It’s Christmas morning, and amidst the thick haze of food already being prepared for lunch and the soothing laughter of our children enjoying their new toys, my wife approaches me with a small, square package. I didn’t see this under the tree. “That’s your last one,” she says. Instinctively I go to shake him – he knows me well enough to grab my wrist. “Do not do that!” she interjects. Clearly, this is a delicate item.
I unwrap it carefully, and as I pull the box out of its decorative wrapping, I am filled with both giddy elation and an overwhelming sense of shame: shame at the sheer mediocrity of the gifts I’ve offered her this year compared to the magnificence she holds in my hands; elated, because the magnificence in the box was mentioned, a Japanese copy of Mario’s Tennis for the Virtual Boy with a manual inside. It’s a Christmas miracle. Eat your heart out, Dickens.
I’ve long been an enthusiast of Nintendo’s forgotten child, having snagged one at rock bottom in a charity shop in my teenage years. After spending the day intermittently flipping through pages of artwork I’d never seen, I finally had a chance to fire up the little red curio after the kids were tucked in for the night. I already own the US version of Mario’s Tennis (the console, never released in Europe, is not region-locked), but I have to admit that I haven’t gotten into its set-match game in a long time.
Considering it’s 30 years old, it holds up incredibly well – it’s solidly built, as you’d expect from a Nintendo title, and the 3D effect is beautifully realised. You can really feel where the ball is on the court and although I’ve never been so immersed in the illusion that I’ve tried to duck my head from incoming shots (I remember practically whiplashing myself trying to ‘dodge’ incoming enemy fire playing Star Fox 64 3D with the slider up ) I was still feeling that rush of excitement you get when you feel like you are in space to play.
I’ve always thought it was criminal that Nintendo never released a Virtual Boy collection for the 3DS, or at least a ‘best of’ collection of the titles they developed and/or published. Not a remake, just a transfer of the existing titles with the stereoscopic 3D effect intact. I guess the company at least acknowledges that these days – allowing it to appear in various games as a reference point, but not keen on letting the system’s software live a life separate from the console. There’s been a community effort to figure this out and while there are ways to play a catalog of games with a 3D presence, it’s an ethical gray area and doesn’t always translate as it should. It’s never the same as playing natively on the original hardware.
As I ran across the tennis court with Toad on this strangest Nintendo device, I began to think, ‘Are you really a Nintendo fan if you haven’t experienced this console and its unique games as Nintendo intended?’
Do self-respecting Nintendo fans owe it to themselves to play Virtual Boy?
First, it wouldn’t be fair to question whether the Virtual Boy is basically impossible to obtain, and they are certainly a rare and expensive item these days. A cursory search shows that they are are around – you could light one by Valentine’s Day if you really wanted to. Unboxed units will set you back somewhere close to £300, with boxed examples starting in the mid-400s. Big shot, but not totally obscene.
But his 22 official games – that’s where things get messy. Prices for these vary widely, from pennies to listings in the thousands, and of course, this generally reflects the quality or rarity of the title. As with any console, games are where the fun is — if they’re not worth the experience, then neither is the console.
So let’s take a look at the games, or at least the ones I have and can offer a personal perspective on. I don’t have a complete collection by any means, but it’s certainly diverse and I’ll just touch on it experience they offer. If you want a deeper insight, check out our excellent ranked list of Virtual Boy games.
