Did you ever own or play a Virtual Boy?

I wish it was more readily available

On July 21, 1995, 20 years ago today, the Virtual Boy was released in Japan. It was widely considered a failure in just about every respect, and Nintendo pulled sales seven months after it debuted in August of 1995 in the US.

Personally, I enjoyed the system quite a bit. I had the good fortune of spending an entire week with my cousin after his parents bought him one, and we stayed up very late taking turns using the visor. I remember one morning he fell asleep, and I played for roughly five hours until the sun came up — it likely screwed up a few points of my vision forever!

We played tons of Mario Clash, Mario Tennis, Teleroboxer, and Virtual Boy Wario Land, which were my favorites. I would have loved to see the Virtual Boy continue on, but it simply wasn’t meant to be.

What was your experience with the system? Did you ever get a chance to play it, whether it was around its release or years later after finding a used unit? Share your best Virtual Boy memories with us as we remember one of Nintendo’s few “failures.”