Nintendo Switch 2 is Starting to Feel Like the Wii All Over Again

Nintendo is an interesting company: although its fanbase has been clamoring for all manner of sequels, ports, re-releases, and the like, the Japanese games giant has ultimately decided that what the Nintendo Switch 2 needs is a new Virtual Boy. This new piece of tech isn’t really “new” at all, as it’s simply a recreation of the ill-fated plastic gaming contraption of 1995, complete with the Virtual Boy’s classic, red-as-can-be games.

Naturally, this product is leveraging nostalgia more than anything else; it’s unlikely that many young, mainstream gamers are going to champ at the bit for access to games like Galactic Pinball. Nevertheless, the new Virtual Boy is sure to offer at least some low-stakes fun by virtue of its novelty: Virtual Boy was an early, archaic attempt at VR gaming, prompting players to view their games through a small lens and using parallax—an optical effect wherein the angular position of objects is manipulated by the leading lines of a viewfinder—to create the illusion of depth and distance. It’s hardly groundbreaking by today’s standards, but it is a nice blast from the past, and a possible indication of Nintendo’s plans for peripherals with the Switch 2.

Thanks, Virtual Boy—The Switch 2 Is Starting to Look as Peripheral-Heavy as the Wii

The Wii Was Nintendo’s Peripheral Era

The Nintendo Wii is a console that needs little introduction at this point. It united players from all walks of life through its intuitive, though not exactly groundbreaking, motion controls, and with unrivaled party games like Wii Sports, it was able to evoke a sense of accessible fun that’s been unmatched by other devices, such as Xbox’s Kinect. Part and parcel of the console’s toy-like identity were a plethora of peripherals and attachments, the most prominent of which included:

The Wii Balance Board

Wii Wheel (for racing games like Mario Kart Wii)

Wii Laser Crossbow

Wii Zapper

Wii MotionPlus

These are just the accessories made and sold by Nintendo itself; the Wii had a number of other peripherals and add-ons made by third-party companies, like specific handles to make the Wiimote feel more like a baseball bat or golf club. But whether they be first-or third-party, these peripherals tell an interesting story about Nintendo’s gaming philosophy. It’s certainly no coincidence that the intuitive, pick-up-and-play Wii received these frivolous extras, and it’s no coincidence that history is being repeated with the Switch 2.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Building Its Own Library of Peripheral Devices

The Switch 2 has several accessories, including practical ones like the Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip, but Nintendo is ostensibly getting more wacky in this field once again. The new Virtual Boy is just one example of this—one could easily argue that the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera is a gimmicky peripheral a la the Wii Zapper or Balance Board. And if this Virtual Boy revival ends up gaining traction beyond the expected collector and enthusiast markets, then there’s every chance Nintendo will push harder on this front.

Like the Wii, the Switch 2 is designed around a central gimmick. This isn’t a bad thing, of course: the Switch and Switch 2’s hybrid design is ingenious, elegant, and accessible; what could have been a severely underpowered competitor to PlayStation and Xbox wound up being rather revolutionary, influencing the designs of other handhelds like the Steam Deck. Nintendo’s unique brand of boldness and ingenuity may invite some more bizarre add-ons down the line, though whether the likes of the Switch 2’s Camera or Virtual Boy will be considered net positives for the console in the long term remains to be seen.