It's fair to say that Nintendo surprised everyone when it recently announced it was bringing Virtual Boy games to Nintendo Switch Online alongside a replica accessory of the ill-fated tabletop console in February of next year.
Notable for being one of the company's rare missteps in the realm of home hardware, the Virtual Boy sold around 770,000 units according to contemporary reports, and recieved only a handful of games before the plug was pulled after less than a year on the market.
The best way to experience the Virtual Boy is via original hardware, of course, but that's becoming increasingly expensive – and units often have issues with the delicate stereoscopic 3D technology included in the machine that require repair.
Therefore, many people will no doubt be counting down the days until Virtual Boy comes to Nintendo Switch Online early next year, but if you fancy seeing what all the fuss is about ahead of schedule, then there's a good chance you've got the means to do so in your home already.
Virtual Boy emulation has been possible on 3DS for a while now, thanks to Skyfoogle's excellent Red Viper emulator. Not only does this play games flawlessly and offer creature comforts like the ability to fast-forward gameplay and save your game at any point, it also leverages the 3DS' autostereoscopic screen to convincingly reproduce the impression of three-dimensional depth the Virtual Boy provided – but you don't have to hunch over a table to experience it.
Naturally, getting Red Viper onto your 3DS requires it to be hacked, but that's a blissfully straightforward process these days – and something you arguably should have done already, given that Nintendo has long since turned off the 3DS eShop. All you need is a computer and the proper guidance.
Red Viper – along with a host of other homebrew apps – can be downloaded to your hacked 3DS via the Universal Updater. You'll need to source the ROMs yourself, however – something that might not sit well with everyone, given that Nintendo is now actively making Virtual Boy games available again via legal means.
If you crave a truly immersive Virtual Boy experience in 2025, then a VR headset might be best for you, but personally, I find the 3DS is the perfect middle ground for this; I'm not massively keen on having things strapped to my face, but I still want to 'see' the games as the developers intended, in 3D – so the 3DS strikes that ideal balance, at least in my opinion.
Have you been playing Virtual Boy on your 3DS for a while, or are you considering hacking your console in order to do so? Let us know with a comment below.