Nintendo had a truly wild surprise up its sleeve for Switch Online + Expansion Pack during its Direct event on Friday. The company is bringing back the Virtual Boy as a physical device into which you can slot your Switch or Switch 2. A $100 plastic replica of the mid-90s tabletop system will soon be available for Switch Online members to buy. The company will sell a $25 cardboard version of the accessory too. No need to rub your eyes in disbelief (but if history is any indication, you might have to for relief after using this thing).
You’ll need either accessory — which Nintendo says will only be available in the US and Canada — to play Virtual Boy games. They’ll start hitting Switch Online + Expansion Pack on February 17. Mario’s Tennis (a pack-in game for the original system), Galactic Pinball, Teleroboxer, Space Invaders and Tetris are among the 14 stereoscopic 3D Virtual Boy games that Nintendo will bring to the subscription service over time.
That means most of the Virtual Boy games that were ever released are coming to Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Nintendo only released 22 of them, since the Virtual Boy never took off. The company ended production of the device and stopped making games for it in 1996, only a year after the Virtual Boy hit shelves. Here’s hoping the latest version of the accessory doesn’t give players too many headaches.
