Nintendo this month resurrected one of the company's biggest flops, the Virtual Boy. During an unexpected reveal in the 2025 Direct, the fine print stated that playing Virtual Boy games via NSO would require a new companion accessory. Once the first batch is released on February 17, 2026. However, after both Virtual Boy access options sold out, Nintendo has revealed that the older Labo is now available.
It looks like you can play the virtual boy game using the Labo headset.
At least that's what Nintendo Treehouse employee Corey Olcsvary told GamesBeat at one of the hands-on events. Olcsvary said people who can't get hold of the $99.99 Virutal Boy game or the $24.99 cardboard version can simply play the game if they have Labo VR.
The staff claims that Labo's Virtual Boy compatibility is no secret and that Nintendo doesn't want to advertise it because you can no longer buy cardboard kits that can be converted into all kinds of Switch accessories and used for a variety of games. I think Nintendo explicitly stated that you would need to own one of the new accessories to play the game, except when they revealed that Virtual Boy games would be coming to NSO.
A new F-Zero game is finally here, thanks to Virtual Boy.
By the time I was ready, Virtual Boy was already dead.
“To play the Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics game collection, you will need Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch 2/Nintendo Switch and Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch 2/Nintendo Switch (cardboard model),” reads a disclaimer in the reveal trailer for the return of the Virtual Boy. That trailer still has the same disclaimer. You can check it out for yourself below.
The fact that Labo is available after virtual boy accessories flew off the virtual shelves is definitely something.
There's no mention of Labo being compatible with Virtual Boy games, but it's now been revealed that pre-orders for the accessory went live and sold out incredibly quickly in just a few days, making it only available for Labo. There is hope for those who have already pre-ordered the Virtual Boy Switch accessory, who would have just used up their dusty old Labo if they had known this information a week ago. But only if you plan to play Virtual Boy's games on Switch 2.
It looks like Labo can be used to play Virtual Boy games, but the existing Cardboard VR kit is not compatible with the latest Nintendo consoles. In case you haven't noticed, the Switch 2 is considerably larger than the original Switch. This means that unlike the Virtual Boy accessory, which is designed to fit both the Switch and Switch 2, Labo can only be used to play Virtual Boy games on older consoles.
- brand
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nintendo
- original release date
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March 3, 2017
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$299.99, 29,980 yen, £279.99, €329.99
- operating system
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Exclusive, codenamed Horizon
- processor
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Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 (Nvidia Tegra X1 system-on-chip)
- solve
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480p – 1080p (docked) / 1280 x 720 (portable)
