Or any particular section of a game. The Virtual Boy was very unique for its time (and arguably for many years after), although the library was meager, it had a nice variety and several games made good use of the hardware. Out of all the games, which made you drop your jaw or make you say “wow!”.

One of my first VB games on real hardware was Wario Land. Man, for a 2D game, it had some great 3D effects. It was seriously cool to see Wario’s sprite be given depth, how his hands are separate from his body. While usual gameplay can drown out the 3D effects going on, it’s great to stop occasionally and look at everything going on. So far my favorite level for best 3D effect is… Stage 4 or 5 I think? It has an underwater section where the objects are seen from an angle. It’s a very clever way to draw 3D without any polygons. The effect works really well with the VB’s 3D display.

Teleroboxer is hard to get used to (doesn’t quite have the iconic appeal and gameplay of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out), but it’s essentially a killer app. First person perspective, uses both D-Pads to do different things and it’s genuinely fun. But again it’s pretty hard to figure out an opponent’s weakness at times and the controls are hard to get used to.

And then there’s Bound High… Wow, what a great game. I don’t really notice the 3D much during gameplay, but it’s just so unique and fun… I can’t think of another game that is similar to it. It certainly makes for a better virtual reality game than most other VB games. When I first sat down to play it, I stayed glued to it for like an hour or two and reached world 3. I wish the password would appear when you pause the game. I can’t believe this was never released, what a horrible tragedy. Reminds me of Starfox 2 on SNES.

How about you guys? Any real WOW moments in a VB game?

Wario Land, Red Alarm, Bound High and Space Squash all produced that reaction for me

Red Alarm. It is the first VB game I played and whenever I play it, I still get the same feeling.

Golf too, the T&E guys were truly masters of VB programming.

And Bound High. Such a shame it didn’t get released.

Teleroboxer, Warioland, Red Alarm. Virtual Golf had some amazing graphics and Insmouse no Yakata looks awesome, not as good as Faceball though. Faceball and Bound High really made me go WOW!

to me the game that blows me away has got to be Vertical Force. I mean really they have complete 3d backgrounds any chance they get, and they didn’t have any tools to draw them just freehand using a paint program incredible!

I’ve been wowing all week on a new VB game.

MineStorm wrote:
I’ve been wowing all week on a new VB game.

Sounds interesting, don’t suppose you can tell us what it is? 😉

I know I’m going to be on my own with this one but I just can’t help myself. I always go back to waterworld, I love the way it reminds of a 3d asteroids. Just wish there was a two player option.

MineStorm wrote:
I’ve been wowing all week on a new VB game.

Such a tease!

I’ll list just one. Warioland..Some wonderful 3D effects in this game. The one thing that always gets me is the broken block pieces react to the environment when they fall…I haven’t seen this in any other Mario/Wario platformer, even in games for more powerful hardware. Another VB exclusive =P

morintari wrote:
to me the game that blows me away has got to be Vertical Force. I mean really they have complete 3d backgrounds any chance they get, and they didn’t have any tools to draw them just freehand using a paint program incredible!

Really, they Paint’d all of that?? Why do it that way, just a lack of high-powered software back then?

As for my WOW games, hmm…definitely Bound High! The individual graphics don’t have a huge 3D effect, but the motion and sense of being miles above Chalvo’s city do for sure. I think Virtual Bowling is a great game overshadowed by its impossible collectibility. Those graphics (especially the backgrounds/scenery) look gorgeous, and the music is awesome too. Jack Bros music also had me wowing a little bit.

Insmouse No Yakata gave me a wow sensation, but more in theory. I am a huge fan of HP Lovecraft, and for my favorite little console to have a game based indirectly on his writings, WOW :). The grim cover art and overall storyline are great. To be honest though, the game is kind of ‘meh’.

HPLovethrash wrote:

Really, they Paint’d all of that?? Why do it that way, just a lack of high-powered software back then?

Yeah they either drew it or they had really powerful software that could render w/o a lot of weird dither patterns, most likely they drew it.:-)