Yeah, my birthday won’t be ’till September 10th, but I’ve had bad experiences with irresponsible shippers/sellers in the past, so I played it safe this year. So this past weekend I ordered the VB. It’s used, but it also comes with Galactic Pinball. It was $30.50 with shipping, and I think I got lucky there because it was used (a mint condition VB still in the box was $200 in another auction). I didn’t auction for this one, though, I picked the Buy It Now option (I absolutely detest bidding).
I also got Mario Tennis and Nester’s Funky Bowling seperately. (Mario Tennis was mint, for about $15; Funky Bowling was about $30, even though it was missing the box).
More to come once I actually get to play it… which will be, oh, exactly a month from today. 🙁 It’s tough to wait!
Congradulations ! sounds like a good buy to me. not too pricey and those are some fun games. now all you need to hold you off for a while is Wario Land.
Congradulations ! sounds like a good buy to me. not too pricey and those are some fun games. now all you need to hold you off for a while is Wario Land.
Congratulations !! Go for Wario Land is an ACE !!
Wario Land is on my list as well. There were only two copies, both mint and VERY pricey, when I ordered everything last Sunday. Thus, I’m waiting for an opportune moment when maybe a used one for a much more reasonable price will surface. 🙂
I’m waiting on my first Virtual Boy as well… I picked one up on Ebay a few days back as an addition to by handhelds collection – I justify this because of the Gunpei Yokoi connection, and the fact that it is a dedicated video game system that runs on batteries and has an integrated display. 🙂 Anyway, I’m anxiously awaiting it’s arrival! The three games I’m getting with the system are Mario Tennis, Golf and Galactic Pinball (I love video pinball games!! Devil’s Crush and Metroid Pinball are two of my favorite games, ever!) – I’m sure I’ll be looking for a few more shortly after it arrives…
The VB has finally been unpacked and assembled, and I’ve been playing it on-and-off between work and school (busy schedule this semester). However, it’s sort of a “ghetto Virtual Boy”, because the previous owner tried to fix the broken tripod stand by soldering it, so it constantly favors one of the two legs and is prone to wanting to tip over. They also said that their VB came from a “non-smoking home”, but the eyeshield smells just like my great-grandfather’s house, and he smoked cigars constantly. His house reeked of it, and so does the VB.
Now, about the games…
Galactic Pinball is really addicting, and makes good use of the 3-D effect, especially with the background “zooming by” behind the playing fields. My favorite level so far is Colony. I actually videotaped my mom trying to play Galactic Pinball, and the results were hilarious. (Maybe I’ll put it on YouTube sometime.)
Nester’s Funky Bowling is fun, but the first thing I noticed is that it’s a lot less “three-dimensional”. More like “flat planes on different levels” (for lack of a better term). The character’s flat, the alley’s flat, and the only difference is that one’s closer than the other. With Galactic Pinball it actually looked like the pinball game “field” was tilted “away” from you. Also, it’s interesting how it makes use of actual “physics” of bowling, but there are so many different combinations of where to stand, where to tap on the spin and where to tap on the power meter that there are a myriad of different ways to get a strike (or more commonly, to mess up). I’ve never scored higher than a 130 because of this. I love the animations, however, especially the ones with the twins themselves in it. My favorite is when I nail a spare, and Nester points and laughs at me. It’s like “what did -I- do?”
I have yet to get around to Mario Tennis. That’s the only Japanese game I have so far. I also still have to get Wario Land, now that I have a little birthday money.
Hm. Is there a way to submit user reviews of games? I thought I saw an option like that, but maybe I’m having a false memory. I’d like to submit my own reviews for the games I have (actually, I kinda did above, didn’t I?)
I actually didn’t get the VB’s official instruction booklet with it, since I bought it on eBay from a previous owner. Is there a scan of it here on PVB or instructions elsewhere I can follow?
