're looking at, so it leads to some interesting choices
in how to set them up.
It's fine as a new game mode, but the 3D usage here is still super minimal.
Also, the music selection in this game is all new and completely different, so the iconic
Tetris theme is nowhere to be seen.
And the new tunes just simply didn't grow on me that much.
In the end, this is a serviceable but completely unnecessary port of Tetris to the Virtual Boy.
Maybe it would serve a bit more purpose if the Virtual Boy link cable actually came out,
but who would want to look into an isolated 3D headset just to play single-player 2D Tetris?
Ugh never mind, let's just move on to the final game, which is…
Mario Clash!
The only Mario action game on the Virtual Boy, as well as a bit of a special case, seeing
as it is a pretty unique reimagining of the original Mario Bros. game.
Side note, but this is also the only Virtual Boy game that I have the original box and
manual for, so it's something I guess.
Hooray I can't read Japanese!
The game has about as much story as difficulty in Kirby's Epic Yarn so let's get right
into the gameplay.
Each level consists of the foreground and background and has three different height
levels, with pipes connecting them all together.
Your goal, like in Mario Bros. is to defeat all the enemies, but this time you do that
by hitting them with shells from infinitely spawning Koopa Troopas.
You can hit enemies on the side through pipes or toss them across the two planes, but not
all enemies can be defeated with the same methods.
For example, these Spike Tops can be killed with any method, Thorny can only be defeated
by being hit from across the stage, these Sidesteppers require you to hit them in the
side first to expose them THEN hit them from another plane etc.
And of course you also have enemies that jump across the stage, fire projectiles at you,
it's a completely wild assortment.
In every stage, the level layout and how the pipes are connected changes, so you often
have to think carefully on how to approach certain types of enemies.
And if you take too long, a fireball starts to chase you down just like in Mario Bros.
I do think that this unique take on the Mario Bros. formula provides a really interesting
challenge, but one might say it's a bit TOO challenging.
The jump physics are nowhere near as wonky as the original games, but this isn't Super
Mario Bros. we're talking about, and occasional missteps will happen.
And of course, in the later levels, the difficulty ramps up REALLY high.
I tried my hand at one of the later levels, and level 20 has you in a level with ice physics,
dodging jumping Paragoombas, falling icicles and snakes that hatch babies.
LEVEL 20!
Out of the 40 levels you can start from at the beginning and the 99 levels in total that
are actually in the game.
This game's difficulty is relentless, which y'know is befitting since it's an arcade-like
title but dang guys, come on!
Still though, this is a pretty unique Mario game at its core, and it's a shame that
it never got rereleased.
If you're a Mario fan, especially if you adore the original Mario Bros., you should
definitely give it a try yourself.
And that's it for the Virtual Boy!
At least, for now.
It's your textbook example of commercial failure, but in its game library there are
still a few hidden gems that deserve to be experienced, so I hope Nintendo actually puts
Virtual Boy games in their Virtual Console lineup in the future.
As for the actual system itself, it was simply way too ahead of its time.
The 3D display concept sounded great on paper, but the cost of related technology at the
time led to an extremely sloppy execution.
At least the 3DS finally managed to take this concept and expand on it further.
As for actual virtual reality?
Well, seeing as it's still in a really early phase of growth, I don't think Nintendo
will be doing anything major with it any time soon.
Nowadays, the Virtual Boy is pretty hard to come by due to its novelty status, but if
you're a hardcore Nintendo fan, I still think you should experience playing on an
actual Virtual Boy at least once in your life!
Despite its terrible reputation, it's definitely still a really fascinating gadget, and an
important part of Nintendo's storied history, reminding us all that innovation requires
taking risks.
It is also now your NEW OVERLORD ALL HAIL THE VIRTUAL BOY
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