Y'know, of all the things I expected to happen ever, I can't say this was very high on the list. And yet, here we are.
For whatever reason, in 2026, hell itself has apparently frozen over and Nintendo has decided to celebrate one of its most spectacular failures of all time. And you know what? I'm absolutely here for it.
The revival of the Virtual Boy is something I never could've seen coming, let alone the lengths Nintendo has gone to do so. Not only did they rerelease the Virtual Boy's games for the first time ever, but they also released a full-blown replica Virtual Boy accessory that simulates what it's actually like to play on the Two-Legged Red-and-Black Terror of '95.
And while I still have significant gripes with how the whole thing was handled (practically forcing you to buy the $100 accessory or the cheaper cardboard alternative that you have to hold up to your face the whole time LABO VR style to properly play the games, with the VB: NC app having no flatscreen option almost kills the point of rereleasing the games and making them more accessible, plus it's a really steep price tag on TOP of the Expansion Pack subscription you need to have just to play some games that are good, but not THAT good), I'm too much of an enthusiast to be able to resist ponying up the 100 doubloons for the full VB experience.
And personally, while I wouldn't recommend it to most people outside of the biggest of diehards, it has been worth the money for me. It's probably the single coolest peripheral I own for any platform, and offers what I imagine is a pretty darn authentic Virtual Boy experience without having to blow $500 for a real one on eBay (I can't say 100% if it's truly authentic, as I've never played on an actual Virtual Boy). The stereoscopic 3D is genuinely incredibly impressive, and the games are pretty fun! Nothing mind-blowing, but way more entertaining than I was expecting. Oh yeah, and speaking of the games, you don't have to seek out the actual cartridges like you would with the real thing, as a significant chunk of the console's very small library is readily available via the VB: Nintendo Classics app (soon including a pair of games that never even released)!
All that to say, while I hate the lack of a flatscreen option for play without the accessory, I still absolutely love that this happened, showing that the Nintendo of today is willing and unafraid to dive into even the strangest, most infamous parts of their history, which I think is just awesome. Plus, when I'm not using the accessory, it makes for a great conversation piece as it sits off in the corner, ominously looming over the room.
It's just standing there...... MENACINGLY!
And just as I thought the Virtual Boy's resurrection couldn't get any cooler, Nintendo decides to drop 5 Virtual Boy soundtracks onto Nintendo Music.
So yes, happy belated Nintendo Music Thursday!
I planned to write about this week's Thursday drop last night when it happened, but Nintendo dropped so much news last night that I just decided to push it off until today. And even then I barely got this post today because I've just had no energy for some reason. I really need to fix my sleep schedule.
Anyway, the 5 soundtracks include the following:
- Virtual Boy Wario Land (38 tracks/40m of music)
- Mario Clash (22 tracks/25m of music)
- Galactic Pinball (28 tracks/38m of music)
- Teleroboxer (34 tracks/28m of music)
- Mario's Tennis (20 tracks/45m of music)
Not sure how Mario's Tennis has the longest total soundtrack despite having the fewest tracks of the 5.
One thing I was surprised by is how these soundtracks aren't basic, 10 track OSTs like many NES titles on the app, instead averaging nearly 30 tracks across the lineup. I'm sure there's plenty of short jingles in there, but I still found that quite surprising.
It all adds up to a total of 142 tracks and 176 minutes of music, nearly three hours of Virtual Boy music! Honestly, I wasn't sure there was that much VB music period, let alone across only 5 games! (I'm only half-joking... okay I'm mostly joking) I have yet to listen through these soundtracks, so I can't tell you how much of it is actually worth listening to, but I do recall Mario's Tennis having some pretty nice tunes when I tried it out. So I'm happy to have it here!
This also means that when you sort games by platform and scroll down, there's now a section labelled 'Virtual Boy' in between the Super NES and Nintendo 64 sections, which is just kinda surreal in the best possible way. And it has the same number of games as the DS, which is kinda sad. We need more DS representation on this service.
I'm not sure we'll get any more VB soundtracks in the future, as with how small the VB's library is, I'm not sure how many other games Nintendo would have the rights to put on their music streaming app. But I'd love to see more! I've echoed this sentiment throughout this post, but I just think it's cool to see this corner of Nintendo history, regardless of how infamous and how big a failure the console was, represented in the modern day like this. It's an important piece of Nintendo and video game history all the same, and I'm glad Nintendo is willing to celebrate the Virtual Boy in spite of everything.
Do Satellaview and Pokemon Mini next please.
