Not the GameCube, not the Wii U: This was Nintendo's most unsuccessful console

Nintendo’s worst-ever console was awkward to use and didn’t even sell a million units.

For as many massively successful systems as Nintendo has had (like the Game Boy, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Switch ), the company has also suffered through stumbles. Some of the minor missteps were limited to accessories, such as the clumsy e-Reader, or Nintendo 64DD that never released outside of Japan. But entire consoles have flopped too, which stings much more.

When you think of failed Nintendo platforms, the GameCube or Wii U might come to mind. During the sixth generation, the GameCube came in third place behind the wildly successful PS2 and newcomer Xbox. And the Wii U represented one of Nintendo's darkest periods, offering many mixed-reception games for confusing hardware that wasn't marketed well.

But the Nintendo console that had the worst run wasn't either of these. Rather, it was a short-lived system from the mid-1990s that didn't even last a year and sold just a fraction of the units. And as lambasted as it was, a recent comeback means it's easier than ever to try today.

You'll realize the Virtual Boy is unusual just by looking at it. Rather than a traditional home video game console that hooks up to a TV or a portable one you hold in your hands, the Virtual Boy falls into an awkward middle ground. It uses a viewfinder "binocular" design supported by a stand to guide you into the flagship feature: rudimentary three-dimensional visuals. The proper term for this is "stereoscopic 3D," where a different image is shown to each of your eyes to create the illusion of 3D. And while this technology sounds impressive for the time, it was really an underbaked mess fraught with problems.

Nintendo began selling the Virtual Boy in North America in August 1995, shortly after its Japanese release. This was before the Nintendo 64 or the Game Boy Pocket revision arrived in 1996, meaning Nintendo's hardware market had been quiet since the SNES's North American release in 1991. March 1996 saw the last Virtual Boy game released in North America ( Tetris 3D ), with Nintendo silently discontinuing the system not long after. Europe never even got it.

In June 1996, Nintendo reported that the console had sold 770,000 units. This makes it the worst-selling Nintendo console by far — the Wii U is next-worst, but still miles away at 13.6 million sold.

If you're wondering how you're supposed to comfortably play the Virtual Boy, you've happened upon the first major problem. Setting the Virtual Boy's stand on a table meant you had to lean forward to put your face inside, which wasn't a comfortable position to hold for long periods. Tilting the stand could help, or you could get creative with various angles like lying down. A strap would have been great, but Nintendo never released one. It's not a good sign when simply figuring out how to start using a system is a challenge.