Nintendo Switch Online sets launch date for 2 long-lost retro games

Cementing itself as one of the big three, Nintendo has earned itself quite a gaming legacy since the Nintendo Entertainment System changed the landscape of home gaming forever in 1983. There have been some big wins and some equally big misses over the years, and while the N64 remains a jewel in the crown of retro gaming, the less said about the Wii U, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the Nintendo Labo, the better.

Still, we've got a soft spot for the GameCube's DK Bongos.

You can't mention Nintendo failures without thinking of the short-lived Virtual Boy, with this bizarre bit of headwear boasting stereoscopic 3D and effectively being a precursor to what would eventually become proper virtual reality headsets.

The Virtual Boy might've been buried in the annals of video game history like Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but in 2026, it's making a major comeback thanks to the Nintendo Switch.

Two cancelled Virtual Boy games are finally getting a release

Only 22 games were ever released on the Virtual Boy, with only 14 of them making it to North America. For those who might have one lying around or were willing to pay the sometimes ludicrous prices on auction sites and the second-hand market, we can highly recommend playing Virtual Boy Wario Land to see it in all its weird glory.

We previously covered how the Virtual Boy was being rereleased to work with the Switch and Switch 2 in 2026, and now, two forgotten games that were previously lost to the ages are getting their time to shine.

Alongside the much-hyped announcement that Super Mario Sunshine is coming to the Switch Online catalogue, the cancelled Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper are being dusted off on August 4.

Zero Racers was planned to be the first entry in the F-Zero series to use 3D graphics, and featured four playable characters that include Captain Falcon, James McCloud, and Jody Summer.

McCloud and Summer were supposed to debut in Zero Racers before it was cancelled in 1996, meaning they arrived on the scene in F-Zero X.

Racing across 15 tracks in three leagues in your hovercars, it's all pretty standard F-Zero stuff with a Virtual Boy twist.

After the title was cancelled, sceptics claim it never really existed, and screenshots shown were mere mockups, although former Nintendo of America localizer and associate producer Jim Wornell quickly debunked that idea.

As for Dragon Hopper, it's another 1996 game that we worried we'd lost forever. Built as a top-down action-adventure game in the vein of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, it was supposed to sit alongside Japan System Supply's Bound High! as one of the Virtual Boy's first second-generation titles.

You take the role of a young dragon prince, Dorin, who falls from the Sky Kingdom and has to scale his way back up there through a series of mazes. When encountering spirits, Dorin can transform into a dragon and use his special abilities.

READ MORE: Legend of Zelda-themed Nintendo Switch 2 surfaces online before Ocarina of Time remake

What happened to the Virtual Boy?

For video game purists, the return of Zero Racers and Dragon Hopper is a big deal.

It's no secret that the Virtual Boy wasn't the futuristic hit Nintendo billed it as. That's something we're still seeing in 2026, as Apple has been forced to scale back production on its ironically Virtual Boy-esque Apple Vision Pro headset.

VR gaming continues to be a tough nut to crack, and although we'd implore everyone to play the terrifying Resident Evil 7 in first-person VR, it feels like the genre has far more misses than hits.

The Virtual Boy ended up selling less than 800,000 units worldwide, with criticisms over its price, discomfort while wearing it, and a poor marketing campaign.

Creator Gunpei Yokoi became a scapegoat for the Virtual Boy's failure, with this thought having contributed to his leaving Nintendo.

Still, the console's legacy helped influence the 3DS, and ultimately, the Virtual Boy has become something of a cult classic.

Nintendo is reminding us what could've been all these years later, and even though the Virtual Boy has left something of a red and black mark on the company's ledger, that mark continues to fade.