List of Virtual Boy games explained

The Virtual Boy is a 32-bit tabletop video game console developed and designed by Nintendo, first released in Japan on July 21, 1995 and later in North America on August 14 of the same year.^[1] The following lists contains all of the games released for the Virtual Boy.

Originally unveiled at Nintendo's Shoshinkai Show in Japan on November 15, 1994 and at Winter CES in North America on January 6, 1995,^{[2] [3]} it was never intended to be released in its final form but Nintendo pushed the Virtual Boy in its unfinished state to market so that it could focus development resources on the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 and arrived later than other 32-bit systems such as the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn but at a lower price,^{[4] [5]} retailing at US$179.95 but in mid-1996, Blockbuster was selling Virtual Boy units at $50 each.^{[6] [7] [2] [8]}

The system was overwhelmingly panned by critics and was deemed a commercial failure,^[9] selling only 770,000 units before being discontinued both in Japan and North America on and March 2, 1996 respectively,^[10] making it the second lowest-selling hardware by Nintendo after the 64DD and its marketing campaign was commonly thought of as a failure.^[11] Several additional titles were announced to be released for the Virtual Boy at E3 1996, but ultimately they were never released due to the system’s discontinuation by Nintendo themselves, as were several localizations that were only released in one region.^[2]

This lists all games commercially released for the Virtual Boy. For games that were announced or in development but never released, see the list of cancelled Virtual Boy games.

Games

Listed here are all officially released Virtual Boy games. Of these, eight titles were exclusive to Japan, three to North America and the other 11 were released in both regions. The Americas saw 14 releases and Japan, Hong Kong, and other Asian territories had 19. A number of games were either announced or already in development before ultimately being cancelled including Bound High!, Dragon Hopper, NikoChan Battle, and Zero Racers.

Title^[12]	Genre(s)	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)	Release date
				Japan	North America
3D Tetris	Puzzle	T&E Soft	Nintendo
Galactic Pinball	Pinball	Intelligent Systems	Nintendo
Golf	Sports	T&E Soft	T&E Soft Nintendo
Innsmouth no Yakata	First-person horror	Be Top	I'Max
Jack Bros.	Action	Atlus	Atlus
Mario Clash	Action	Nintendo R&D1	Nintendo
Mario's Tennis	Sports		Nintendo	5
Nester's Funky Bowling	Sports	Saffire	Nintendo
Panic Bomber	Puzzle		Hudson Soft Nintendo
Red Alarm	Shoot 'em up	T&E Soft	T&E Soft Nintendo
SD Gundam Dimension War	Tactical role-playing game	Locomotive	Bandai
Space Invaders Virtual Collection	Shoot 'em up	Taito	Taito
Space Squash	Sports	Tomcat System	Coconuts Japan Entertainment
Teleroboxer	Fighting	Nintendo R&D1	Nintendo
V-Tetris	Puzzle	Locomotive
Vertical Force	Shoot 'em up	Hudson Soft	Hudson Soft Nintendo
Virtual Bowling	Sports	Athena	Athena
Virtual Boy Wario Land	Platform	Nintendo R&D1	Nintendo
Virtual Fishing	Fishing	Locomotive	Pack-In-Video
Virtual Lab	Puzzle	Nacoty	J-Wing
Virtual League Baseball	Sports	Kemco	Kemco
Waterworld	Shoot 'em up	Ocean of America	Ocean of America

External links

• List of Virtual Boy games at MobyGames

Notes and References

1. News: Introduction by Nintendo. The New York Times . August 22, 1995 . 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20180707203354/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/22/business/introduction-by-nintendo.html. 2018-07-07. live.
2. Boyer, Steven. "A Virtual Failure: Evaluating the Success of Nintendos Virtual Boy." Velvet Light Trap, No. 64 (2009): 23-33. ProQuest Research Library. Web. May 24, 2012.
3. Web site: Nintendo introduces video game players to three-dimensional worlds with new virtual reality video game system « Press Releases « Planet Virtual Boy. planetvb.com. 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20180628124825/https://www.planetvb.com/modules/advertising/?r17. 2018-06-28. live.
4. Book: Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. Game Over (Sheff book). Sheff. David. Eddy. Andy. David Sheff. GamePress. 1999. 978-0-9669617-0-6. 26214063.
5. KEVIN RAFFERTY, IN T. "Super Mario Takes Leap into Three Dimensional Space." The Guardian (pre-1997 Fulltext): 0. November 16, 1994. ProQuest. Web. July 8, 2013.
6. Q. The. Gaming Gossip. Electronic Gaming Monthly. 86. Ziff Davis. September 1996. 34. 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20180720194925/https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File%3AEGM_US_086.pdf&page=34. 2018-07-20. live.
7. Web site: Benj. Edwards. Unraveling The Enigma Of Nintendo's Virtual Boy, 20 Years Later. August 21, 2015. Fast Company. 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20180707231258/https://www.fastcompany.com/3050016/unraveling-the-enigma-of-nintendos-virtual-boy-20-years-later. July 7, 2018. live. mdy-all.
8. Book: Kent, Steven L.. Steven L. Kent. The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. 2002. Random House International. New York. 978-0-7615-3643-7. 59416169. 513–515, 518, 519, 523, 524. 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20170709060608/https://books.google.com/books?id=PTrcTeAqeaEC&printsec=frontcover. 2017-07-09. live.
9. Web site: Lisa Foiles. Top 5 Hardware Super Fails | Top 5 with Lisa Foiles Video Gallery | The Escapist. Escapistmagazine.com. 2018-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20180707201630/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/top-5-with-lisa-foiles/2796-Top-5-Hardware-Super-Fails. 2018-07-07. live.
10. Web site: Snow. Blake. The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time. 2018-07-20. GamePro.com. May 4, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20080905175411/http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/111823/the-10-worst-selling-consoles-of-all-time-page-2-of-2/. September 5, 2008.
11. Book: King. Geoff. Krzywinska. Tanya. 2006. Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders : Videogame Forms and Contexts.
12. Web site: Virtual Boy Games. Nintendo of America. 2008-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20061202093110/http://www.nintendo.com/doc/vb_games.pdf. 2006-12-02. dead.