The Rarest and Most Valuable Virtual Boy Games

The Nintendo Virtual Boy  (check out our Beginner’s Guide) had one of the shortest retail lifespan in console history.  In Japan it was released in July 1995 and discontinued before the end of the year.  North America wasn’t much of a different story.  Ramping up in August of 1995 and wrapping up by March of 1996.   Because of this, there was not only a small game library, but may of the late releases were seen in very short supply.  Combine the relative rarity of certain titles with the novelty of the system and many entries in the Virtual Boy make for interesting collectors pieces.

In stark contrast to the Cheapest Games series, this Rare & Valuable series will round up the rarest and most valuable games for a given console or handheld so you’ll know what to look for whether you are buying or selling. Below you will see two prices beside each title. The first is the average selling price of a bare cartridge. The second price is the highest price in the past three months for a complete copy (assuming it came with a box).  Sealed values are also shared, when available.

Updated in September 2020

The Expensive Japanese Virtual Boy Imports

Virtual Bowling: $1200 – $1800

Not to be mistaken for Nester’s Funky Bowling, which is much more common, Virtual Bowling is actually a true rarity and a decent bowling sim, offering practice and tournament modes.

The lack of a save battery means your scores are wiped when you switch off (passwords for resuming are available). Virtual Bowling and SD Gundam Dimension Wars, which is mentioned below, were the final official Japanese releases for the Virtual Boy.

Back in our last 2014 updated, Virtual Bowling had recently been sold for $1,225 (up from $900 a few years prior). It hasn’t surfaced a lot since then, but prices over the last five years have ranged upwards of $1,800.

Check for Virtual Bowling on eBay

Virtual Lab: $700 – $1200

One of the last Virtual Boy games to be released in Japan, Virtual Lab is a strange falling block puzzler that was supposedly still under development when developer J-Wing got wind of Nintendo’s plan to discontinue the Virtual Boy.

To make some return on their investment, they were said to have rushed the game out the door. The fact that ‘Nintendo’ is charmingly spelt ‘Nintenndo’ on the back of the box in addition to the fact that it is considered the worst Virtual Boy game ever released only adds to the rush-job legend.

Virtual Lab has been more elusive than Virtual Bowling over the years, but the 2014 sale on eBay (same seller and buyer as these other “Big 4” imports), Virtual Bowling earned more of a return ($760 vs Virtual Bowling’s $1225). It has remained elusive to this day. There are often listings of Virtual Lab on eBay in the $1500 range, but we think it could move at the $1200 price point in good condition.

Check for Virtual Lab on eBay

SD Gundam Dimension Wars: $610 – $1100

SD Gundam Dimension War was released exclusively in Japan by Bandai in 1995 (as mentioned above it was one of the two final official Japanese releases for the Virtual Boy). The game’s small print run and exclusivity has kept the demand strong.

SD Gundam Dimension War strategy format is similar to that of Advance Wars on the Game Boy Advance, commanding troops on a grid based battlefield, however, the Virtual Boy title has you fighting out the one on one battles yourself.

In the last few years, we have seen an English patch for the game surface and subsequent English-language reproductions of the game (of high-end quality) surface on eBay for quite impressive prices (for as much as $1000). However, for the purposes of this guide, we’re focusing on the real Japanese version. Back in 2014, it sold for $710 (less than that new repro, in case you didn’t notice). Now, we’ve most recently seen a loose cartridge sell for $610. Complete copies are being listed in the $1300 range, but not really moving. The $1,000 range seems a reliable price point to find a buyer right now.

Check for SD Gundam Dimension Wars on eBay

Space Invaders Virtual Collection: $510

Between the rarity of the cart, the Japanese exclusivity, the cultural appeal of Space Invaders, and some quality gameplay modes, the Space Invaders Virtual Collection makes for a wonderful collectors piece. It isn’t quite as rare as the titles above, but it is still a treasured piece of any Virtual Boy collection.

In 2014, we had this collection in the $500 range, but it’s reliably selling for more — closing in on double the value in just six years time based on the small handful of units that have successfully sold in the last few months.

Check for Space Invaders Virtual Collection on eBay

Treasured USA Releases

Jack Bros.: $500 – $800

Altus is known for making quality titles and having relatively small print runs. The case is no different for their release of Jack Bros. for the Virtual Boy. This action title is actually a spin-off of the Megami Tensei series and marks the first of the series to be translated to English. It’s a solid game and with some relatively limited competition, Jack Bros often ranks in the top 2 or 3 games on the Virtual Boy in terms of overall quality and enjoyment.

Back in 2014, you could score a copy for between $120 to $290, but things have escalated quickly with Jack Bros these last six years. It has been a classic example of the North American grail solidifying its lead — and the Megami Tensei connection probably don’t hurt either.

Check for Jack Bros on eBay

Waterworld: $140 – $330

If you were old enough in the mid-90s, you might remember that Waterworld was a heavily hyped, but disappointing theatrical release. This licensed game based on the movie came out in late 1995 as the Virtual Boy was dying off. Only Nester’s Funky Bowling and 3D Tetris were released in the US afterwards. Water world also represented the final third-party Virtual Boy release in North America.

We’ve seen a modest appreciation of most of the North American Virtual Boy games the last six years or so, but Waterworld is one of the more modest gainer of the heavy rollers — up only modestly from its 2014 levels of $100 to $250. The fact that it is said to be the worst Virtual Boy games in the North American library (and perhaps even worse than the Japanese Virtual Lab release, mentioned above).

Check for Waterworld on eBay

3D Tetris: $100 – $340 ($415 Sealed)

Just as the title suggests, this game is just like traditional Tetris except you have to fit blocks strategically in three dimensions instead of the traditional two. T&E Soft developed the game for release in North America, but a Japanese version was planned under the name Polygo Block.

Along the way, production halted due to the dying interest in Virtual Boy software. 3D Tetris was eventual published by Nintendo was served as the final licensed release for the Virtual Boy. Even with this tight timeline, 3D Tetris turned out pretty well and is regarded as one of the top 3 or top 5 games on the Virtual Boy.

Since 2014, this has risen from #5 to #3 on the North American list as complete copies become more important than the elusive “not for resale” pieces listed below.
Check for 3D Tetris on eBay
Check for 3D Tetris on Amazon

Mario Tennis (For Display Only w/ Box): $300

While the “Not for Resale”/Demo carts don’t come with a box, but we’ll state upfront that the Mario Tennis game for the Virtual Boy is only valuable if you have the display box with it.

In North America, Mario Tennis was a pack-in game with the Virtual Boy hardware and did not come with a game box. So the only place you could find a box was a rental place or store that had it for display purposes. These boxes specially say “For Display Only” in the corner. As you can imagine, there wasn’t very many of these boxes to begin with, but then there likely many casualties that got thrown out by store staff.

With all the collector growth in the market of good quality cardboard boxes for retro Nintendo systems (especially Mario games), it shouldn’t been surprising that we’ve seen strong growth in a box for a games that didn’t normally come with a box. It has nearly tripled in value over the last six years.
Check for Mario Tennis Box on eBay

Nester’s Funky Bowling: $55 – $220 ($300 Sealed)

Strangely enough, there were two bowling games published for the Virtual Boy. Nester’s Funky Bowling was, however, the only one published in North America and is far more common than the Japanese Virtual Bowling release. Nester might not be as goof of a bowling simulator as Virtual Bowling, but it does include a two-player mode, so the argument can be made that it’s a better game overall.

Since Nester’s Funky Bowling was one of the last two Virtual Boy releases, it has a rather short print run leading to a relatively high price point. Since our 2014 guide, Nester’s Funky Bowling has seen carts increase about 50%, but complete copies have nearly tripled in the same time.

Check for Nester’s Funky Bowling on eBay
Check for Nester’s Funky Bowling on Amazon

Panic Bomber: $60 – $150 ($355 Sealed)

When you analyze the Virtual Boy library, it’s surprising the relatively high percentage of them are of the “falling block”/“puzzler” games. Panic Bomber is a nice entry in the genre and features Bomberman. It would have been cooler to see what a Bomberman game on the Virtual Boy would have been like, but oh well.

This particular release didn’t even make our list in 2014 and was a relative bargain in the $20 to $25 range for the longest time. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2020 that values began to spike.

Check for Panic Bomber on eBay
Check for Panic Bomber on Amazon

Wario Land (Not for Resale Demo): $130

While the original Wario Land is a quality title (some will even say its the best in the library), it isn’t that rare. However, if you can get your hands on the Store Demo version, you could be sitting on some serious cash.

Just be on the lookout for a label that says “Not for Resale – Demo Only” in red letters on a white bar across the top of the label. Hopefully, this small difference won’t spawn counterfiet labels. If you see a bunch of these showing up on eBay, beware.

Check for Wario Land Demo Cart  on eBay

Vertical Force: $50 – $140

Hudson produced a number of great shmups over the years (check out our TurboGrafx-16 Shmups guide if you want to see a bunch) and they didn’t let the Virtual Boy die off without one.

Vertical Force did manage to receive some pretty decent reviews. It stays true to the traditional shmup formula and making use of some of the Virtual Boy’s nifty 3D features. Most shmup fans aren’t flocking to play on a Virtual Boy regularly, but they are also known to be dedicated collectors, so don’t be surprised if this one continues to climb over the years. Since our 2014 guide revision, Vertical Force cartridges have increased modestly from its $30 levels, but complete copies have nearly tripled from the $50 price point.

Check for Vertical Force on eBay
Check for Vertical Force on Amazon

Red Alarm Demo Cart : $90 – $95

Much like Wario Land, the standard Red Alarm cartridge isn’t worth a whole lot, but if you look for the one marked “Not for Resale – Demo Only”, you could cash in easily.

The game isn’t as popular as Wario Land, so it has kept the price down a bit more. I believe the Red Alarm demos were more common as well as it was a very common showpiece for the Virtual Boy when it launched.

Check for Red Alarm Demo Cart on eBay

Notable Homebrew Release

Hyper Fighting: $500-$1050

The Virtual Boy is indeed an interesting curiosity in the world of retro gaming and homebrew developers have been trying to come up with interesting projects to run on the hardware for years. However, more of a spotlight shined on the VB Homebrew world when the iconic classic, Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting was impressively ported to the Virtual Boy. Due to all that was crammed into the game, this physical released needed a custom, 32Mbt cartridge to fit the ROM. For both a look at the game and its packaging, feel free to check it out in action in this YouTube video review

The Hyper Fighting game ROM was distributed online and can be put on a Virtual Boy Flash Cart, but there were also some very limited quantity of “official” physical copies produced with full, beautiful packaging and manual. However, to avoid Capcom coming around and cracking down on selling games featuring their intellectual property, the physical copies were only distributed privately among long-time members of the Planet Virtual Boy community.  You can hear more of the backstory of the commissioning of this development on this video from Jenovi.

As you can imagine, some of these copies eventually made their way to eBay where they can command quite a premium. Of course, Hyper Fighting isn’t part of the canonical Virtual Boy library, but dedicated collectors can’t help but be tempted to add this little treasure to their physical collection.

Check for Hyper Fighting on eBay

Extra Imports

  • Insmouse no Yakata: $110-$ 220 (eBay)
  • Jack Bros: $70 -$120 (eBay)


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2 Comments

James Reefer says:

This system failed simply because of timing, it came out in the age where game company’s where making money from kids, and we were in school. And everyone at school liked to share and play co-op games, co-op was dam near out of the question so that alienated Virtual Boy owners to an extreme ( I was co-owner of one) and trading games was also dam near impossible because everyone had the same games, the system drained your pockets so we were left with a the pack-in game and when got around to being able to get new game (which was on birthday’s and Christmas for most !) it was overshadowed by more playable/sharable games that were played on SNES and the alike. I wonder how this system looks these day’s haven’t seen real-world gameplay since the mid 90’s…”just saying”

Arbyyyyy! says:

I wasn’t in school at the time. I was the prime demographic (early 20s, newly in the workforce, spent most of my disposable income on video games). Anyways, the big disappointments everyone had was:

1. The stand was considered stupid and literally a pain in the neck. You couldn’t strap the device to your head.

2. Red graphics was a disappointment and it would screw up your vision after playing for a while (everything you looked at after looked greenish, the inverse of red).

3. Too expensive. People were used to “portable” consoles costing less than the TV consoles. The price of a SNES was about $99 by the time the VB released at $180.

(MAYBE) 4. No fighting game available. (Fighting games were the most popular genre at that time)

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