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I Stuck My Face Into Nintendo’s New Virtual Boy and Felt Oddly Comforted

This bulky, bizarre accessory for your Switch isn’t exactly VR, but it is a lot more fun than I expected.

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.

Technologies

Anthropic warns investors of AI’s ‘existential risk to humanity’ in IPO prospectus, reports say

Anthropic’s IPO filing dedicates 80 pages to the risks of AI, nearly double the 48 pages it spends discussing its business plans, according to Reuters.

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U.S., Iran hold separate mediator talks as Mideast oil exports hit war-time high

Iranian and U.S. officials reportedly met separately with mediators Monday to push for a ceasefire, as Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded to war-time high.

Iranian and U.S. officials reportedly met separately with mediators Monday to push for a ceasefire.

Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to around their highest level since the war began in February.

An outright export ban by Washington on diesel would keep roughly 1.2 million barrels a day at home, and risks overwhelming Gulf Coast storage, according to Kpler.

The building of the destroyed Shajareh Tayebeh primary school is pictured surrounded by rubble in Minab in Iran’s Hormozgan province on August 10, 2026. Six months on, a team of AFP journalists obtained rare access to the school which has remained largely in ruins, its collapsed walls and twisted steel now surrounded by portraits of the children killed as Iranian flags flutter above the rubble. Iran says the attack on the school involved two separate US Tomahawk missiles but neither the United States nor Israel has officially claimed responsibility for the strike. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images) /

Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images

U.S. and Iranian officials have reportedly held separate indirect talks with mediators on Monday, reviving efforts to end seven months of war as Tehran presses for a response to a revised ceasefire framework and Middle East crude exports climb to their highest level since the conflict began.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Qatari mediators in New York, where he remained after the United Nations General Assembly, and reportedly said he expects Washington’s reply by Tuesday. “We talked about ideas and how to find solutions to fulfil Iran’s conditions,” Araghchi said, adding that he planned to return to Tehran once a response arrives. “Whenever the Qataris have a response, they know how to get it to us.”

Iran’s proposal, first presented on the sidelines of last week’s General Assembly, calls for a four- to five-day U.S. timeline to release frozen Iranian funds, lift sanctions on Iranian oil and end the naval blockade of Iranian ports, with nuclear talks beginning within seven days. Tehran has tied any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to those steps.

President Donald Trump had on Sunday called the plan “unacceptable” and rejected it, telling reporters Iran wants a swift deal because of the economic pressure it is under. Speaking at the White House Monday, Trump said U.S. officials had spoken separately with mediators but gave no further details, adding: “We’re going to win. It’s going to go pretty quickly.”

The diplomatic push comes as physical supply data shows the war’s toll on the oil market easing. Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to around their highest level since the war began in February, Kpler data showed. “Middle East crude exports at just under 80% of pre-conflict levels,” the tracking firm said in a note on Monday.

The Strait of Hormuz itself remains far from normal. Kpler’s real-time tracking showed total clearance through the strait at 10,591 kilobarrels a day on Saturday, against a pre-war baseline of 17,133.

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Technologies

Oil prices fall as crude exports recover at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports

Saudi Arabia has restored flows through the pipeline to around 3.5 million barrels per day, according to media reports.

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