Year of Release: 1995, discontinued in 1996
Quick overview: With near-total dominance in the handheld gaming market until the iPhone’s release and the best-selling home console ever in the Wii, Nintendo’s not a company known for its stumbles. But, when the House of Mario chased after the virtual reality craze of the 1990s, it notched its worst fail ever.
Best Game on the System: Virtual Boy Wario Land
If there’s one thing Nintendo’s internal development studios know how to do, it’s Super Mario-style run-&-jump platformers. Mario’s greedy, evil doppelganger falls into a subterranean labyrinth while searching for treasure and must fight his way back to surface by combining hat power-ups.
Reason for Downfall?: Terrible graphics and odd set-up
With “Boy” in the name, you were supposed to think that the VB was similar to the popular Game Boy handheld. You’d have been wrong. This un-portable goggles-and-controller combo required sitting down to experience its dubious 3D effects. There was no way to be comfortable while playing the Virtual Boy, a key design flaw in a device full of them.
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