Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo LifeAs somebody who witnessed its preliminary launch, I’m delightfully baffled that Nintendo is resurrecting the Digital Boy. We aren’t simply getting a passing point out or a trophy in a Smash Bros. sport; we’re getting a full-blown revival, together with a devoted NSO app, a $100 genuine reproduction peripheral, and a $25 cardboard cutout for the Labo diehards.
All this for the console that married Recreation Boy visuals with Vectrex-style wireframes, stuffed them right into a View-Grasp shell, and doused the entire bundle in a color palette straight out of a Nineteenth-century darkroom.
Yeah, that Digital Boy.
For 30 years, Nintendo’s first rule of Digital Boy was “You don’t speak about Digital Boy,” but right here we’re in 2026, and Nintendo is embracing essentially the most eccentric chapter of their storied historical past. I’m dumbfounded, however truthfully, I’m right here for it.
1995: Rose-Colored Glasses
For many, the Digital Boy is extra meme than reminiscence – significantly for European players who missed it completely. When it launched, I used to be a online game columnist for the Journal-American, proper within the coronary heart of Nintendo of America’s yard: the Seattle Eastside. My journalistic credentials earned me an early take a look at the Digital Boy, plus day one copies of the console and all 4 launch titles.
Picture: Nathan Lockard
My August 18, 1995 article lined the launch, and I used to be surprisingly optimistic, as evidenced by my headline “Nintendo’s 3-D gaming system first step in the fitting route”. I noticed potential in Mario’s Tennis and the wireframe surprise, Purple Alarm, and I even theorised that if video games saved popping out, the Digital Boy would turn into as a lot of a family title because the Recreation Boy.
I used to be half proper. It grew to become a family title alright, simply not for the explanations Nintendo’s advertising staff had hoped.
A Foolish Seven Months
By any measure, the Digital Boy had a tough life. With solely 22 video games worldwide and fewer than 800,000 items bought, its homeowners belonged to one of the unique golf equipment in gaming historical past.
The VB’s gross sales have been so poor that in 1996, a bit of greater than a yr post-launch, my youthful brother gained an award at Sears for promoting a single system. By that time, transferring one unit was the retail equal of promoting dust to a desert dweller.
Frustration was palpable even inside Nintendo’s interior circles. I bear in mind visiting the places of work of Golin/Harris, Nintendo’s advertising consultants, and listening to them complain that main magazines like Digital Gaming Month-to-month (EGM) couldn’t be bothered to evaluate Digital Boy video games.
EGM ignored it, however Nintendo’s Tripod made an look in my different writing gig on the time, the 3-2-1 Contact journal. My colleague, Rusel, wrote evaluations for your complete Digital Boy launch lineup, whereas I had the extra enviable process of reviewing Chrono Set off on the SNES. I have to’ve drawn the lengthy straw that month.
3-2-1 Contact articles in regards to the VB and Chrono Set off — Pictures: Nathan Lockard
The Commerce I Gained, after which Misplaced
The Digital Boy got here and went rapidly, however I wound up with a whole set of Nintendo-published VB video games. Apparently, Golin/Harris and the Huge N have been wanting to companion with any journalist keen to see into the crimson abyss.
Roughly a decade later, I traded my dusty VB assortment for a candy haul of SNES RPGs, together with each Breath of Fires, Lufia 1 and a pair of, and each Sq. Enix RPG I didn’t already personal.
I felt nice in regards to the commerce on the time, however taking a look at costs now, yeah, I most likely misplaced out in the long term. I undoubtedly gained within the gameplay division, however with complete-in-box Digital Boys promoting for nearly $1000, I clearly missed an funding alternative.
Some outdated E3 press kits (which I sadly not have) with pages on unreleased VB video games Certain Excessive and Dragon Hopper — Picture: Nathan Lockard
2026: Nintendo Owns the Meme
My private journey with the VB concluded many years in the past, however Nintendo appeared to exile their crimson spectacles for even longer. So, why the sudden comeback? And why now? I’ve two theories – one sensible, and one cheeky.
First, it’s exhausting to not see this as a nod to final yr’s launch of Purple Viper, the spectacular fan-made Digital Boy emulator for Nintendo 3DS. After the homebrew neighborhood showcased an urge for food for VB emulation, Nintendo might have taken the outdated proverb to coronary heart: one of the best time to plant a tree (or re-release a tripod-mounted console) was 20 years in the past; the second-best time is right this moment (or February seventeenth 2026).
My second concept could also be cheeky, however is maybe extra doubtless. This revival may merely be company self-deprecation. Nintendo is lastly cool sufficient to rejoice a misstep failure whereas concurrently revelling within the Swap’s success. It jogs my memory of Halle Berry personally accepting her Razzie for Catwoman, holding an Oscar in a single hand and the Razzie within the different, proudly declaring that if you cannot be a superb loser, you do not need to be a superb winner.
Pictures: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life
What’s Subsequent?
Regardless of the purpose, the 30-year period of Nintendo pretending the Digital Boy did not exist is formally over. Nintendo is actively advertising a library of video games that the 1995 media complicated prevented reviewing, and I’m unsure what to consider anymore.
If the Digital Boy can rise from the grave in 2026, then seemingly nothing is off the desk. Who is aware of? Maybe an official Mom 3 translation or a Zelda CDi All-Stars assortment is true across the nook. At this level, nothing would shock me.
Did you play the Digital Boy again within the day, or will you expertise that genuine 32-bit crimson eye pressure for the very first time? Tell us within the feedback beneath.
Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life
Nathan reduce his tooth on Atari 2600, and regardless of being voted “Most definitely to run Nintendo” in highschool, one of the best he managed was engaged on the Nintendo Energy workers for a bit. He helped title the OG 151 Pokémon, and is affected by PTSD after engaged on the participant’s information for Yoshi’s Story.
