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Canceled F-Zero sequel and game from Fire Emblem studio are being resurrected next week on Switch, 30 years after they were supposed to launch on Nintendo’s unpopular Virtual Boy
Nintendo will release two previously cancelled Virtual Boy games, F-Zero sequel Zero Racers and Intelligent Systems’ Dragon Hopper, through Nintendo Switch Online next week. Their arrival matters because both were abandoned when Nintendo’s commercially unsuccessful Virtual Boy hardware was discontinued, making this their first official public release roughly 30 years later.
Zero Racers was intended to extend Nintendo’s futuristic racing series, while Dragon Hopper was being developed by Intelligent Systems, the studio known for Fire Emblem. The games will be available through the Switch’s Virtual Boy library, preserving projects that had remained unreleased since the 1990s.
In short
- Two cancelled Virtual Boy games reach Switch next week.
- Zero Racers is an unreleased F-Zero sequel.
- Dragon Hopper was developed by Intelligent Systems.
Explained simply
The Virtual Boy was a Nintendo console released in the 1990s that displayed games in red and black through a headset. It sold poorly, and Nintendo discontinued it before some planned games could be completed or released.
Zero Racers was designed as a follow-up to Nintendo’s futuristic F-Zero racing series. Dragon Hopper was developed by Intelligent Systems, the studio behind Fire Emblem, and both games remained unreleased after the Virtual Boy was dropped.
Their release gives players an official way to try games that had been unseen by the public for about 30 years. They are being added to the Virtual Boy library available through Nintendo Switch Online.