Look, I'll admit that I lowballed the price of the original vintage Virtual Boy. I'm surprised that there's still that much demand for such a maligned system. Vintage game prices are no joke, no matter the system, I guess. But, still, this all seems a bit excessive on Nintendo's part.
It has also been pointed out that 14 games isn't even the Virtual Boy's entire library. There are a few from third parties and a few more that were finished but never released, Star Fox 2 style. The shortest-lived system with the smallest library and they've still managed to pare it down even further.
Look, I don't even mind that part of it, myself. Some of those games, like the SD Gundam game, would probably be a licensing nightmare to work out. It'd be fun to get it, but I understand not bothering. And I can't blame Nintendo for not wanting to release unfinished games that could be buggy or broken. The Virtual Boy already has a bad enough reputation, they don't need to make it worse. I don't expect ALL the games. Getting "just" most of them is fine.
It's just that everything else around this is just so WEIRD.
I guess all the YTers over the years have also had access to this mythical option?
Yes? Because they were all using a emulator, just like Nintendo is doing? Just like any one of us can do on any of our computers or phones, REALLY easily? The entire Virtual Boy library takes up like 10 MB of space!
The part that's annoying me is that Nintendo is trying to pretend like they're NOT using a emulator to do this. That somehow THEY can ONLY use these obtuse physical options in order to recreate the experience of these games. THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION! Nintendo seems to be trying to pretend like what they're doing is NOT emulation, because they probably don't like acknowledging that emulation exists publicly. If the wider public knew more about emulators...less people might buy their overpriced stuff!
Sometimes, Nintendo REALLY HATES giving us options. They want to INSIST on us playing these games, the way THEY want us to play them. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to even give us the option to change the button mapping on our own controllers. Or to let us play with the Pro Controller, if the game has gimmick controls, like with the Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eeevee games. It's a problem, and they need to get over it.
I don't know what internal emulator Nintendo is using. But, chances are, it really is just as simple as clicking a button and giving us the option to toggle the 3D into 2D, and to turn the red filter into something black and white. But, if they do that, they have to acknowledge that it's REALLY simple (and sometimes fun) to alter your games without their express permission. And I feel like that's the ONLY good reason they aren't giving us that option...other than trying to make a quick buck.
There is a part of me that could almost believe that whatever internal emulator Nintendo made themselves DOESN'T have those options. Because Nintendo may not have spent as much time on that kind of emulator as the fans have. I could understand the fan-made emulators being superior to what Nintendo themselves made, if only because Nintendo is a business and it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of time making something that they aren't going to sell. But, we've seen proof that those kind of options exist in the trailer. So, Nintendo's proprietary emulator probably DOES come with those options. They just don't want to put those options in OUR hands.
Look, I COULD just use a emulator and play these games for free. No cost at all. That's not the issue, here. But, Nintendo is offering these games officially for the first time in years. I'm already paying for NSO. I would like to just play these games on my Switch. I'm already "paying" for them, more or less. But, they're making it so annoying and complicated for no good reason. Seemingly simply to scam some rubes out of their money, making them pay for 3D glasses that you get for free at a movie theater. It's insulting! And they deserve to be called out on it, at least a little.