Never heard of a Virtual Boy? Understandable. The original was released in 1995 as a kind of gaming stereoscope, and, well… it flopped. Like, hugely. Intended to be a standalone console, the Virtual Boy had 22 games before it was discontinued after less than a million unit sales. Now, it's back in combination with Nintendo's finest and fastest-selling consoles to bring you fourteen of those games.
Designed as an add-on accessory, you can insert your Switch or Switch 2 to play a variety of titles in 3D, including Mario's Tennis, Galactic Pinball, Teleroboxer, Mario Clash, Wario Land, and more. Be careful, though, as these games are only available to North American and Canadian Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
It won't be available to others worldwide, at least not yet. Perhaps Nintendo is waiting to see what sales figures look like, or maybe it's just going to be a regional difference between Nintendo branches. Either way, we're hoping to see it globally soon enough.
There's no word yet on the price of the accessory, but all fourteen games come included in the price of NSO. It's an interesting experiment to see whether fans are interested in playing retro games in 3D. Perhaps it will inform any future Nintendo plans for VR, given the recent developments of the Steam Frame and other VR headsets.
For all the other stuff you missed from the direct today, check out the September 2025 Nintendo Direct news. Want to watch the Mario Galaxy movie and play Super Mario Galaxy on Switch? You'll be able to in no time at all.