{"id":302731,"date":"2026-02-17T15:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302731\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:55:07","slug":"nintendos-virtual-boy-app-is-now-available-to-download","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302731\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo’s Virtual Boy app is now available to download"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nintendo\u2019s Virtual Boy<\/a> app is now available<\/a> to download on Switch and Switch 2 as part of its Nintendo Classics offering. You\u2019ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership to access the launch titles, and unlike Nintendo\u2019s other retro emulators, this one also requires a dedicated accessory.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, the Virtual Boy was a portable tabletop system released in 1995, and the first console capable of rendering stereoscopic 3D graphics. It had a facemask with a monochrome red display built onto a bipod, so rather than wearing it like a modern VR headset, you had to awkwardly push your face towards it to play games.<\/p>\n

While undeniably innovative for the time, the console never took off (to put it gently), but Nintendo is giving anyone who missed out in the ’90s a chance to experience one of the strangest experiments in its history in 2026. Aesthetically, the $100 Virtual Boy<\/a> add-on is a near perfect replica of the original console, with the big difference being that rather than a built-in display, it has a slot for sliding in your Switch or Switch 2. And unlike the OG Virtual Boy, this one is also wireless.<\/p>\n

If $100 seems a bit steep for something that\u2019ll almost certainly be collecting dust before summer rolls around, Nintendo is also selling a $25 cardboard version (unfortunately your old Labo VR headset won\u2019t work here). Both are available to buy from the My Nintendo Store.<\/p>\n

The Virtual Boy app is launching with the following games today: 3d Tetris, Galactic Pinball, Golf, The Mansion of Innsmouth, Red Alarm, Teleroboxer and Virtual Boy Wario Land. More games will be added in the future, including Mario Clash, Mario\u2019s Tennis and Space Invaders Virtual Collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nintendo\u2019s Virtual Boy app is now available to download on Switch and Switch 2 as part of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,4410,143070,143071,80,136972],"class_list":["post-302731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-classics","tag-nintendo-switch-online","tag-technology","tag-virtual-boy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}