I’ve owned a lot of Nintendo systems over the years as a tech reviewer, gamer and VR-obsessed individual, but I’ve never owned a Virtual Boy. It’s always made me feel wistful. So finally here I am, playing the newest version. My face is stuck into a large red plastic visor, standing on a tripod on a table at Nintendo’s preview event. My takeaway? Nintendo’s latest weird retro move feels like an odd success.

I’m old enough to have owned Nintendo Game & Watch handhold games, and I remember the original Virtual Boy when it popped up in Electronics Boutique at my local mall. The red-and-black monochrome 3D game console wasn’t fully wearable, and it wasn’t TV-connected. It’s a tabletop game machine, something closer in spirit to the old Vectrex. Calling the Virtual Boy «VR» isn’t really accurate. It’s more like a 3D viewer for retro games. 

Nintendo’s bringing this niche system back as a plastic recreation that turns your Nintendo Switch into the Virtual Boy, along with games you can play on Nintendo’s Virtual Console via a Switch Online subscription. It only works on a small subset of retro titles specifically designed for 3D — Nintendo promises 14 by the end of the year, with roughly half available at launch. You need the full Switch Online and Expansion Pack subscription ($50 a year, or $80 for a family subscription) to use it. That’s a lot of money for a little slice of strange retro gaming history.

Leaning into a weird tabletop goggle-thing

The $100 viewer and holster for the Switch is absurd. It’s like an optical appliance at Tron’s eye doctor. It’s larger than I thought it would be and not really portable. Instead of strapping it to your head like a VR headset, you set it up on a table with the included tripod, lean in and play.

After a few moments inside the Virtual Boy, I found it surprisingly comfortable. The large eyepiece is big enough to easily fit chunky glasses inside, yet has light-blocking sides that keep the viewing experience relatively glare-free. It feels like peeking into those old antique stereoscope machines that would show 3D photos or flip-films.

The Switch (or Switch OLED or Switch 2, but sorry, no Switch Lite compatibility) display acts as the Virtual Boy screen, splitting into a 3D view in the headset. It’s like how Nintendo turned the Switch into a pair of VR goggles with Labo VR way back when, but the Virtual Boy feels better than that. I was looking via a Switch 2 display, which is higher-res than Nintendo’s original Switch systems, but these games are low-res by default, so the 3D effects don’t seem degraded. Imagine a red-and-black 3D Game Boy, because that’s basically what it feels like.

Keeping the whole thing in one stable place also helps. No motion lag sickness, because you’re not moving (and neither are the games, really). Playing while leaning into the goggles for a half hour or so didn’t tire me out. 

There are even some comfort settings. You can adjust the IPD (interpupillary distance) in the app to adjust the clarity, and you’ll be able to change the color scheme to other colors. I only got to play in the OG red-and-black mode, though, which feels very nocturnal and cozy to me, like being submerged in a gaming cave.

Games are retro bunches of fun

I played with a Switch Pro controller, although you can also use Joy-Cons. I played a bunch, and they’re all pretty fun. Teleroboxer is a 3D Punch-Out game with robots. WarioLand is a lost gem, a Wario game with 3D effects and depth layers. Galactic Pinball feels like all those NES and Game Boy pinball games with a 3D tilt. Golf is kind of a letdown, since the course views are static, but it’s cute. Red Alert is a wireframe Star Fox-like shooter, and it feels kind of like a perfect fit for this retro indie gaming moment we’re in.

A Japanese port of The Mansion of Innsmouth — a game I’ve never heard of before — is a simple 3D dungeon crawler with Lovecraftian monsters. And there’s 3D Tetris, which actually lets you flip pieces in all directions to drop into a deep 3D well. Nintendo is promising 14 Virtual Boy games released over time this year, including two never-released ones. Will there be more after that? Well, the system only had 22 games that were ever released for it in the first place, so we’ll see.

You also choose a cheaper Virtual Boy accessory to play these games, a $25 cardboard pair of goggles that I wasn’t allowed to demo. I’m sure it’s not as comfortable, but it does let you just hold the Switch up to your face, grab the side controllers to play.

During my time with the Virtual Boy, it really surprised me. It ended up feeling a lot more fun, and even «of the weird moment,» than I expected. I’ve been obsessed with retro indie games that feel like they’ve come from a parallel timeline, from UFO 50 to the odd Panic Playdate console. The Virtual Boy feels like Nintendo dug up a weird magic item from 1995. I’m ready to play some more, because I feel a desperate need to cocoon back in game time.