I can't believe we're talking about the Virtual Boy in the year 2025 CE. Normally, this brand of declaratory surprise is delivered as "I can't believe we're STILL" doing whatever the prepositional phrase describes. It would be incorrect in this case. We have never talked about the Virtual Boy.

I've owned a Virtual Boy for about 13 years. I bought it before game collecting went through its absurd inflation cycle. I've probably used it a dozen times, I can't even tell you if it still works, but not for lack of effort. I don't have six known-good AA batteries, because again, it's 2025.

Please wait while I walk to the CVS up the street at about 10 PM.

On the return, I can confirm my Virtual Boy is functional, but a bit finicky to get started.

It's a really strange controller. After using it for about twenty minutes, I agree with Greg that the lack of a Virtual Boy controller in the Nintendo store is a bit surprising. Shelling out $100 for a plastic Virtual Boy shell is already a deeply sick thing to do - what's another $40 for a controller?

A true mirror-image from left to right, the controller has two D-Pads and two face buttons on each side. The left side's face buttons are Start and Select but in shape, size, and location they are identical to A and B on the right. There is also a trigger button on each of the two handles. They're round, which makes zero ergonomic sense, but they are often the primary action button. Even the handles, a bit of a precursor to the N64, feel somewhat off. They're a bit thin but, to their credit, are more contoured than the N64's.

The weirdness of the controller continues, as the power for the Virtual Boy unit actually comes from the controller itself. The back of the central core of the controller has a rail that you can slide a power brick into. By default, the brick is a box for holding six AAs, but in theory it could be an AC Adapter or some kind of rechargeable device. There was an official AC Adapter, but they seem very rare. I doubt a rechargeable battery came out, since the system's lifespan was about five months. However, the Virtual Boy has a dedicated modding scene, and they have produced their own.

If you're wondering why I'm talking about the Virtual Boy, I guess this will be news to you - Nintendo had a major Switch Direct this week.

I say "Switch Direct" but that's not entirely accurate. The Direct started with an extended Mario 40th Anniversary segment that included: an uninspired Mario Movie segment, a solicitation to run the Kyoto Marathon, and a reminder that you can shell out and go to Universal Studios (Osaka, Orlando, Hollywood) and live the Mario life.

With the Direct running over an hour, it would be impossible to document here everything we touch on in this week's episode. There were so many silly things: a printed Rosalina's storybook that will be lacking the new pages, Tomodachi Life in general, the announcement of another Kirby Air Riders Direct, and the above. There was also a lot of news: a new Fire Emblem, a Metroid Prime 4 release date, Donkey Kong Bananza DLC. This episode is more than a bit packed with content. However, not Jon. He was unable to join us this week.

Pardon our dust, this was an episode where we forwent traditional editing in order to get it out as soon as possible. We moved our normal recording date to cover the Direct, and released within an hour of recording concluding. That also means no timecodes this week, because we don't know where they are either! You might also hear a bit more crosstalk or noise than the usual episode.

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This episode was edited by Guillaume Veillette. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Perry's SoundCloud. The Radio Free Nintendo logo was produced by Connor Strickland. See what he's up to at his website.

This episode's ending music is "Fleet Glide Galaxy" from Super Mario Galaxy 2.. Composition by Ryo Nagamatsu. It was selected by Greg. All rights reserved by Nintendo Co., Ltd.