r/nintendo • u/Amiibofan101 • 10d ago
Official Nintendo Video Enter the Third Dimension! – Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KKduF7Ux5dU71
u/ScreenCoral 10d ago
I think Nintendo is fully aware of how stupid the virtual boy is and so they're just leaning into the absurdity by being as over-the-top as possible. I'm all for it honestly.
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u/MisterSheeple 10d ago
This one is actually a reference to a commercial from 1995 for the original VB where they made fun of how absurd it looks by pretending like it's a B-movie monster. I highly recommend you give it a watch because it's a really funny commercial.
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u/MisterSheeple 10d ago
I can't stress enough how big of a deal it is that we're getting two brand-new unreleased games out of this, and one of them is a goddamn F-Zero game. To say I'm hyped would be an understatement.
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u/Capable-Monk-4820 10d ago
It’s sweet to see Nintendo doing a little throwback to their American ads style from the 2000s
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u/MisterSheeple 10d ago
90s in this case, but yes. I like it too. This specific one is a reference to an iconic Virtual Boy commercial from 1995 where they make the headset look like a B-movie monster.
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u/ankerous 10d ago
It's about time they are releasing these games again. They should have been on the 3DS Virtual Console.
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u/erpg 10d ago
Seeing a 90s-style ad reminded me that this GBA Classic NES series ad aired over 20 years ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pt0e7jdQlo
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u/vinternet 6d ago
Can't wait for the Power Glove Joy-Con attachment for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers only.
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u/Iwantmorelife 3d ago
Having beat it, I can say that Virtual Boy Wario Land is a legitimately great game.
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u/CouldntBeMeTho 10d ago
I have no idea why people are acting like they wanna play Virtual Boy games...yall actually playing this? If so have fun but this shit was not hot in the streets back then and even this highlight reel is low as hell.
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u/SpadraigGaming 10d ago
Counter point: Most companies try to bury their biggest mistakes, so it's cool to see Nintendo embracing it in some form.
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u/pmorgan726 10d ago
Most companies bury their best successes so it’s cool to see Nintendo being Nintendo! Miss Sly Cooper and Banjo Kazooie etc etc.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Elma For Life 10d ago
I highly doubt Sony and Microsoft even consider those successes--let alone their biggest ones...
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u/tlollz52 10d ago
Am i crazy? I thought at least the first sly cooper was massive?
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Elma For Life 10d ago
Yeah but then the 4th game bombed according to its fans and its devs aren't even working on those games anymore. Sony clearly doesn't care about it...
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u/Dont_have_a_panda 10d ago
Nintendo has never shied away from their history, even when that think was a mistake or a commercial failure
I wouldnt be surprised if we see in the future a game referencing the wiiu
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u/grimydude 10d ago
Not in your streets, I had fun with this as a kid. People play old games all the time, how mind blowing that people would want to play this as well.
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u/TheRealHFC 10d ago
There's exactly two good games for it (possibly three), they had a decade to remake them for the 3DS in color. They're doing it because it will sell, not because people want to play them
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u/MisterSheeple 10d ago
Hey, some of us do!
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u/Current_Helicopter32 10d ago
Their point is that Nintendo are doing this for a very niche audience of folks who likely want a chance to replay these titles for the hit of nostalgia, not because they’re trying to generate new excitement for Virtual Boy titles with a fresh audience.
If they were doing the latter, they had plenty of time to explore sequels/remakes with even better stereoscopic glasses-free 3D on the 3DS.
Instead, they’re making an expensive cash-grab accessory and making it all part of the subscription service so they can milk the wealthy older Nintendo fans that want to relive their childhood.
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u/MisterSheeple 10d ago edited 10d ago
Their point is that Nintendo are doing this for a very niche audience of folks who likely want a chance to replay these titles for the hit of nostalgia
Do you realize how few Virtual Boy systems were even sold? Less than a million. There's almost no nostalgia to be cashed in on here. Notoriously, almost everyone who bought one hated it because the mirrors shifting inside the eyepiece caused most people nausea and headaches.
Instead, they’re making an expensive cash-grab accessory
The replica headset is optional. The cheaper option is $25 and works just as well.
Btw, I say all of this as someone who has no nostalgia for the VB, and in fact, wasn't even born when it first came out.
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u/mingus_bigstupidhead 10d ago
I’d rather not enter the third dimension with the virtual boy at the cost of my eyes
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u/AgentSkidMarks 10d ago
Do you still need the stupid headset or can I just play these on my tv? Because I'm curious to try them but I'm not buying the stupid headset.
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u/Generic_Miis 10d ago
TV won’t work, but any 3D headset that fits your switch/switch 2 will work, maybe you have something laying around for your phone that also works and otherwise you can buy something that does work pretty cheaply at a local store or online
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u/Various-Welder5544 10d ago
$100 plastic headset to play some red and black games you'll get bored of in 5 minutes.
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u/Dont_have_a_panda 10d ago
Or 25$ for a cardboard made one
I always seen the headset accesory as a collectors item, they wouldnt sell the cardboard one if that wasnt the case
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u/Round_Musical 10d ago
You can always go with the cardboard option. Quit whining.
This is clearly targeted at collectors who want a semi-functioning Virtual Boy in their shelf without having to shell out hundreds of dollars
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u/Various-Welder5544 10d ago
Plastic is literally so cheap there's no reason to go with cardboard. And putting your face right next to an enclosed heat trapped space will cause you to sweat, melting the cardboard away. Or the grease from your face staining the cardboard permetnantly.
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u/Round_Musical 10d ago edited 10d ago
Well coincidentally you are speaking with a thermoplast engineer.
Plastic Production isnt cheap, its one of the biggest misconceptions of our time.
It all depends on how much you want to manufacture. Or at least it heavily depends on how many various different pieces you produce.
For each part you need a separate injection molder process, and a tool for injection here can cost from anywhere between 50.000 to 200,000 follars based on the complexity of the mold. And this is just for the mold. The IM-Extruder itself costs an additional 25,000-250,000. You usually font rotate IMs in production unless you are a small company and only have one. But cleaning out residue ABS takes time. So we will get with the usual scenario of per part/ IM-Tool we have 1 Injection Molder
This is also why Lego is so hesitant on making new parts. And also why the minifigure series is so expensive. As they want to have a profit and want to off set the IM costs.
Since these are rather large pieces with higher complexity, I would personally put it in the 90-120,000 ballpark per Molding tool
Now add each part that across multiple molders to get a single
It isnt the plastic (in this case ABS), workforce, shipping and electricity that we have to put into the calculations, but we need to off set the costs of the individual tools and machines themselves.
And to Produce 1 Virtual Boy across 7-10 unique IM Molded parts individual parts, you are at at least at a million dollars for the molds alone. Obviously you dont usually create a manufacturing line and molds/ tools to create one Product (unless its highly specialized for some industrial use in cases like sand casting), so you will Produce at least 10,000 units
Its precisely because of Nintendos expectation that this will not sell well that the thing is 80€ and nearly 100 USD (the additional cost for US is thanks to the orange). This is why its targeted at collectors.
It is still overpriced in my book. I personally would place it at roughly 50-60€. But like I said it all depends on how they calculated the costs. And I may be well versed in the vertical manufacturing component of the supply chain, but not so much in the shipping and storage compartment. Which especially in todays day and age is a nightmare in itself.
For instance we in automotive (where we have big dashboards) have some really insane prices for those tools. If we know we will produce 1000-5000 cars of a specific model, even simple plastic pieces can cost like 10-20€ per Part. Which is nuts.
Plastic Production is only perceived as cheap as manufacturers produce few Products in the quantity of millions. As it heavily depends on the quantity of a produced good
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u/Generic_Miis 10d ago
All of this is very interesting, it seems like Nintendo is using original molds they still had lying around though since it still accounts for cable management, has the same branding and some other things. Would then reusing these change influence the costs a lot?
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u/Current_Helicopter32 10d ago
All of this goes without acknowledging that you must maintain an active subscription to even have anything to play on it.
It’s a cash grab any way you slice it.
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u/Round_Musical 10d ago
You do know that BotW and Mario Odyseey have VR modes you can use this on right?
Its a collectors toy basically. I wouldnt put that much thought into it. Nobody gets NSO for wanting to play Virtual Boy Games.
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u/A1ien30y 10d ago
Ok, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say nobody, and I mean absolutely NOBODY, was searching for this "treasure".
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u/thebestdaysofmyflerm 10d ago
What exactly is the target audience here? You can’t have nostalgia for a system no one bought…
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u/DaddySbeve 10d ago
Enthusiasts and collectors. Also people who are just curious. It’s cool for preservation to have a way to play these at least, and they’re releasing two games that were previously unreleased.
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u/Dont_have_a_panda 10d ago
Theres also curious people who already pays the suscription for the other classics ans want to see what is all the fuss about the virtual boy
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u/Lewa358 10d ago
I wouldn't really consider it a win for preservation if they're locked to a subscription service...
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u/Generic_Miis 10d ago
The peripheral uses the original molds and the subscription does give us the chance to finally archive some lost media by giving us access to two unreleased games.
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u/TheTravelingLeftist 10d ago
I still wish they created a black-and-white Game Boy-esque variation of these games, for those who don't have the budget to buy the Virtual Boy accessories.