by Lyle 'Chip' Chipperson

Created on: November 22, 2011   Last Updated: November 25, 2011

It was 1995 when this funky–looking toy by Nintendo had floated upon the shelves at Toys R Us, video games stores and also the toy department at your favorite department store. They came in a nice medium–sized box with the name of the product mentioned in large red letters inside a rectangle. I remember a commercial for Virtual Boy and where it (the Virtual Boy) chases a lone child in apocalyptic world and finally catches up to them. The child grabs the controller the virtual boy comes with and sticks his eyes into the dual glass and where they game is displayed (and inside, the monochrome view of Black & Red). Virtual Boy got onto the shelves with the high price at $180. This product, to say the least, did peak some interest to the consumers at first. But thereafter, it was basically a joke. Only a few games to begin with was released, and they sold on average of that $19 to $49. At the very end of the Virtual Boy's rating, there were just 22 games made. In the end, the Virtual Boy was a serious joke. And I feel bad for those who had bought it or $200.

In 1997, while I was in high school, I had bought a Virtual Boy for a light sum of $30 from somebody I knew from school. It came with two games, Mario’s Tennis and Nester’s Funky Bowling. The first mention is basically a 3-D view of tennis featuring your favorite and lovable characters of the super Mario Brothers galaxy. Not so local characters included were Bowser and also, Toad (heh-heh). Nester's Funky Bowling was something I actually enjoyed and spent a little more time playing this game that I thought I would when I started it up.

I did find a couple of Virtual Boy games in a clearance rack at a Electronics Boutique (a video games shop often found in malls back in the 80s/90s) for two dollars each. Those games were Red Alarm and Virtual League Baseball. Red Alarm was a 3-D air fighter game in which was awful, and with Virtual Boy’s display as red and black, the game did not bode very well while playing, especially the lines and invisible walls of graphics. Our baseball game (also in limited 3-D) was a half-English, half-Japanese game that did carry rosters and also had a tournament mode. The players were animated, and when something very special happened during the game, such as a home run or a good defensive play, and animated sequence seen with the Virtual Boy’s infamous red and black display with pop-up.

This serious and bizarre issue with the game is, as mentioned

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>