From A to Wii – Virtual Boy

V – Virtual Boy

I love the Virtual Boy. The little red wonder.

The ill fated system holds a very fond place in my heart. Part of it was the fun games that were available, including Mario Tennis, Wario Land and Red Alarm, but another part was the uniqueness and inventiveness of the whole thing. And that’s the way I’m feeling about the Wii.

The Virtual Boy was both a success and an utter failure. Many would strongly agree with the failure part. The Virtual Boy used an uncomfortable viewing display that produced very rudimentary 3D images and the lack of support from both third party developers and Nintendo itself was minimal from day one. Add in the fact that the back story behind the system was a scandalous media treat and that Nintendo gave up on the system before anyone could even accept it and you have a big old chink in Nintendo’s armour. Still, I love the little guy.

While everything else on the horizon was evolutionary, including the Game Boy successor, the Virtual Boy dared to be different. While the graphical output of the system seemed low-tech, the hardware behind it and the unique controller were actually very advanced, especially for the home consumer market. Sound familiar?

The parallels between the Virtual Boy and the Wii can get eerily familiar. Both have forsaken top of the line graphical output mostly due to cost. Both have a unique controller. Both had/have a Tennis game bundled with them for launch (even odder, this applies to North America, but not Japan, in both cases).

The big difference now though is the market. In 1995 the video game market was blossoming and people saw no need to shake things up with an experimental fringe system. Today, the market has started to stagnate and while the hardcore are still as deep in it as ever, casual (and lapsed) gamers want something different.

I urge all of you out there to give the Virtual Boy a shot at some point. The system is very charming and more importantly, the games are fun. With the Wii I won’t have to do any urging. The buzz surrounding the Wii is phenomenal and even before it launches Nintendo’s new system is more successful than the Virtual Boy ever was.

Nintendo has learned a lot since they launched the Virtual Boy, possibly even learned something from the Virtual Boy. And just between you and me, I’m going to call my Wii the Virtual Boy 2.

Planet Virtual Boy

Virtual Boy Net