The Voice Recognition Unit was realesed in 2000 by Nintendo as an add-on to the Nintendo 64 Hardware. It came in two parts: the actual "Voice Recognition Unit" which was a grey box that pluged into a controller port in the front of the the N64 unit, typically controller port #4, and coded your voice into signals the game software could understand; and a grey microphone that pluged into a microphone slot on the front of the VRU. Also included was a strap to mount the microphone onto the controller, and a yellow foam ball to place on the end of the microphone. The VRU came bundled with the game Hey You, Pikachu!, a pet simulation game in which you control and talk to Pikachu, with your voice.