Iwata Asks: Virtual Boy

Depressing interview.

Miyamoto: But if you think of it as just a fun toy, it’s a big success…

Miyamoto: When you think of it as a gaming platform, it becomes a failure.

When an exciting and innovating gaming platform like VB (yeah, I called it a gaming system!) is just a silly toy, makes me laugh at Nintendo’s downward spiral of exciting technology since then compared to competitors. N64 was all textured mapping and gave off a very blocky look that couldn’t be avoided, Gamecube couldn’t graphically stand up to Xbox, and Nintendo Wii…. Should have just released the sensor bar and motion controller as an upgrade for Gamecube.

I did enjoy the touch screen on the DS, and I’m looking forward to 3DS quite a bit.

But I can’t help but feel that Miyamoto is a bit jealous of Yokoi and his great inventions that kept Nintendo afloat and financially out of the red.

DanB wrote:

But I can’t help but feel that Miyamoto is a bit jealous of Yokoi and his great inventions that kept Nintendo afloat and financially out of the red.

I believe Miyamotos own inventions (Mario and Zelda games) have earned Nintendo their fair share of cash too 😉

I agree, N64 sucked and I bought one at launch for Mario 64. Also enjoyed Zelda Ocarina and Majora’s Mask. Doesn’t give the washout an excuse to call VB a toy and not a gaming platform.

Maybe if Miyamoto had given the VB a chance in hell…
Wario for VB proved that the Virtual Boy was enjoyable and impressive more than just “Red Alarm wireframes”.

Super Nintendo was the last great Nintendo console before VB. VB was new and exciting. N64 and onward has been bland & underpowered sell-out central station. It’s a lot easier making money selling games and consoles catering to “non-gamers”.
Can’t blame someone for caring about money more than video games, but that doesn’t mean they deserve respect from gamers. Face it, Miyamoto loves champagne parties more than video games these days. Lots of once great things are in the past, just don’t forget that Nintendo in the 21st century applies.

Edit: Not trying to sound like a cold-hearted hater, but the interview rubs me the wrong way and Miyamoto really doesn’t have any right to try to pretend like VB failed just because of pathetic toy excuses. The VB was awesome, I was there pre-launch and day one. It failed because it was pricey, not color, not portable, and got horrible media coverage. Lack of game support and lies ruined it. If you stuffed your chubby little face in a VB in 1995, you were WOW’ed.

If anyone played a VB, they liked VB. Even reviewers that extend VB hate usually admit that Wario Land on VB is a gem that shouldn’t be missed.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 3 months ago by VirtualJockey.
• This reply was modified 13 years, 3 months ago by VirtualJockey.

I wasn’t really insulted by the toy thing (as some people consider all videogames “toys”) as much as how Miyamoto said they should all become selfish when they grow old… and Yamauchi-like…

*is Yamauchi-phobic*

anyways, I’m just glad Nintendo actually brought up the Virtual Boy during its 3DS interviews AND Yokoi! I was afraid they might’ve not and tried to avoid any mention of the Virtual Boy

I’m getting the red/black 3DS of course 😀

I didn’t read the article too intensively, but I don’t find it that offensive. I get that feeling that a lot of gamers (myself included) disagree with Miyamoto’s latent views about what a game console should be. (I also agree with VirtualJockey’s comment about Nintendo going downhill after the SNES, but the SNES is my favorite console so I may be biased. :-D) In fact, what I was most shocked about was the fact that Gamecubes have stereoscopic capabilities built-in… I wonder how that works.

DanB wrote:
I’m betting on black and white at launch, like the recent DS releases. Too bad, because I like the red/black one myself…

Modders like to use this magical substance called vinyl dye to solve problems like that. 😉

Gabor wrote:
Interesting interview. Even more interesting that some people make simply wrong statements. Such as:

“Itoi:
Can you also adjust the three-dimensionality of the video of natural imagery we saw earlier?
Iwata:

No, you can’t change the three-dimensionality of something recorded beforehand. You can turn the stereoscopic display on or off, though. In other words, you can only select whether you want it to look three-dimensional or not.”

I am saying: it is not true. For example, the nVidia driver with an LCD Stereoglass (aka shutter glass) on a PC allows the degree of three dimensionality to be changed, in fact gradually (default=CTRL-F3 and CTRL-F4). The change is clearly noticeable. So, along that line, the statement above “…. you can only select whether you want it to look three-dimensional or not.” maybe the way they will make it, but not because it is not possible to change it gradually.

And in Red Alarm (maybe other games too?) it’s also possible to adjust the depth.