Has anyone else noticed this? We all know the Game Boy, it was massively successful. It was released in 1989 and stayed profitable and popular for many years, with no successor in sight. The Virtual Boy was out in 1995 and was Nintendo’s first new “portable” product in years.

Now, technically the Virtual Boy is a tabletop console (an often forgotten 3rd hardware format) and I don’t think anyone thought people would ditch their Game Boys for a Virtual Boy, but consider the curious fact that before the Virtual Boy, there was no Game Boy successor. Not even the Game Boy Pocket, which was released in 1996. The Game Boy Color wouldn’t be released until 1998, about 9 years after the Game Boy first launched.

My overall point with this thread is to simply reflect on this small but interesting fact. How does it make you feel about the Virtual Boy? To me, it makes the Virtual Boy all the more interesting, from a historical point of view. The Game Boy’s first technical successor, even just going by the name alone, was the Virtual Boy. To go from something anyone could play and enjoy, to something very niche. To go from immense success to immense failure. It’s a weird parallel once you notice it.

The moment I first powered up my VB, it totally had me thinking Game Boy. The graphical appearance, the way it sounded, it just felt very much like it was derived from the Game Boy line. Maybe like some kind of Super Game Boy. Not to be confused with that SNES adapter 😛

And in turn, playing the Max And The Mutant Mudds demo on 3DS had me immediately thinking “this feels like some kind of Super Virtual Boy game”. And then lo and behold I ended up in one of those strangely red-tinted bonus levels…

I think this sort of contributed to Nintendo’s high levels of caution when the DS was first announced. I remember at that year’s E3, they stressed several times that it was intended to be a “third pillar” for Nintendo’s system lineup, alongside Game Boy Advance and GameCube. It was positioned very deliberately as not necessarily being the successor to the GBA, just in case it was a tremendous flop… but, of course, that’s ancient history and the DS went on to become one of the most successful game consoles ever. 🙂

The last time they had introduced a system so drastically different from its precursor really was when the Virtual Boy was launched.

I’ve always been curious why it flopped because of when it was released. The gameboy that was current at the time had a HORRIBLE green and darker green display. So why were people so off put by the red and black? Not only was it much sharper and easier to see, there is no motion blurring, and it’s got the added bonus of 3D.

Although then I remember the other thing happening at that time period. 3D was becoming was everyone wanted, and being advertised as a NEXT GEN 32 BIT FWAAAA I guess it kind of disappointed people when they realized it was still mostly a sprite based system when they were craving a polygon system.

Glover wrote:
I think this sort of contributed to Nintendo’s high levels of caution when the DS was first announced. I remember at that year’s E3, they stressed several times that it was intended to be a “third pillar” for Nintendo’s system lineup, alongside Game Boy Advance and GameCube. It was positioned very deliberately as not necessarily being the successor to the GBA, just in case it was a tremendous flop… but, of course, that’s ancient history and the DS went on to become one of the most successful game consoles ever. 🙂

The last time they had introduced a system so drastically different from its precursor really was when the Virtual Boy was launched.

A similar thing happened with the Wii, only it was with Nintendo’s name. Should still be some sources lying around, but I remember from the days of the Wii launch that Nintendo said they wanted the Wii to appeal to non-gamers so they would be de-emphasizing the inclusion of the Nintendo name on the Wii product and marketing.

Similarly, in some staff interviews I think, Nintendo has always regretted placing their name so prominently on the Virtual Boy. I know someone said they marketed it as a video game but should have instead treated it as a sort of electronic toy, because it was just so different. I think that last note is in hindsight though.

But about the Nintendo name, that’s something I find very neat with the Virtual Boy. Nintendo is printed everywhere on the Virtual Boy and its accessories. It truly was just like a SNES or Game Boy as far as Nintendo products go. Flip through a Virtual Boy game booklet, it’s cool seeing everything formatted like any other system, just with a few more “how to set up the virtual boy display” and precautions. It’s such a shame so many people disliked it. 🙁