Super Smash Bros. Animal Crossing. A new 3D Mario or mainline Zelda. These were all on my hypothetical bingo card leading up to today’s Nintendo Direct stream. And while there was a fair share of genuinely awesome surprises in the hour-long presentation (new Fire Emblem and Samus on a motorcycle among them), Nintendo still managed to subvert every single viewer’s expectations with one announcement in particular: the Virtual Boy, the company’s biggest hardware flop, is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online.
A total of 14 games from the Virtual Boy’s 22-game library will be playable on Nintendo Switch consoles starting February 17, 2026. Titles will include Mario’s Tennis (the sports series' debut was actually a Virtual Boy pack-in), Tetris, Teleroboxer, and Wario Land. The new addition to the service marks the very first time these games will be playable since their initial release 30 years ago.
