Yesterday, 8:16 PM
(This post was last modified: Yesterday, 11:47 PM by A Black Falcon.)
This is not a drill, it's real. Nintendo just made one of their most exciting announcements in a very very long time and easily their most exciting retro game release ever. I am still kind of shocked this is real, but... it is! Zero Racers (and Bound High) are actually coming to Switch Virtual Boy! It's shocking but true and I am incredibly excited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVvaCe4esCQ
Seriously, this may not mean much to a lot of people, but this is massively amazing news. These two games, along with another game called Bound High, were in development in 1996 as the key titles for a second attempt at getting the Virtual Boy to sell better, a 'relaunch' of sorts of the console. The games were pretty much completed, but then Nintendo decided to cancel the system entirely instead of releasing the games and giving the system a second chance. I have always been a strong advocate for wishing that companies would support any console they released for at least a couple of years (so long as it was financially possible for them to do so), so Nintendo's decision to ditch the Virtual Boy after less than six months has always been one I don't like. Yes, the system was never going to be a big hit, but with more realistic expectations for its sales -- 665,000 sold really isn't THAT bad, is it? -- I think that it could have been a fun little side system with support for at least a few years. Games like these would have been perfect for this concept, original titles and spinoffs of major franchises that aren't going to sell huge numbers of consoles but could excite some people.
Zero Racers is basically 3d F-Zero: Tunnel Racing Edition, and I've always badly wanted to play it. Zero Racers has been my number one most wanted unreleased game pretty much since its release, and it is just incredible that is is FINALLY going to see the light of day! I remember reading the Nintendo Power preview for the game and thinking it looked pretty good, but that's all we have ever had of it, until now. And finally we'll be able to play it! I don't know if anyone outside of Nintendo had copies of Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper that could have leaked, as happened with Bound High a few years back, but if they did they never released them publicly or showed any footage of them. Now, Nintendo has finally decided to drag them out of the vault and allow people to play the games... for no additional cost beyond the console and the VR accessory options (Virtual Boy plastic shell or cardboard VR).
I have always assumed that Nintendo had these games in their vault. After all, Nintendo, unlike most developers particularly in Japan, keeps everything of note. Nintendo keeps all their source code, all their cancelled game prototypes, everything. While most other developers erase or lose that stuff all the time -- just ask Square or Sega for their old code, they won't have it that's for sure! -- Nintendo keeps stuff. This is of course why the Mana collection was Switch exclusive, Square had to go to Nintendo to get the source code for at least one of the games. Nintendo had been given it back in the '90s for something (I forget why exactly, Satellaview? Nintendo Power system?) and, of course, kept it, while Square lost their originals. Nintendo's stipulation that the collection could only release on their system was understandable. So yeah, I always thought this was possible but didn't think Nintendo would do it. After all, on the 3DS they had a perfect chance to do 3DS Virtual Console, but didn't. Why would they now? Except... now they have. Unbelievable!
Anyway, this is amazing. I am so excited about this and the VB Switch VC. Very cool stuff.
As for the rest of the games on the Switch Virtual Boy VC app --
Golf - it's golf. I'm not a genre fan.
Virtual Boy Wario Land - An absolutely exceptional, incredibly fun game that is only held back by being pretty short and fairly easy. It's one of the all time great platformers though.
Galactic Pinball - One of the better electronic pinball games on retro consoles. Very good stuff. This is a pretty addictive, well made game.
3-D Tetris - This is the best 'Blockout'-style game I've ever played, I like it a lot. It's fantastic.
Teleroboxer - I'm not a boxing fan and this game is very hard but the 3-d effect looks great and the game does seem to be pretty good for its genre.
The Mansion of Innsmouth [aka Insmouse no Yakata or Innsmouth no Yakata or Insane Mouse Mansion] - This Japan-only title is a first-person dungeon-exploring shooter/action game. It doesn't have free movement, but still it has nice visuals and good gameplay. It's a shame this one didn't release here during the VB's life, I think it would have done well.
Mario Clash - With savestates, this previously pretty frustrating to try to play game suddenly becomes potentially fun, I would think! This sequel to arcade Mario Bros. is pretty good, particularly in 3-d where you can see the shells fly into the screen and such, but it' doesn't save, and is a quite long game to play on a system with a pretty short playtime limit before you have to stop and look away... a battery in the cart would have worked wonders. I know it doesn't have much of an ending, but still, the game needed a way to pick up a play session later, and this should provide it.
Red Alarm - Red Alarm may seem on video to make no sense due to the walls being just wireframes, but in stereoscopic 3-d the walls and floors and ships all actually make sense and work in 3d space in a way that's hard to explain unless you've played it. This is a pretty cool game that makes great use of the hardware.
And coming later --
Mario Tennis - This tennis game is still one of Mario's best tennis games ever, particularly in 3d. It's weird that the launch packin game isn't available with the launch of this service, but... okay? Maybe it'll release after the new Switch Mario Tennis game?
Vertical Force - This is a good, though not exceptional, shmup from Hudson. It's nice looking and plays well, but is kind of easy. It's lots of fun to play through though.
Space Invaders Virtual Collection - This is a very expensive import-only title. i don't have a real cart, haven't justified the expense yet. It's basically just Space Invaders but with 3-d.
Jack Bros. - I don't love this game as much as some people seem to, but this top-down action game from Atlus is certainly good, at least. It doesn't make too much use of the 3-d effect but plays well.
V-Tetris - It's Tetris, but with a slight 3d effect. There's not too much reason to play this over Game Boy Tetris really, but it's well made.
Virtual Bowling - This Japan-only title is insanely expensive. From emulation it seems pretty good, I wish I owned a cart. Now I'll be able to play it in 3d.
And of course Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers, the unreleased grails of Nintendo's vault.
I wonder, will we get Bound High also someday? Or is there some rights issue there?
As for the rest of the VB library... well, I get why Waterworld and the Gundam strategy game aren't there. Licenses. Virtual Baseball is a pretty fun game, I hope it shows up someday. The Japanese version is a licensed J-League game but the US version is unlicensed. Virtual Lab is a terrible mess, don't bother. Nester's Funky Bowling is good from what little I've tried of it, though Virtual Bowling seems better. I wonder why they went with that one over the more familiar American title, is it because of the 'license' (of their character from the Nintendo Power comic)? Virtual Bowling does have a better 3d effect but still, they both seem neat. And those are the rest of the games I can think of offhand. Otherwise, what else is missing? Bomberman Panic Bomber isn't here. It's a solid version of that game, apart from missing the multiplayer all the other versions have, but is in English, it's the only version of that game released here. I hope it shows up on this service someday. Konami is supporting it, Vertical Force is theirs of course.
Anyway, this is incredibly exciting stuff. Will Zero Racers be the best game ever? Probably not. But in 3-d it probably will look pretty cool and play well, like Red Alarm. The VB needed more actual 3d games, and that was one! I am really excited for this, it's kind of a dream come true to soon finally be able to play Zero Racers...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVvaCe4esCQ
Seriously, this may not mean much to a lot of people, but this is massively amazing news. These two games, along with another game called Bound High, were in development in 1996 as the key titles for a second attempt at getting the Virtual Boy to sell better, a 'relaunch' of sorts of the console. The games were pretty much completed, but then Nintendo decided to cancel the system entirely instead of releasing the games and giving the system a second chance. I have always been a strong advocate for wishing that companies would support any console they released for at least a couple of years (so long as it was financially possible for them to do so), so Nintendo's decision to ditch the Virtual Boy after less than six months has always been one I don't like. Yes, the system was never going to be a big hit, but with more realistic expectations for its sales -- 665,000 sold really isn't THAT bad, is it? -- I think that it could have been a fun little side system with support for at least a few years. Games like these would have been perfect for this concept, original titles and spinoffs of major franchises that aren't going to sell huge numbers of consoles but could excite some people.
Zero Racers is basically 3d F-Zero: Tunnel Racing Edition, and I've always badly wanted to play it. Zero Racers has been my number one most wanted unreleased game pretty much since its release, and it is just incredible that is is FINALLY going to see the light of day! I remember reading the Nintendo Power preview for the game and thinking it looked pretty good, but that's all we have ever had of it, until now. And finally we'll be able to play it! I don't know if anyone outside of Nintendo had copies of Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper that could have leaked, as happened with Bound High a few years back, but if they did they never released them publicly or showed any footage of them. Now, Nintendo has finally decided to drag them out of the vault and allow people to play the games... for no additional cost beyond the console and the VR accessory options (Virtual Boy plastic shell or cardboard VR).
I have always assumed that Nintendo had these games in their vault. After all, Nintendo, unlike most developers particularly in Japan, keeps everything of note. Nintendo keeps all their source code, all their cancelled game prototypes, everything. While most other developers erase or lose that stuff all the time -- just ask Square or Sega for their old code, they won't have it that's for sure! -- Nintendo keeps stuff. This is of course why the Mana collection was Switch exclusive, Square had to go to Nintendo to get the source code for at least one of the games. Nintendo had been given it back in the '90s for something (I forget why exactly, Satellaview? Nintendo Power system?) and, of course, kept it, while Square lost their originals. Nintendo's stipulation that the collection could only release on their system was understandable. So yeah, I always thought this was possible but didn't think Nintendo would do it. After all, on the 3DS they had a perfect chance to do 3DS Virtual Console, but didn't. Why would they now? Except... now they have. Unbelievable!
Anyway, this is amazing. I am so excited about this and the VB Switch VC. Very cool stuff.
As for the rest of the games on the Switch Virtual Boy VC app --
Golf - it's golf. I'm not a genre fan.
Virtual Boy Wario Land - An absolutely exceptional, incredibly fun game that is only held back by being pretty short and fairly easy. It's one of the all time great platformers though.
Galactic Pinball - One of the better electronic pinball games on retro consoles. Very good stuff. This is a pretty addictive, well made game.
3-D Tetris - This is the best 'Blockout'-style game I've ever played, I like it a lot. It's fantastic.
Teleroboxer - I'm not a boxing fan and this game is very hard but the 3-d effect looks great and the game does seem to be pretty good for its genre.
The Mansion of Innsmouth [aka Insmouse no Yakata or Innsmouth no Yakata or Insane Mouse Mansion] - This Japan-only title is a first-person dungeon-exploring shooter/action game. It doesn't have free movement, but still it has nice visuals and good gameplay. It's a shame this one didn't release here during the VB's life, I think it would have done well.
Mario Clash - With savestates, this previously pretty frustrating to try to play game suddenly becomes potentially fun, I would think! This sequel to arcade Mario Bros. is pretty good, particularly in 3-d where you can see the shells fly into the screen and such, but it' doesn't save, and is a quite long game to play on a system with a pretty short playtime limit before you have to stop and look away... a battery in the cart would have worked wonders. I know it doesn't have much of an ending, but still, the game needed a way to pick up a play session later, and this should provide it.
Red Alarm - Red Alarm may seem on video to make no sense due to the walls being just wireframes, but in stereoscopic 3-d the walls and floors and ships all actually make sense and work in 3d space in a way that's hard to explain unless you've played it. This is a pretty cool game that makes great use of the hardware.
And coming later --
Mario Tennis - This tennis game is still one of Mario's best tennis games ever, particularly in 3d. It's weird that the launch packin game isn't available with the launch of this service, but... okay? Maybe it'll release after the new Switch Mario Tennis game?
Vertical Force - This is a good, though not exceptional, shmup from Hudson. It's nice looking and plays well, but is kind of easy. It's lots of fun to play through though.
Space Invaders Virtual Collection - This is a very expensive import-only title. i don't have a real cart, haven't justified the expense yet. It's basically just Space Invaders but with 3-d.
Jack Bros. - I don't love this game as much as some people seem to, but this top-down action game from Atlus is certainly good, at least. It doesn't make too much use of the 3-d effect but plays well.
V-Tetris - It's Tetris, but with a slight 3d effect. There's not too much reason to play this over Game Boy Tetris really, but it's well made.
Virtual Bowling - This Japan-only title is insanely expensive. From emulation it seems pretty good, I wish I owned a cart. Now I'll be able to play it in 3d.
And of course Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers, the unreleased grails of Nintendo's vault.
I wonder, will we get Bound High also someday? Or is there some rights issue there?
As for the rest of the VB library... well, I get why Waterworld and the Gundam strategy game aren't there. Licenses. Virtual Baseball is a pretty fun game, I hope it shows up someday. The Japanese version is a licensed J-League game but the US version is unlicensed. Virtual Lab is a terrible mess, don't bother. Nester's Funky Bowling is good from what little I've tried of it, though Virtual Bowling seems better. I wonder why they went with that one over the more familiar American title, is it because of the 'license' (of their character from the Nintendo Power comic)? Virtual Bowling does have a better 3d effect but still, they both seem neat. And those are the rest of the games I can think of offhand. Otherwise, what else is missing? Bomberman Panic Bomber isn't here. It's a solid version of that game, apart from missing the multiplayer all the other versions have, but is in English, it's the only version of that game released here. I hope it shows up on this service someday. Konami is supporting it, Vertical Force is theirs of course.
Anyway, this is incredibly exciting stuff. Will Zero Racers be the best game ever? Probably not. But in 3-d it probably will look pretty cool and play well, like Red Alarm. The VB needed more actual 3d games, and that was one! I am really excited for this, it's kind of a dream come true to soon finally be able to play Zero Racers...
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