Virtual Boy

The Virtual Boy is a video game system by Nintendo released August 14, 1995. It consisted of a red box on black legs which had a pair of black rubber glasses that players would look into to play games. The game images were 3D, and were in black and red, which was once referred to by Nintendo as "true 3D". The console was a commercial failure for many reasons, including its lack of portability and the headaches gameplay caused in a matter of minutes. Concern regarding Nintendo's warnings that the Virtual Boy could cause eye problems also detracted potential customers, though with the Virtual Boy there is an automatic pause every 15 minutes. It was also released before it was ready to keep fans occupied during the long wait for the Nintendo 64, and many weren't willing to invest in the Virtual Boy with another Nintendo system on its way, as it was extremely expensive. Due to its failure in the Japanese and American video game markets, the Virtual Boy wasn't released in Europe or Australia, and it was discontinued just one year after it was released. It only shipped 800,000 units and sold 770,000 of them during its lifetime. After it was discontinued, creator Gunpei Yokoi was promoted to a position without any actual power, and subsequently left Nintendo.

The system was codenamed VR32 and was shown in Nintendo's annual Shoshinkai show in Japan. The company unveiled the Virtual Boy, a console Yokoi had worked on for two years. The strange-looking device had a couple of stylish legs on which was a visor one could look into. Upon looking inside, the players were able to play games that appeared to be on a 3D plane. The Virtual Boy was a fiasco when it was available, but they are now collector's items.

Controller

The Virtual Boy Controller.

The Virtual Boy Controller is the standard and only controller for the Virtual Boy. The controller consists of many buttons, and two D-Pads. It strongly resembles the Nintendo GameCube controller. It is also the power source for the system itself.

Mario games on the Virtual Boy

Released

• Mario Clash
• Mario's Tennis
• Virtual Boy Wario Land

Canceled

• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
• VB Mario Land

Demos

• Mario Demo (unnamed)

Appearances in the Mario series

Super Smash Bros. Melee

A Virtual Boy appears in the shelf, in the room where all trophies are kept. Although this Virtual Boy only appears in the Japanese version of the game, the player can still see it by setting the language to Japanese in the game.

Super Paper Mario

Francis has a Virtual Boy in his room in where he also keeps other various Nintendo consoles.

Trivia

• The Virtual Boy has an EXT. port that was most likely made to support two-player mode. However, no Virtual Boy games support this mode, due to the fact that the system never caught on and was discontinued so quickly.