I don’t really need to explain that the Virtual Boy is a tabletop game console, do I? As in, it is neither a portable or home console. Tabletop is an extinct type of game console, most common to the ’80s.

That said, I don’t think the Virtual Boy truly “feels” like a tabletop console, it has more in common with previous Nintendo products. Which though? Where do you think the Virtual Boy feels more related to? Game Boy or SNES? N64 wasn’t released yet and the NES was too old for this comparison.

Personally, I think the Virtual Boy and its library is more similar to the Game Boy. The added power did help to make the games feel a little less microscopic though. Visually more on-par with SNES, but the games felt a lot more like Game Boy games, as in shorter and better for quick plays.

3DBoyColor wrote:

Personally, I think the Virtual Boy and its library is more similar to the Game Boy. The added power did help to make the games feel a little less microscopic though. Visually more on-par with SNES, but the games felt a lot more like Game Boy games, as in shorter and better for quick plays.

Personally you and I see eye to eye on this one I do feel it’s like a higher res gameboy mainly for the lack of music ability on the console. I do feel that it has lots of untapped potential and can’t wait to see what the future holds for our little red buddy.

3DBoyColor wrote:
Personally, I think the Virtual Boy and its library is more similar to the Game Boy. The added power did help to make the games feel a little less microscopic though. Visually more on-par with SNES, but the games felt a lot more like Game Boy games, as in shorter and better for quick plays.

I also totally agree, I would say personally it feels more like a Game Boy than an SNES, mainly being what you said about how most of the games are more “quick plays”
The graphics are definitely worth mentioning though because if you consider it like a Game Boy, then that would be quite an impressive Game Boy 🙂

But it really is it’s own breed from Nintendo 🙂

morintari wrote:
Personally you and I see eye to eye on this one I do feel it’s like a higher res gameboy mainly for the lack of music ability on the console. I do feel that it has lots of untapped potential and can’t wait to see what the future holds for our little red buddy.

Yeah, I’d say the Virtual Boy is totally capable of much more than the games released for it showed

I get asked this a lot by my fellow gamer buddies because none of them can ever figure out what the VB’s deal was. It was like a console with an identity crisis in a way. I always saw the Virtual Boy (or Girl lol) as a successor to the Gameboys much in the way the DS systems were a successor. Even though the DS line is a different system from the Gameboy entirely, it still holds so many similarities and owes itself to the it and Game & Watch systems much like the VB and Gameboy.

I feel the Virtual Boy tried to use a similar formula to the Gameboy when it came to its own games- in that they should be a somewhat short burst of good fun while on the go. Due to the limitations at the time restricting how small they could make the system, it’s easy to see why many people would bunch it with home consoles though. I mean, let’s be honest there weren’t many people playing this on long car rides like we did with Gameboys and the amount of batteries needed to keep the beast alive was more than the Sega GameGear (and that at least had a lit color screen). More than half the time players were probably tethered to a wall via the AC adapter/power pack which unofficially made it a home console to many.

Regardless of its “flaws” I love my VB and VG though. 🙂

I tell people unfamiliar with the system that it’s the processing power of a SNES with a SuperFX chip combined with the color depth and sound hardware of the Game Boy. Not quite 100% accurate, but close enough and mostly gets the point across. 🙂

blitter wrote:
I tell people unfamiliar with the system that it’s the processing power of a SNES with a SuperFX chip combined with the color depth and sound hardware of the Game Boy. Not quite 100% accurate, but close enough and mostly gets the point across. 🙂

Good explanation, I think it works.

I consider the Virtual Boy like my game boy. It is portable in some ways. That is why I would consider it like the game boy.

I consider it a beefed up Gameboy in terms of the games – I tend to play in quick bursts not because of the display, but because actually playing it can be quite uncomfortable in terms of hunching / posture etc. and takes some care to set up.