"A doomed, but wondrous little toy."

I am positively shocked that nobody has written a positive review of the Virtual Boy. I mean, I expected at least ONE good review to balance out the two's and three's. But since there aren't, I'm here to restore a tiny bit of pride to this poor dead system.

The Virtual Boy was obviously dead before it hit the shelves. First of all, it was not virtual reality, it was 3D. In addition to this, it was logistically the biggest pain in the butt ever sold as a console. It was not portable, despite claims that it was. You couldn't wear the system like a pair of goggles (you'd break your neck), you had to place it on a tripod, that was at a very awkward height. I managed to find a table that I could place the system on and look into while sitting down. Add to this the fact that nobody was willing to pay 300 dollars for a system that displayed in two colors. All of these complaints are nothing compared to the fact that half of the people who played the system suffered headaches and motion sickness, not to mention eyestrain.

So why do I give it a relatively high rating? First and foremost, the games. Provided that you could actually use the machine without side effects, the thing was a blast. There weren't many games, but a full 75% of them were excellent (even if the pack-in game did suck). Red Alarm was amazing, and Wario Land is one of the best platformers available for ANY system. Almost all of these games used the 3D capabilities to actually ENHANCE gameplay, not just as a gimmick. Vertical Force is your typical shooter, but with the added twist of being able to change altitudes, flying into the screen to go over or under enemies. I purchased the machine for $25 and had a great time tracking down elusive games. And one more thing: What's so bad about Red? I don't hear people saying ''Gameboy is worthless, everything's green!'' Virtual Boy's red and black color scheme not only cut down on the price, but made everything look really cool and futuristic.

In short, the Virtual Boy was a horrible mistake, but it's not to be completely ignored. Logistics aside, it really was an amazing piece of hardware (with the greatest controller in history: two d pads!), and the games were great. Not only that, but it makes a hell of a great conversation piece! If you can track one down on eBay or something, check it out!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/01, Updated 02/06/01