Lost Mario Virtual Boy Screens Emerge From the Digital Archive
Mario's Red-Eyed Rarity Resurfaces.
The annals of gaming history are littered with intriguing 'what ifs', but few hardware ventures pique curiosity quite like Nintendo's ill-fated Virtual Boy. Launched in 1995 and discontinued barely a year later, this peculiar red-and-black tabletop console remains a fascinating footnote, notorious for its commercial failure and minuscule library of just 22 official game releases. Now, a fresh glimpse into one of its cancelled projects has surfaced, offering the clearest look yet at Virtual Boy Mario Land.
High-quality screenshots of the unreleased Mario platformer were recently unearthed by a user known as rabidrodent on Bluesky, hidden within old AOL file directories preserved on The Internet Archive. While low-resolution versions had circulated previously in magazines and on lost media wikis, these newly discovered images are believed to be official promotional shots distributed by Nintendo to the press back in 1995, presented in a quality not publicly seen before. They showcase Mario navigating both traditional side-scrolling levels – complete with familiar pipes, blocks, and even a Wario-faced Thwomp-like obstacle – and top-down exploration segments reminiscent of early Legend of Zelda titles.
Referred to informally as VB Mario Land (though sometimes mentioned under early names like Mario Adventure or potentially Mario Smash), the game was demonstrated in some form at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 1995. It promised a unique blend of 2D platforming with 3d perspective shifts, allowing Mario to move between the foreground and background. While Nintendo did manage to release Virtual Boy Wario Land, which is often considered one of the system's best titles, and Mario Clash (reportedly evolved from a minigame concept within VB Mario Land), this potential flagship Mario title never saw completion. Its cancellation is widely attributed to the swift demise of the Virtual Boy console itself, which struggled due to its high price point (launching at $179.95 in North America), the discomfort reported by users from its stereoscopic red monochrome display, and a general lack of compelling software. Selling only around 770,000 units worldwide, the Virtual Boy was discontinued in Japan by December 1995 and North America by August 1996.
The discovery of these cleaner, higher-resolution screenshots provides valuable material for game historians and Nintendo enthusiasts fascinated by the Virtual Boy's troubled existence and lost software library. While the prospect of Nintendo ever releasing a prototype, assuming one still exists within their archives, seems incredibly remote, these images offer a tantalising look at what could have been Mario's starring role on one of gaming's most infamous pieces of hardware.
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