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Gunpei Yokoi's Withered Technology: Virtual Boy, Game & Watch, Wonderswan, etc. Let's laterally think!

Sensenic said:
Getting more and more tempted to buy it myself for the same reason, even though I know it'll most likely end up gathering dust. Damn you Nintendo, for knowing how to get on my weak points.
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So I took the bait in the end and tried this out, with the cardboard gizmo. It's true that you can only play in short sessions, but for me it was not the eye strain, but the nose! Holding that thing on my face, whether sitting or laying down, left it matching the console in color, ouch.
Tried a bit all of the games & my favorite have been Innsmouth (though damn it's stressful) & Red Alarm, the 3D is great on that one.
What they all have in common is that they're very difficult and beat my ass in seconds (other than Wario Land, that's more manageable but haven't played it much).
What else... Played Mario Clash for a few levels & the buttons are switched, I kept pushing the wrong one all the time. I know this can be changed but never bothered because I'm lazy or stubborn or both.

Neat curio, 3D is very crisp and clear, and will be playing more. Gotta find a more comfortable way to play it for longer periods, but can't think of one (the original of hunching over a table doesn't sound very appealing either, even if I could do it with the expensive device)
 
Sensenic said:
Played Mario Clash for a few levels & the buttons are switched
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That's a good point, I should boot that up and play for a bit with remapped controls. It's so weird they did that.

Teleroboxer also has weirdo controls, but I'll have to mess about with that one to get it feeling "right" because the dodges and blocks are unintuitively mapped to begin with.
 
I couldn't make heads or tails of teleroboxer's controls and gave up quickly. I understood in principle but I wasn't able to a) remember what each combination did, b) learn what each tell indicates & c) have the hand-eye coordination to react accordingly. So I ended up button mashing and promptly defeated.
 
I'm sorry, but you can't just not show the overproduced English-language trailer:

 
Krvavi Abadas said:
the two previously unreleased 1st-party Virtual Boy games (Zero Racers & Dragon Hopper) are officially coming to NSO on August 4th.
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FINALLY

I can't wait for these to get ripped and try them on my original VB, too...! Thanks for the heads up!
 
Dragon Hopper looks pretty cool, though I’m curious whether the gimmick has legs. I mean, obviously it has legs that hop but…
 
So I just played 40 minutes of Dragon Hopper on my lunch break.

Folks, IT IS GREAT!

It feels similar to Bound High in that it's a top down action game with heavy emphasis on 3D platforming, but unlike Bound High which is primarily about killing enemies and advancing to the next level, Dragon Hopper is more about exploration and (what I imagine eventually will be) tricky platforming. The 3D effect is quite good, among the best I've seen on Virtual Boy - every time you jump, the ground zooms in and out to reflect how high up you are, and there are even moving platforms that move both horizontally and vertically. It looks great!

I just beat the first boss, which was another dragon moving around that I had to jump to avoid, and then sort of ground pound him with my Earth Dragon power I got a couple stages before. It felt great to hit him - big crunchy slam once I landed on him, and he blinks and runs away while roaring. I do not want to get on the treadmill right after work like I usually do to play more! lol

(I've barely touched Zero Racers, but it REALLY feels like F-Zero from the like, 30 seconds I played of it)
 
I just beat Dragon Hopper!

I took some screenshots on my Switch, then cropped and blew them up to show you guys some screens from the game, since Nintendo's screenshot function for Virtual Boy games is super stupid. This is the guy you get the first dragon transformation from:

firespirit.jpg


It may not look like much there, but he's lightly animated and the space behind him is further away from him in 3D, and his arms pop out a bit too, along with the flames on his head. It's difficult to convey with 2D screenshots, but in 3D, this game is beautiful.

director.jpg


Looking up the director, he worked on Wario's Woods, Paper Mario for the N64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and the 3DS and Wii U Smash Bros. games, among a couple other things (his only other Virtual Boy credit is Galactic Pinball which at least utilizes the 3D well). No wonder this game is good! Quite a pedigree, imo.

gumpei.jpg


A game released, finally, in 2026, with a Gunpei Yokoi credit in it. RIP.

timing.jpg


This score net me the "Silver Dragon" ranking. I did not know the game was tracking my medals collected! When I replay this - and I most definitely will - I'll try to find them all!

*Dragon Hopper* might be the best Virtual Boy game. I think it's right up there with VB Wario Land, which I adore. It might even be better since it's best on 3D hardware, whereas VB Wario Land plays just fine anywhere. I didn't think Dragon Hopper could best Bound High, which is another absolute banger, but it's an utter blast.

How I wish we got a little more time with the Virtual Boy. I know why we didn't, but this thing could do great things with sprites and 3D, as exemplified here with Dragon Hopper. What a game. I'll probably buy a repro of it if anyone ever makes one, this game deserves to be on my shelf.
 
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