After the Virtual Boy, There’s No Reason Why Nintendo Can’t Bring Back Its Best Handheld

Nintendo doesn’t normally let fans in on its hardware plans, but if you’re the type of person to spot trends, it’s clear the Switch 2 will become the Mario maker’s everything console. Nintendo has started offering more hardware specifically tailored for playing its old, defunct consoles. The inevitable next step is for the company to let us return to its most popular handheld ever, the Nintendo DS.

Today, Nintendo decided it was time to bring back what is likely its least popular gaming hardware it ever released. The $100 Virtual Boy for Switch 2 revives Nintendo’s first use of stereoscopic visuals and the odd bipod-mounted headset for playing them. That modernized system is a relic—a blast from the past—that makes use of the Switch handheld hardware as the screen. While Nintendo has been releasing new controllers routinely for its Nintendo Classics list from the NES all the way up to the latest revitalized GameCube controller, this is the first instance of a specific device to feel authentic—as if you’re thrown back to 1995 and playing the weird 3D console for the first time.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart

The DS was Nintendo’s best-selling device

While the Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s worst-selling console ever—only managing to move 770,000 units in its lifetime—the company’s top-selling device is still MIA from the Nintendo Classics list. The Nintendo DS first launched in 2004 but hit its stride with the DS Lite in 2006. Over its lifespan, Nintendo sold 154 million units. The company’s next-best-selling device, the original Switch, has sold 153.10 million.

Back in 2023, Nintendo filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office that gave us a glimpse of how a supposed device with a large screen could attach to a handheld. Last month, Mike Odyssey on X spotted that Nintendo had updated the patent for 2025. The attached screen would be positioned at an “incline,” according to the patent, and doesn’t describe a hinge system for the top screen to fold down onto the handheld, so this attachment would need to be removed and transported separately if you were to take the Switch 2 on the road.

Patents don’t suggest a company will actually make the product, only that they’re exploring ideas and want to protect them. Even if Nintendo is working on a dual-screen add-on for the Switch 2, that doesn’t necessarily mean the finished product would look anything like this proposed design. Now that Nintendo has gone back 30 years to its strangest console, it opens the possibility of winding back the clock to every instance of its past hardware. The one missing piece, beyond the Wii and Wii U (at least Super Mario Galaxy is getting another remaster), is the Nintendo DS and the less-popular 3DS.

Nintendo needs to beat the emulators

The Switch 2 has more capacity for these peripherals thanks to its top and bottom USB-C ports. A move toward more Switch 2 retro peripherals makes more sense when you understand why Nintendo keeps publishing its classic library for Switch owners. Retro emulators, which recreate older consoles as software, are growing increasingly popular with the generation of gamers who grew up with Nintendo’s older consoles. Nintendo is also one of the few companies that rails hardest against emulation in its crusade to combat piracy and protect its intellectual property. Nintendo has taken down multiple Switch emulators, including Ryujinx, Citra, and—especially—Yuzu. Nintendo has hindered GameCube emulator Dolphin from a full release on Steam. The company offers its own emulation through its Nintendo Classics list as an alternative to the legion of players jumping at the burgeoning retro handheld scene.

And it couldn’t come soon enough. While players have too much choice for Game Boy-like devices, the DS and 3DS are still new territory. In the last few months, Ayaneo showed off its Pocket DS, a dual-screen Android handheld made for playing DS games. Fellow handheld maker AYN announced its Thor dual-screen device as well. Meanwhile, Retroid crafted its own $69 dual-screen add-on for its horizontally oriented handhelds to play two-screen games. Nintendo will take its time to launch even more hardware. The company rolls out its games over time, so those wanting to return to the DS glory days will have to wait for something official.

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon

See Nintendo Switch 2 at Walmart