Virtual Boy in the context of "Nintendo 64"

A virtual reality game or VR game is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through a head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controllers.

The video game industry made early attempts at VR in the 1990s, most notably with Sega's VR-1 and Virtuality for arcades, along with unsuccessful attempts for home consoles with the Sega VR prototype and Nintendo's Virtual Boy. With the introduction of the first consumer-ready home VR product, the Oculus Rift, in 2013, home VR games soon followed, including existing games adapted for the VR hardware, and new games designed directly for VR. While VR hardware and games grew modestly for the remainder of the 2010s, Half-Life: Alyx, a full VR game developed by Valve and released in 2020, was considered the killer application for VR games.

The history of Nintendo, a Japanese video game company based in Kyoto, starts in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded "Yamauchi Nintendo", a producer of hanafuda playing cards. Sekiryo Kaneda was company president from 1929 to 1949. His successor Hiroshi Yamauchi had Nintendo producing toys like the Ultra Hand, and video games, including arcade games, the Color TV-Game series of home game consoles (1977—83), and the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games (1980—86).

Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong (1981) for arcades: Nintendo's first international hit game, and origin of the company's mascot, Mario. After the American video game crash of 1983, Nintendo filled a market gap there by releasing their Japanese Famicom home console (1983) as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka's innovative Famicom/NES titles, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, greatly influenced gaming. The Game Boy handheld console (1989) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System home console (1990) were successful, yet Nintendo had an intense business rivalry with Sega's consoles. The Virtual Boy (1995), a portable console with stereoscopic 3D graphics, was a critical and financial failure. With the Nintendo 64 (1996), Nintendo began making games with fully-3D computer graphics. The Pokémon media franchise, partially owned by Nintendo, has been a worldwide hit since 1996.

Nintendo Classics is a line of emulated retro games distributed by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Launched in 2018, subscribers of the Nintendo Switch Online service have access to games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Game Boy (GB) and Game Boy Color (GBC). A more expensive subscription tier, titled "Expansion Pack", was introduced in 2021. Through this tier, players can also access Nintendo 64 (N64), Sega Genesis (GEN), Game Boy Advance (GBA), and Virtual Boy (VB) games, with GameCube (GCN) exclusively available on Nintendo Switch 2. Each console's library is accessed through a dedicated app, with new games being added on an irregular basis. Games are accessible as long as the user has an active subscription, and a user must connect to the internet at least once a week to continue to access services while offline.

The Nintendo Classics emulators include online multiplayer support, allowing players to play local multiplayer games remotely with friends. The emulators also support save states, with most consoles also allowing players to rewind gameplay. Some NES and SNES games also have an alternative version labeled "SP" ("Extra" in some regions) which alters the game in some way, typically unlocking additional modes, starting the player with additional items or levels, or starting the player midway through the game.