Nintendo Announces Virtual Boy Classics For Switch Will Include Unreleased Games, Customizable Colors, And More

Nintendo has revealed more information about the Virtual Boy games coming to Switch and Switch 2. Unveiled earlier this year to the surprise of many, the company is reviving its early, unsuccessful swing at VR by releasing a selection of games on Nintendo Switch Online that can be played with a peripheral modeled after the original console. Today, a new trailer showed off some of the games coming to the platform, as well as some quality-of-life improvements to hopefully make the notoriously uncomfortable device a little more comfortable.

The launch catalogue of games, available on February 17, includes Teleroboxer, Galactic Pinball, Red Alarm, Golf, Virtual Boy Wario Land, 3-D Tetris, and The Mansion of Innsmouth. That last game, known as Innsmouth no Yakata in Japan, was never officially released in the US before now.

The ad also shows other games coming to the service later this year, including Mario Clash, Mario Tennis, Jack Bros, Space Invaders Virtual Collection, Virtual Bowling, Vertical Force, and V-Tetris. These games, along with the seven above, were announced when the Virtual Boy’s return was announced, but today’s footage showed two more, Zero Racers and D-Hopper, are also coming to the service. Both games have never been released before, due in part to the console’s short lifespan, so this is the first time they’ll be playable for the public. None of the non-launch games have a specific release date just yet, but other game collections in the Nintendo Classics library are released in packs of one to two every month or so, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume the Virtual Boy games would follow the same schedule.

Finally, Nintendo also shared some quality of life improvements, which are largely in-line with features you expect in other Nintendo Classics apps, including suspended saves at any time, remappable controls, and a rewind feature, which helps mitigate the sometimes frustrating design of titles from that era. Players will also be able to adjust games’ colors, with footage showing the screen changing the red pixels white, green, or yellow. This feature isn’t coming until later in the year, however, and doesn’t work with the Virtual Boy cardboard model.

The Virtual Boy launch games and headsets drop on February 17. The more authentic plastic model is $99.99, while the cardboard one will run you $24.99.