Switch Online’s Virtual Boy launches in February with these 7 games

Nintendo has released an overview trailer for the addition of Virtual Boy Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, launching on 17th February 2026 alongside the Virtual Boy accessory (both the cardboard model and plastic recreation).

Available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, Nintendo is rolling in a bunch of the niceties that are common to all the other emulated games in the service. You’re able to rewind the game state if you make a mistake, and you can pause the game to check and modify controller mappings.

Another major feature will be the ability to recolour the games from the red-on-black look that defined this strange era of Nintendo gaming, to having yellow, green, white or potentially more. If using the plastic headset, you’ll have to remove a red colour filter in order for this feature to work.

The seven launch titles are:

• 3-D Tetris
• Galactic Pinball
• Golf
• The Mansion of Innsmouth
• Red Alarm
• Teleroboxer
• Virtual Boy Wario Land

Coming later in 2026 are more games from the catalogue, including two previously unreleased titles.

• D-Hopper (previously unreleased)
• Jack Bros.
• Mario Clash
• Mario’s Tennis
• Space Invaders Virtual Collection
• Virtual Bowling
• Vertical Force
• V-Tetris
• Zero Racers (previously unreleased)

The Virtual Boy was an ignominious flop in the mid 90s, selling only 770,000 united before being discontinued, though has later come to be appreciated for its bold step toward what has eventually become VR gaming. Part of its failure has to be put down to the technology of the time, so while it offered stereoscopic 3D, it exclusively used red LED lights to render the graphics and give a sense of depth. Additionally, instead of being strapped to your head like a modern VR headset, the Virtual Boy sat on a tabletop mount, providing a fixed view to players of its games and giving an awkwardness to how you engage with the system, no doubt contributing to the headaches, dizziness and eye strain that the system became known for inducing.

Nintendo’s desire to constantly experiment and innovate has seen them return to 3D on various occasions, though. The most famous, of course, was the Nintendo 3DS, which featured an autostereoscopic top screen that could create 3D without the need for glasses. While impressive, the impact of this diminished over time until Nintendo released 2D-only versions of the 3DS. A fun little aside for the Nintendo Labo project on original Switch had a cardboard VR adapter, similar in concept to early VR adapters for phones, where you slot the screened device into a box with lenses to get the same effect. It’s this notion that is being revived for emulating the Virtual Boy in 2026.

It will be really interesting to see if and how this new version of Virtual Boy works.

Tags: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch Online, Virtual Boy