Can you recall the earliest year you remember this website bringing these “leads” up?”
9/9/2023 is when I first saw the listings. I’ve been quietly waiting since but to be honest my hopes aren’t high. If the person who supposedly has the prototypes truly wants to build up an inventory of repros then that’s fine by me, but given the circumstances I can’t help but feel this is kind of shady. I know Vintex is a trusted source but I do wonder if they’re being duped. Would love to be proven wrong but I’m admittedly quite skeptical since it’s been so long.
UPDATE: Took a closer look at the trailer and noticed this fine print. It seems like a peripheral will be required after all, which is a shame. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of people playing Virtual Boy games through emulators, often in 2D, and then becoming a fan who’s compelled to buy a real Virtual Boy to experience the games in proper. Limiting the Virtual Boy Classics to only people who buy a peripheral first alienates a lot of players who otherwise might’ve bought it had they gotten to try the games. Hopefully they go back on this and add a 2D mode by the time it launches next year.
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If I may ramble for moment, I want to share the pretty mixed feelings I have on this.
On one hand I’m very glad any Virtual Boy games are getting rereleased at all, including several third party games. I’m not sure how they even got the rights to Virtual Bowling, Insmouse no Yakata, and the Locomotive games considering the studios behind them have been long defunct. However, the way they’ve advertised Virtual Boy Classics is a lot different from how they’ve advertised the other Nintendo Classics in the past. They do not normally announce this many games right out the gate, and unlike the other consoles they never said that more games beyond the ones shown would be added at a later time. The exact wording they use is “the fourteen classic games shown here are planned to be released over time”. Compare that to the Game Boy/Game Boy Advance Classics announcement where they say “more games will be added to this library” and show a handful of titles.
That really makes it feel like these are the only games that’ll ever be added, and while it is an impressive library already I find it hard not to be kind of bummed thinking about the high possibility that this will be it. Seeing a console with such a short lifespan finally be given a second chance at life but with another end already in sight is disappointing. They’ve already gotten the rights from (presumably) Konami to rerelease Vertical Force so it’d be a shame if Panic Bomber doesn’t also see a rerelease, and Nester’s Funky Bowling seems like another glaring omission since that’s likely under the ownership of Nintendo themselves. But most of all it’d be sad for unreleased games like Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper since this is probably their one chance of ever seeing an official release. I could be wrong, maybe they will add more later on, but it really feels to me like they’re implying this is all of it.
They could be going about it this different way because of the Virtual Boy’s negative connotation and possibly trying to gauge interest, but if that’s the case then my hopes are even lower because I’m already seeing people think this is a stupid addition to Nintendo Switch Online. I don’t know if the stigma around it will ever truly peter out. It also doesn’t help that the peripheral is $100. That’s really steep considering it doesn’t even come with a controller, and I doubt many people will be thrilled to buy a $25 piece of cardboard as the cheaper alternative. Much like others in this thread I assumed the peripherals were optional and you’d be able to play in 2D, but listening to the trailer again they say “in order to play, you’ll NEED this dedicated accessory”. Though on the Nintendo website I couldn’t find any mention of it being a requirement, so I’m not too sure.
I don’t want to sound ungrateful because I really am glad they’re finally making these games available to a wider audience, but it’s just hard not to want the absolute best for something so long underappreciated, y’know? I dunno, I get a bit of a sour taste in my mouth thinking about all of this. Let it be known though that I will absolutely buy the Virtual Boy replica no matter what because that thing is awesome. Also I’m going to attach the images of the full lineup since no one’s done so yet.
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