Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Virtual Boy

This is the tenth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

A long, long time ago back when I was just a youngster, I remember lying on my stomach with a pillow under my chest in my best friend’s computer room, struggling to get my eyes level with the eyepieces of the Virtual Boy on its stand.  We took turns playing the Mario Tennis game, and I don’t remember enjoying it very much.  This was the first and last time I saw a Virtual Boy in the flesh until I almost bought a loose one with a few games about six months ago.  Thankfully I didn’t because I snagged one in Joe’s collection.

For starters, we got the Virtual Boy console with its stand and controller in the box.  Unfortunately the box’s insert and all its papers were nowhere to be found, but the basics were all there!  When I picked up the controller it felt pretty heavy, and I was worried that batteries had been left inside and might have leaked during all those years in storage.  Unfortunately the batteries had been left inside, but by some miracle they were still intact and actually still powered on the system for about 2 seconds before they died forever.

With some fresh batteries installed in the controller, I fired up the console.  The boot screen felt like some kind of weird eye test.  After wiping tears out of my eyes trying to focus and get used to the picture, I noticed that the left eye’s picture wasn’t showing at all.  I was pretty bummed out thinking that the console wasn’t working properly, and my boyfriend and I were soon deep into web articles on how to fix broken Virtual Boys.  Because I wasn’t much help wading through the sea of technical jargon, I decided to try out a game for a while with the one eye working and eventually the broken side just kicked on.  Maybe it just needed to be warmed up after so long?  Who knows.  All I know is that it’s functioning normally now and I am very, very relieved.

We also got a bunch of games with the system.  One was boxed with its manual (3D Tetris) and the rest were all loose, but we definitely got some of the best games for the system.  I’ve heard absolutely wonderful things about Teleroboxer and Wario Land’s use of the virtual reality/3D abilities of the console while many other games fell short.  I did try out all the games for a little while and can certainly see myself coming back to them.  3D Tetris feels like my worst nightmare, though.  For anyone that’s ever played Skyward Sword and had a hell of a time trying to manipulate those 3D “keys” to unlock doors in some dungeons, you’ll have an idea of how miserable 3D Tetris feels to me.

Can I also just say how ugly the colour schemes for these cartridges are?  The overall design is reminiscent to Master System cartridges and just feels yucky to me.  The reddish/pinkish-brown is a far cry from the sharp, bright red of the system itself.

Though there is not a huge library of games for the VB and it’d be easy enough to collect to completion for this , I’m not so sure I’ll be actively seeking out any more games for the system for a little while.  I have more than enough to enjoy, especially with Wario Land at my disposal.  Maybe I’ll even warm up to 3D Tetris sometime.  Maybe.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week.  Thanks for reading!

-GG