Nintendo Power editor says Virtual Boy was the worst to cover

Gail Tilden, the former editor-in-chief of Nintendo Power, has revealed that one Nintendo product tested her editorial principles more than almost anything else: the Virtual Boy. In a new interview, Tilden said there was “nothing worse” than thinking about the red-screened console, which she felt was difficult to cover honestly while working for Nintendo.¹

Tilden joined Nintendo in 1983, helped launch the NES in North America and later became a senior brand executive involved in bringing Pokémon to Western audiences. Her comments came during an interview with Retro Gamer about the more uncomfortable parts of producing Nintendo Power, Nintendo’s official magazine.¹

Why the Virtual Boy was so hard to sell

Tilden’s problem was not simply that the Virtual Boy looked unusual. She said the console gave people headaches, relied on an all-red display and offered a 3D effect that was difficult to present as a compelling reason to buy the machine. She compared the experience to an eye test and said the hardware was not fun to put magazine issues together around.¹

That created an awkward position for Nintendo Power. The magazine was published by Nintendo, but Tilden said its editors still wanted to maintain editorial principles. If the Virtual Boy’s games could not outshine the rest of Nintendo’s catalogue, she did not want the magazine to make the system a star simply because it was a company product.¹

Her comparison with Tetris makes the distinction clear. Nintendo could give Tetris a cover and a substantial insert because the game justified that attention. The Virtual Boy, by contrast, demanded coverage despite making a much weaker case for itself. Tilden described the result as a clash between the company’s need to promote hardware and the magazine’s responsibility to give readers useful information.

The console’s reputation has softened with time, partly because modern virtual-reality headsets have made stereoscopic displays feel less alien. That does not erase the original problems, though. The Virtual Boy was a tabletop system with a monochrome red display, an uncomfortable playing position and a short commercial life. Its status as a famous failure has ultimately made it more memorable than many of Nintendo’s more conventional machines.

Nintendo is giving it another look

Nintendo has now brought the Virtual Boy back in a very different form. The company’s official site says the Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics library is available on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 through Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, with games including Teleroboxer and Galactic Pinball.²

Nintendo also sells dedicated Virtual Boy accessories for the two Switch systems. The official accessory is designed to recreate the original headset’s viewing style, while a cardboard model offers a cheaper alternative. The modern setup uses the Switch’s screen and Joy-Con controllers rather than reproducing every part of the 1995 machine, but the red headset silhouette remains deliberately familiar.²

That revival gives Tilden’s comments an extra layer. The Virtual Boy is no longer being asked to carry Nintendo’s future. It is being presented as a historical curiosity: a strange experiment that can be revisited, discussed and judged with the benefit of three decades of hindsight. Players can also approach it with more context about its limitations, rather than meeting it as the next big Nintendo platform.

The difference between then and now is especially important for the company’s marketing. In the 1990s, Nintendo needed Nintendo Power to help make the Virtual Boy feel like an important part of the current product line. In 2026, Nintendo can sell the same history as nostalgia. The machine’s red display and awkward shape are no longer obstacles to hide; they are the reason people are interested.

Our opinion

Tilden’s story is a useful reminder that official media does not have to be uncritical to be valuable. A magazine owned by a manufacturer can still recognise when a product is uncomfortable, compromised or simply less fun than the alternatives. That honesty may have made the Virtual Boy harder to promote, but it also makes Nintendo Power’s old coverage more interesting to revisit.

The modern Virtual Boy revival works precisely because expectations have changed. Nintendo is not asking the accessory to replace the Switch or prove that red stereoscopic graphics are the future. It is offering a controlled way to examine one of the company’s strangest experiments. Tilden’s blunt assessment and Nintendo’s new nostalgia-driven presentation can both be true: the Virtual Boy was a poor fit for its time, and it is now an unusually fascinating piece of Nintendo history.