One of the best games for the doomed system. This platformer shows what the VB could do and what it was missing.
The Virtual Boy is the ill fated experiment of a 3D "stereo" system. By this I mean each eye was presented a unique image so that games had a truly 3D appearance, however this was mostly a set of 2D sprites that seemed to move in the distance and come at you.
The Virtual Boy sports the best and worst graphics of any system. Best because the light actually comes from reflected LED (note not LCD) lights with crisp, clean clarity. Worst because you only get 256 shades of red and have to stick your head in something that makes you feel like you need to be reciting what line of letters you can read.
I grabbed a copy of the game on Craigslist. I popped into my old system and had a fairly good time.
The actual game play is not unlike other Wario games where a series of "hat" upgrades effects your abilities to either charge, burn or just fly over your enemies. The added touch is that you might just find a spot to go "way back" into the tiny background of the normally side-scrolling world.
You progress though each level collecting (or failing to) various items with a boss fight at the end of each level. You can backtrack at will to complete a level with new helmets that you may have found at higher levels.
The 3D also lets enemies pop out towards you as they chomp at you, but the game is very side-scrolling in nature and could have faired on a completely 2D system.
It's a game you might walk away from with a bit of a smile, eye-strain and the urge to sell your system to the next person who hasn't had the fortune to play a system that inspires you to say "what where they thinking?"