Virtual Lab retrospective: Scientific progress goes "boing" | Virtual Boy Works #19

[@JoeBushOnline]

Very few copies, developer who never did anything again, unreasonably expensive, unsettling imagery, Virtual Lab has all the calling cards of being haunted

[@OKeijiDragon]

Sounds like some sort of post-modern kuso-ge.

[@THEmuteKi]

It's so thoroughly on-the-nose as kusoge that it feels like it was a practical joke made decades after the Virtual Boy was forgotten. The sort of thing some deranged hobbyist would have made in early of 2014 while wondering how much the imminent explosion of gacha-inspired mobile games will destroy the Touhou fan community

[@GardevoirBoy]

It's an evil video game for sure. It's the worst kind of weird.

[@JSSMVCJR2.2]

A Virtual Lab Creepypasta.

[@RemnantCult]

2k for Ms. Anime's "Busty" Intestine Adventure. What a world we live in.

[@jasongarrett768]

The visuals in Innsmouth no Hakata were actually less upsetting. It says something about the high level of class in the _____ Works project that you can say “this game is poop” and NOT evoke flashbacks of That One Game Grumps episode.

[@djsquarewave]

Given the biological theme of the game, I'd always assumed that the twitch in her chest was meant to represent a heartbeat rather than jiggle. Though I guess that means that instead of sentient boobs trying to escape, she just has palpitations. A little disappointed you didn't show some of the art in the manual. There's a surprising number of illustrations in there, all to the same high quality as that wall-eyed cover art.

[@CptMunta]

As someone with Chrons disease this game deeply disturbs me.

[@SEGAClownboss]

I have ulcerative colitis and I understand. Bowel diseases aren't cool man. Are you doing well?

[@CptMunta]

@@SEGAClownboss I'm good a few surgeries and infusions of in Inflixmab later I only have acute attacks and hospital visits a couple of times a year. ulcerative colitis is brutal in itself, hope things are smooth for you. This games animation feels pretty accurate to an attack lol. Makes me wonder if it started out as a educational game lol

[@SEGAClownboss]

@@CptMunta My ulcerative colitis is in check and I haven't had any relapses for three years, but that was after seven hard and long years of struggling. I resorted to using steroids a lot and other medications which did not help me at all, and came under threat of having my colon surgically removed. It was only then that I found Elaine Gottschall's book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle", which talks about the Specific carbohydrate diet(SCD), and how it helps people with bowel diseases including UC and Chrons. I doubted that a diet from a popular medicine book would cure me, but it... did. In three months time without the doctor's knowing, I was taking the diet and it fixed practically everything. No blood, no diahreia, I had regular stool for the first time in seven years and I was so happy. My blood levels were pristine for the first time in seven years, too. This diet helped me where all the medications have failed, and I still got to keep my colon from being removed, and I'm so glad for it. I still eat by this diet today, although I also take regular medication, though only the basic mesalazine and immunosuppressant. No steroids in this for three years and counting! So the take from this I guess is if all other options fail you and you *really* don't want your digestive system surgically removed, try the Specific carbohydrate diet as a last resort. It sucks at first because you're gonna have to give up on a lot of foods you loved, and it's especially restrictive if you're also a vegan, but in terms of the effects it had on my body I can only say it was overwhelmingly positive and that it saved me from something that even medical professionals could have not. I hate sounding like a book shill lol, but it's really amazing, and you could look up what the diet entails online, anyway.

[@MapleMilk]

I love the way that Jeremy eloquently roasts games like this

[@jokerzwild00]

You nailed it on Retronauts the other day. If the VB hardware had been released as the "Game Boy 2"; just a more powerful successor to the original Game Boy, with a normal handheld form factor and without the Virtual 3d gimmick it probably would have been a great success. It's interesting to think about what kind of games we might have seen running on this hardware.

[@Belgand]

Much like the 3DS. A system that quickly turned into the DS2 where you turned off the silly 3D nonsense (or bought the ideal form in the New 2DS XL) and just played the same games as always. Where even the second screen or pen input was rarely relevant.

[@mrweatherby]

I have IBS and from now on am just going to imagine it's because there's a fairy plowing through my intestines with a pick axe.

[@jimmypage9283]

I've had ibs on and off for years, I'll use your description if that's ok for my next session,😭😀

[@jodymcdougle8810]

@@jimmypage9283 Lord..... LoL. I know how stomach pain can be..

[@JetstreamGW]

Little dark. Little dark.

[@Noiselandco]

My immediate reaction after a minute: "Connect the guts is an underserved genre."

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, I can't help but think a better version of this game might actually succeed as a novelty if they really leaned into the grossness of it.

[@superbulletwill]

Every now and then I watch a Works video that makes me realize that jeremy is suffering for art sometimes

[@LakituAl]

Calvinball for Virtual Boy would have saved the console.

[@Ghalheart]

Haha, you caught that title reference too, eh? :D

[@thecianinator]

Two player mode would have been a disaster for whoever didn't play Calvin though

[@FloatingSunfish]

I definitely would've been suckered into this game just by the anime characters alone, lol. 😅

[@muhanc.a.9299]

The japanese name for this title is "Intestine dream". The story of this game in a few quotes… Nintendo: I'm not supporting the Virtual Boy anymore Nacoty/J-Wing: Team! stop what you are doing and publish Virtual Lab Now!

[@Poever]

I never knew what Virtual Lab actually was until this video. I always thought it was like an activity center (like laboratory) collection or something

[@TheHowlingMan]

me too! that would have been much more interesting

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

The misspelling of Nintendo's name reminds me of the counterfeit GBA cartridges I accidentally - yes, really :( - bought in Hong Kong years ago ("licensed by Ninfendo"…), so if I encountered a game "licensed by Ninntenndo" my first thought would be that it's counterfeit…

[@djsquarewave]

Since this video was published, an interview with the game's programmer Megumi-tan has been published. Apparently she only had eight days between receiving the development hardware and delivering the completed game ROM. Which still doesn't make it a good game, but does explain the outcome: a single programmer only had a week to both figure out the development environment and deliver a completed retail game.

[@JeremyParish]

Yep, that info has been incorporated into the second edition of the book.

[@djsquarewave]

@@JeremyParish I shoulda known you were long since on top of it! But I didn't see any mention of it down here in the comments, so just wanted to drop that tidbit here for anyone else revisiting these excellent videos like I am. :)

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

The kind of game flashcarts were made for. Something to play once, as a curiosity, and then never again. Meanwhile, Bound High never saw an official release, despite it also being from a small developer, and LEAGUES better than this. I sincerely hope Mr. Parish covers Bound High. It is what I consider to be the best game on the platform.

[@fearanarchy]

On an interesting parallel, VB is kinda Nintendo's 32X. It doesn't share the same horror story of its creation. It is a product no one was really sure the market needed, had a small library due to poor market performance, and loaded with titles that solidify it as more or less the low point of their respective companies 90's career. I will agree with Jeremy, almost everything seen, or rather blurred with its visuals, from VB just demonstrates that "if you cannot do it right, don't rush it". I think the damage was already done and even a Link Cab,e and rereleased 2p games would not have been enough to save the system. Still wish we could see Dragon Hopper. All the mysticism has me curious as to if it was worthwhile.

[@BenCol]

Literally poop, you say? So it’s less Virtual Lab, more Virtual Lav, then? I’ll show myself out.

[@DeepWeeb]

All of the scat humor for this video reminded me of something... *the Calm but Upset Video Game Nerd*

[@MikeChimeri]

Paging Kyle Justin.

[@abryn6864]

Honestly, for how shoddy the game is, I can't help but find it really charming and intriguing.

[@LorenHelgeson]

Wow! This looks hideous, and that sound design is just terrible. But hey, let's add insult to injury. Those intestinal pipes are normally seen as red when you play this. Thanks for sparing us, Jeremy.

[@johnsimon8457]

WOW! I assumed you weren't going to do this one because sourcing a copy would be too difficult. This had to have been released before it was done, there are doujinshi titles with more polish than this. The solid color of her oddly twitching chest and boots, and the blocky double size font just screams *PLACEHOLDER ART*. Same thing for the Game Over tune at 7:57 it's monophonic and played at max volume. I imagine this was a single developer working in his spare time with bad documentation and no other support. The box art is oddly amateurish, too, and the (wall-eyed ?) gal in the center doesn't really match the design in the game. Some other youtube videos that cover this mention some extensive backstory in the manual about the scenario of the game that's never actually seen in-games, so who knows? This thing is such a weird artifact that really clashes when put next to Nintendo's incredibly polished releases and offers a tiny glimpse into a group of developers that supposedly tried to make a move from publishing on japanese PCs to consoles.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, I've wondered if the developer studio credit is just like, one guy's nickname.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Interesting. I had never bothered to actually see what this game was about prior to this. I never would have guessed an intestinal puzzle game.

[@Sheepy007]

Ahh, now I see the the connection to Pipe dream from last videos ending. It was foreshadowing indeed.

[@RoChocovid]

The home stretch! Only the last two JP VB games remain! Are you gonna review the unreleased but complete games too?

[@apostlenik809]

Why the hell is this soundtrack so haunting?

[@JeremyParish]

I think the cart has a demon from hell trapped inside it

[@Sinistar1983]

I guess you could say it almost was INTESTINALLY bad

[@mackerelphones]

On the spectrum from good to bad, Virtual Lab tends towards the bad end

[@PandaXs1]

intestinal blockage? finally a video game I can relate to

[@ladsworld]

Man this game is gross on more levels than I ever thought possible.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

I can't take my eyes off the anime girl on the cover. Why are her eyes so... _much like that?_

[@JeremyParish]

A general philosophical question about this game, really.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Aren't ugly eyes a Japanimation staple?

[@johnsimon8457]

That's part of the mystery of this game. That box art is at the level of "Enthusiastic High School Student" ( images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51166TNTG2L.jpg ) It may as well have been the cover of some photocopied doujinshi magazine. Even games that are also-rans like virtual bowling or virtual fishing have competent art. And then we have "LICENSED BY NINTENNDO" - since Nintendo manufactures the games, it's a cartridge and box that went through the same factory lines as every other virtualboy game - It's like they skipped most of nintendo's existing process... WHAT HAPPENED?

[@SlyBeast]

The opportunities for colon-related humor when reviewing this game are ample and you didn't disappoint.

[@JeremyParish]

They're just colon fragments, though. Semicolons, as it were.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

BTW, if you want a good, less ugly and actually _playable_ version of Virtual Lab's gameplay concept, play Sennou Millennium on the Bandai Wonderswan. It's similar but involves laying electrical conduit and it plays smooth as fuck. It should only run you about 10-15 bucks too.

[@dimethylhydra4095]

i may be kinda late to this, but Bad Game Hall Of Fame was able to do an interview with the developer of this game! "Nacoty" is a single person that got contracted by J-Wing to make the game, and she was only sent dev equipment a week before the game needed to be sent in. the password system and a potential vs mode were both casualties of the time restrictions, tho considering the link cable never actually got released the latter wouldve ended up being unused regardless.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah! BGHOF pinged me about that interview, and I'll be incorporating some of that new info into the second edition of the Virtual Boy Works book. They did some really amazing work on that interview.

[@nate567987]

@@JeremyParish very and it great to learn only isuue there is hacker was around till 2001 and make official ps1 games under the name Map Japan

[@SiGeTVee]

This...probably shouldn’t have been the first Virtual Boy Works episode that I had to watch. Guess I’ll check Waterworld next.

[@PokettoManStar]

That's not water!!! :(

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

These worms don't look like worms, especially when they're joined. They throb, making them look like intestines. The game's cover is the only highlight this game had like the seemingly pretty girl (Lisa Katagiri 片桐 リサ) and the tall young boy (Ken Kai 甲斐 ケン), but that leads to the next problem. Lisa barely looks like how she appeared on the artwork compared to the game itself. On the box, Lisa's hair is tied three times, wears like a lab dress with a turtleneck, gloves, and knee-high boots. In the game, her hair is free, which would have been beautiful, but she is wearing what looks like a one-piece swimsuit with shoulder pads, and an inflated tank top. I can probably compare this to Waterworld. Both had potential, but could have been better if it hadn't been on the Virtual Boy and just made Game Boy Color or console versions for one of them.

[@feitclub]

This has to be the ugliest, shoddiest game I've seen you cover in all the years you've spent on this project.

[@JeremyParish]

It really is the digital embodiment of "WHA' HAPPEN??"

[@slowmoe1686]

Or ANY of the projects. Damn. Puts some of those gameboy titles to shame in being garbage.

[@LordChozo]

@@JeremyParish I guess you could say that mascot is doing "a rweal rwed wagon!"

[@Super8LP]

The low effort fanservice(?) on the right of the screen is almost charmingly bad. As far as similar games go, Taito's Cachat/Tube-It does something similar to what this title attempts but plays way better and has far more pleasant production values.

[@jimmypage9283]

I've just been playing virtual boy on the retroarch, you can change the colour pallet to various colours, eg, blue and black, you can also set it up for 3d, eg using 3d glasses, makes a lot of difference.

[@larryinc64]

8:42 the box also lacks any specific info on the back of it, just having that pic of worms and the general warnings. No screenshots, no info paragraph, the game's logo is not even on the spine of the box.

[@cashnelson2306]

I haven't been so annoyed by the sound in a Works episode since that time I accidentally left the Chessmaster video playing in another room. God, that was awful.

[@JeremyParish]

Naw, that soundtrack cooked

[@cashnelson2306]

@@JeremyParish All 20 minutes, Jeremy. I sat and listened to all 20 excruciating minutes.

[@darktetsuya]

the cutaway jokes were on point, at least lol ... but yeah overall this just seems like an annoying puzzle game.

[@eelobrian6727]

Worms??? That's gotta be retro active artwork. Those are intestines. No doubt.

[@famuel2604]

did you censor this, or does the women's top just resemble a grey blob

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

It also jiggles!

[@Keiffer01]

It looks like one of those unlicensed porno games you'd see on the Famicom Disk System.

[@nate567987]

the dev made some of hacker's games on pce including lady sword

[@TVsMrNeil]

Nothing makes me sadder than badly-rendered fan service.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, I mean... if you're gonna pander, at least put some effort into it.

[@jeremyandrews3292]

Virtual Boy seems to have a lot of games connected with things like pipes, corridors, intestines, etc. I'm getting this weird mental image of the system as being a symbolic gateway for something. Anyway, it seems like only two titles are left. SD Gundam Dimension War and Virtual Bowling. I think doing Virtual Boy was a good call because it's a very short series of games that are historically interesting and largely unknown.

[@RockMongler]

That's kind of a shame. It is a puzzle game with some promise at its most basic concept, but terribly executed. The idea of building closed loops for points is pretty neat, like an alternate take on pipe dream.

[@thegaminghellyoutubething]

Nacoty has at least one other game to their name: Chiki Chiki Tengoku, also published by J-Wing. it, too, is apparently Not Very Good gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gameboy/569910-chiki-chiki-tengoku/images/19529 on a lighter note, a nickname some friends came up with for this game- Cronenberg's Pipeline, in the style of Gorby's Pipeline

[@JeremyParish]

That's weird, I looked all over for more by Nacoty (including GameFAQs) and didn't come up with anything. Good find.

[@negirno]

Came from the latest episode of Shovelware Diggers, this would fit right in...

[@THEmuteKi]

The weirdest thing of all about this video is despite you always getting your footage in B&W for compression purposes it comes back in my head as always being red. I remember distinctly thinking to myself maybe an hour after I watched it, "I guess I have to admire his commitment to the gross-out factor of this game that he kept the footage all red for this one despite the visual loss in fidelity". I swear, this game is fucking cursed

[@THEmuteKi]

While writing this comment the wheeled desk I keep my laptop on fell apart instantly so I think I'm going to keep holding on to this as a plausible hypothesis. Thankfully the laptop did NOT crash onto the ground.

[@MrKanjidude]

Whether it's because I'm ill at the moment or because I am a pervert, that game actually looks pretty fun.

[@ethanlaborde]

Who was in charge of the visuals here? David Cronenberg?

[@DijaVlogsGames]

This looks like a really, really cool concept for a video game.

[@rasmusdegn9690]

With how much colon is in this game i can't help but think that the title was meant to be "Virtual Lavatory" and the devs just decided to roll with their typo for the art.

[@fearanarchy]

Virtual Boy ends its life in Japan. NA gets more games. U-S-A, U-S-A!! We kept the dream alive. You are welcome universe.

[@JeremyParish]

This series is a little non-chronological. Japan got more games, while the U.S. got the final three games.

[@Atomhaz]

Nice Calvin and Hobbes reference

[@glhaynes]

The cheerleader makes me think of Super Macho Man

[@pentelegomenon1175]

Failed consoles tend to have pretty good game libraries, for one obvious reason: no shovelware.

[@TheAwesomePandaLPs]

For the record, Nacoty did also make Chiki Chiki Tengoku for the Game Boy, an extremely similar puzzle game that's roughly as bad as this one ;p

[@djsquarewave]

And that one's also published by J-Wing! I really do wonder if "Nacoty" was in fact a one-man operation.

[@franklinbrown7389]

“Intestine connection”

[@Lorfarius]

Do you think you will do any shows on the homebrew scene? Releases like Streetfighter and Mario Kart?

[@shards-of-glass-man]

9:03 "Their name appears here on the title screen, and in no other videogame, ever." ...A day later, this materialized in my recs. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rquThYGuls6JoNk _[cue X-Files theme]_

[@johnathanbarnes8639]

Hoo boy... 2 grand for the novelty to say "I own a game that has 'Nintendo' misspelled"? Frankly, I'm just looking forward to your SD Gundam review at this point.

[@alexmagneiplays4555]

WHOOOO GAMEBOY WORKS IS BACK!!!!

[@CrimsonDX]

If this where a 1.99 steam game I would have gotten it just for the anime girl alone. Definitely wouldn't pay over 2 grand for this mess >_>

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

CrimsonDX The boy (Ken Kai in the manual) who only appeared in the game's artwork is also nice looking like the girl (Lisa Katagiri) who also looks much more better than how she appeared in the game. Yeah, the booklet human character designs is the only redeeming quality this game has that any company can take Lisa and Ken's designs, and use them in a better way possible.

[@GodsBurden]

I think the idea has potential tbh, but it doesn’t look like it was executed well here

[@lindsaywheatcroft8247]

I unironically want to play this

[@JeremyParish]

We're all adults here, we can't stop you from doing this to yourself.

[@discountchocolate4577]

Super-rare games like this are why emulation and roms should be allowed imo. I'm so sick of Nintendo's 'Disney vault' BS.

[@kabutops87]

J Wing did make one game before this, the less nauseating, but still mundane Chiki Chiki Tengoku for Gameboy, it was release a year before this wretched game. It's basically the same game as Virtual Lab but replace the intestines with Keys, Fairys and bells. Here's a link to the Longplay of it.kzbin.info/www/bejne/rquThYGuls6JoNk

[@BaneMcDeath]

Is her legs and chest covered in some sort of thick slime or is she wearing the blockiest oddest top and leggings? There's just no detail in this game like most of the other games. And yeeeesh. Still there is a longplay on this game on youtube. Grats for the player not going insane.

[@FatDragonHats]

Licensed by NINNTENNDO

[@WeirdWonderful]

...why must you include a screenshot from THAT movie ? : ( The one I've been trying to retroactively erase from existence by not acknowledging it as hard as I could : /

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

THAT’S A PEANUS!!

[@CircsC]

Why'd they make her jiggle while otherwise static? WHY

[@professors84]

This game make me nauseous looking at it

[@abraveastronaut]

It's very funny to me that they animated her breasts jiggling but because of the way they're drawn they're usually only even recognizable as breasts because of the context of them being below an anime girl's neck. Just a huge bouncing Tab key.

[@mikedl1105]

Yah, that looks like bowel

[@MJFallout]

How many N should there be in Nintendo? *NNinntenndonn!*

[@mavrick45]

this game gets my lowest score.....7 thumbs up

[@SergioPL]

Amazing job!!

[@belstar1128]

This game looks disturbing

[@rodneylives]

"LICENSED BY NINNTENNDO"

[@mattdgroves]

2:30 please don't say throb and writhe

[@JeremyParish]

Don't blame me, blame the throbbing, writhing game pieces.

[@SetsuneW]

I've been enjoying this series, but did you really feel the need to throw in a flash of Human Centipede just to punctuate your reference? You may want to consider reuploading this episode without that still. It just wasn't necessary, and could get the vid flagged for age-restriction, even if it's momentary.

[@mymangodfrey]

SetsuneW Won’t somebody please think of the children?

[@SetsuneW]

@@mymangodfrey I know, right????

[@hecatialapislazulli5426]

Oh yeah, the Ninntenndo

[@JeremyParish]

I've always beenn a big fann

[@METR0lD]

Hee hee. He said poop.

[@mymangodfrey]

Broke: Heiankyo Alien references Woke: Human Centipede references

[@JeremyParish]

Bringing in that deep-cut Atari knowledge

[@fy8798]

50% of the budget probably went into the animation to the right. And 20% into booze.

[@geogaither]

Given her megaman-like legs, I assume that's supposed to be some sort of chestplate rather than her actual... chest

[@JeremyParish]

It heaves regardless.