Though not officially supported, Nintendo's upcoming Virtual Boy library may be playable on Labo VR, the DIY cardboard headset from 2019.

Beginning February 17, Nintendo will offer Virtual Boy Classics via their Switch Online subscription service, bringing the concise library of Virtual Boy games to new audiences for the first time in over 30 years.

Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 Getting Official Virtual Boy Accessory

Switch and Switch 2 are getting official Virtual Boy accessories that Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers can slot their consoles into to play classic 3D games like Mario’s Tennis.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

In order to play these games, which are stereoscopic 3D experiences, users will need to have an active subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, as well as buy one of Nintendo's official Virtual Boy headsets, which the company is offering in two varieties: the plastic replica Virtual Boy ($99.99 / £66.99), and the cheaper cardboard model ($24.99 / £16.99).

However a third option may exist.

One Nintendo rep recently stated that the discontinued Labo VR, a do-it-yourself cardboard headset that Nintendo released in 2019 as part of their Toy-Con line of Switch accessories, will work just as well as the new cardboard VB headset. However Nintendo was quick to issue a statement saying that this play method is not officially supported, encouraging users to instead buy the new Virtual Boy accessories.

Nintendo's statement issued earlier today, while extremely clear, directly contradicts a previous statement by the company's rep. Of course, that rep could simply have been mistaken and the old cardboard headset may not in fact work with the Virtual Boy's library. The Virtual Boy operates differently than the flat Switch screen that the Labo was designed for, after all.

Then again, the company may simply be keen on everyone forgetting the Labo VR exists so that users buy the new gizmo. It seems the only way to know for sure is to test the Labo VR when Virtual Boy launches on the Switch in under two weeks (which we'll do).

For clarity, Nintendo has stated that Virtual Boy Classics cannot be played on Switch without using a stereoscopic 3D headset.

Unofficial methods for playing Virtual Boy games on modern VR headsets have existed for quite some time. However, this is the first time since the system's discontinuation in 1996 that Nintendo itself has acknowledged the Virtual Boy in terms of releasing a new game product.

Virtual Boy Classics and the two accessory headsets will be available to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers beginning February 17th, 2026.

Cortopia Studios and Beyond Frames Entertainment are bringing the Ninja Turtles into virtual reality for the very first time with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City.

Launching on Meta Quest, SteamVR, and Pico this spring and priced at $24.99, pre-orders are now live on Meta Quest, where buyers can take advantage of a 20% early-bird discount.

A brand new gameplay trailer has also been revealed, highlighting the ways players will scramble, leap, and sneak through and atop the sewers and roofs of an atmospheric, comic-style New York City, battling the infamous Foot Clan and their villainous leader, Shredder.

Designed from the ground up for VR, TMNT: Empire City focuses on immersion and optional co-operative play.

"Empire City isn't about playing one of the Turtles so much as it's about being one of the Turtles," says Ace St. Germain, the game's Creative Director. "Each Turtle has their different strengths, we don’t have traditional, pre-defined classes. Instead, based on your chosen builds, the gear equipped, and playstyle, you can freely organize how you want your sessions to play out.

The team has also released a new developer diary video which dives deeper into the way that combat, traversal, and co-operative play work in Empire City.

A time-limited single-player demo arrives February 23rd as part of Steam Next Fest, giving players the chance to experience the game's first 15 minutes, and to play as each of the four Turtles. This demo disappears back into the ooze on March 2nd.

Check back as release approaches for more coverage of TMNT: Empire City.

Beat Saber gets Me Porto Bonito (feat. Chencho Corleone) by Bad Bunny in the latest shock drop, now live.

This latest shock drop lands just four days after Bad Bunny's Album of the Year Grammy win, and days before the Latin musician is set to headline the half-time show at the NFL Super Bowl, the USA's most popular televised sporting event.

Out now on Quest and SteamVR, Bad Bunny's track follows recent shock drops, including Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, Eminem's Houdini, Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us, and Lady Gaga's Abracadabra.

Though not available on PlayStation VR and PS VR2, where Meta (who owns Beat Saber) is no longer releasing new content, Bad Bunny's Me Porto Bonito is available now on SteamVR and the Meta Horizon Store for $1.99.

An unofficial VR port of the classic N64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark is well underway.

Created by Alex Le Tux, the VR port will be coming as a standalone app for Meta Quest headsets, and is derived in part from the Perfect Dark decompilation project from 2022.

Alex Le Tux recently uploaded footage of the VR port to their YouTube channel, where the video description lists the build as "experimental" and not suitable for public release. That said, the video, which shows the player running through Perfect Dark's memorable opening level "dataDyne Central: Defection," seems to be running beautifully with head tracking and motion control aiming.

If the response on social media is any indication, the quality of this Perfect Dark port has people pretty excited, with many commenters frothing over the possibility that we'll soon see a fully playable build, plus other VR ports of classic decompiled games.

VR ports of classic games have become an increasingly popular idea in recent years, almost exclusively driven by fans, indie devs, and open-source communities. Among the notable contributions are those from Team Beef, whose unofficial VR ports of classic PC games like id Software's Doom, Quake II, and LucasArts' Jedi Knight games have been so well-received that they even grabbed the attention of id co-founder John Carmack.

Beyond ports alone, excitement around VR emulation of classic games and consoles has also blossomed in recent years. For instance, Virtual Boy Go is an open-source emulator that allows Nintendo's infamous foray into "VR" hardware to live on via Quest headsets. Projects like this demonstrate the ways that VR can serve not only as a preservation tool for classic games, but as a better, more immersive way to experience the classics.

Open-Source Emulator Plays Virtual Boy Games On Quest, No Switch Needed

Virtual Boy Go is a nearly perfect Virtual Boy emulator for Quest headsets, no Switch console required.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

As for Alex Le Tux's Perfect Dark port, we'll keep an eye on this one and be sure to update you all with any and all future developments.

On one hand, Catana: Red Flowers is a violent, fast-paced action game in the mold of Joy Way’s STRIDE, complete with rooftop parkour and katana combat. On the other, it’s a low-stakes restaurant management sandbox in which you cook meals and serve drinks to anthropomorphic aquatic weirdos. Each game mode will appeal to a specific audience. For me, neither quite landed.

The VR world caught its first glimpse of Joy Way’s Red Flowers during the 2022 UploadVR Winter Showcase, where it presented as a new take on the studio’s successful parkour action game STRIDE. In the original trailer (and subsequently released demo), Red Flowers allowed players to dash, jump, and scramble their way along the rooftops of an Asia-inspired cityscape, slashing endless Yakuza-like bad guys with a razor-sharp katana. It was dark, violent, and visceral.

As released this past January, Catana: Red Flowers does include some of what we saw in that demo. But it comes with something else, too. In fact, Catana: Red Flowers, as it has eventually arrived, is two games in one.

The fast-paced, violent, parkour action of the original Red Flowers demo is still here, we simply hold our katana with paws instead of hands. That’s because Catana: Red Flowers’ player character is a cat, complete with retractable claws and a penchant for meowing.

This unexpected tonal shift slightly softens the edges of the original Red Flowers demo (though there’s still an extreme amount of gore unless toggled off in the options menu), but the real departure comes later. When we’ve finished our rooftop scramble, the game reveals its second half. Catana: Red Flowers is also a restaurant management, physics sandbox game.

Between combat runs, players will return to a hub world populated by funny-looking anthropomorphic fish and frogs, who also happen to be customers of the player’s grandfather’s restaurant (weird). Grampa’s sick, or drunk, and it’s up to the player to man (or cat?) the shop in his absence. Here you prep food, cook meals, serve drinks, and fulfill orders under extremely light time constraints. Completing orders earns money, which can be spent on upgrading the restaurant or unlocking cosmetic items.

The hub world also offers a number of optional diversions; a fishing hole, secret areas to explore, special drinks which alter the inhabitants therein (think, low gravity, inflating their heads, forcing them to move in slow motion, etc.), and more. These all provide some much-needed levity to the game’s darker action stages.

On its own, the restaurant mode is solid. The hub world is gorgeous, the music is great, the physics interactions are silly and fun, and running the restaurant is functionally adequate, too. Orders are easy to understand, mechanics work as expected, and the roadmap of progression is clearly articulated. For players who enjoy “chore games,” Catana: Red Flowers’ hub area will be appealing, as there’s always something demanding your attention, always another order to fill.

But this mode never really lands. There’s nothing particularly challenging about the restaurant management portion of the game, nor am I too motivated to grow the business, since the whole thing boils down to simple, endless repetition. They want a fish, cook a fish, serve a fish, repeat forever.

Developer comments in places where the game has been reviewed have indicated that the low-stakes, low difficulty of the game’s restaurant management hub is intentional. It’s designed to be a place to unwind after a few frantic runs through the game’s violent, high-stakes, reflex-fraying parkour kill-a-thons. And I appreciate that. The problem is that I don’t find the action stages of the game particularly appealing either.

While the frantic runs through the visually interesting cityscapes are fast-paced and initially exciting and slicing up Yakuza on the fly can be fun, the novelty quickly wears thin. The controls, while mechanically sound, are tedious. To run, we must pump our hands up and down, which is imprecise, and tiring. Launching to grapple-able objects requires a combination of button presses and physical movements which, while not difficult, is annoying. Dashing is oddly linked to slashing with our katana, which is fine, but just doesn’t feel particularly fun.

For a game mode which essentially hangs its whole identity on speed-runs and timing, the controls just don’t hold up. Call it a skill issue, but there were too many instances of plummeting to my death or failing to medal due to janky controls. Practice makes perfect, but I’m not really motivated to practice.

My criticisms noted, it’s easy to imagine a different response from players who enjoy the speed, action, and violence of Joy Way’s other parkour action games, like the extremely successful STRIDE. And of course, players who enjoy simply being silly in a sandbox or managing a virtual shop will consider the hub world the heart of Catana’s gameplay. Naturally, for players who enjoy both types of games in VR, Catana: Red Flowers is an obvious grand slam.

Catana: Red Flowers is available now on the Meta Horizon Store for $14.99.