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Sega's Game Gear: A Look Back
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Friday, May 19, 2006
It was clear in 1990 that the Game Gear, with its backlit, color screen, was destined to rule the handheld gaming roost. We take a comprehensive look back at the one retro handheld that *almost* made it...
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Over the course of a year and a half I played the Game Gear nonstop, draining AA batteries like jump shots and straining my eyes to the limit. I beat Sonic, Sonic 2, Batman Returns, Star Wars, Alien 3, Super Return of the Jedi, and Jurassic Park. I threw for over 500 touch downs in Joe Montana Football, slaughtered monsters in Axe Battler, and ripped off heads in Mortal Kombat (blood code and all). My Game Gear and I were near inseparable. Not only was it my travel companion, but also my lifeline to the entire gaming industry. The Atari had been put to rest years ago and the NES was on its historic and legendary decline. But with a Game Gear, I could still leaf through EGM and Gamepro, hunting for new releases and gawking at the latest news. Mortal Kombat 2 for the Game Gear!?! ZOMG I NEED IT!
The only unfortunate truth about my experience, other than my disappointment when the Game Boy eventually crushed the Game Gear, was that I played it so damn much that I grew sick of it. In fact, the system lost so much appeal that I can't even play one today for no longer than ten minutes. My best electronic buddy was eventually put to rest, but at the very least, I have some happy memories, but let's take a good look at this system, its accessories, and most importantly, the games that made the hardware worth owning.
The Game Gear is essentially a portable Master System with a "high resolution" backlit screen. The unit was designed to be horizontal rather than vertical, as to alleviate the issues with Nintendo's Game Boy, cramped hands being the biggest problem. It's a cool little unit that had plenty of potential. Not only did Sega back it with a very aggressive marketing campaign (my favorite commercial being the one where the kid hits himself in the head with a dead squirrel so he can see colors while playing his Game Boy), but it also had a few neat accessories such as a TV Tuner as well as the Master Gear, a device that was used to play Master System games.
Unfortunately, despite Sega's best efforts, which included releasing high profile titles such as Sonic, Ninja Gaiden, Castle of Illusion, and Shinobi, none of those games were better than Tetris, and to make matters worse, the Game Gear eats batteries like Mario devours mushrooms. With six AAs, you're going to get maybe five hours and that's pushing it, and when your system's battery life makes the PSP's look good, you've got major problems. It's an issue that plagues all of the old back lit machines, most notably NEC's Turbo Express, so when the chips are down, the Game Gear isn't very portable. It's bulky, sun glare renders it practically useless, and the magnification accessory, pictured later, just makes people using the unit look ridiculous.
Dwindling support also didn't help matters. Sega was into high turnover machines at the time, so it was too busy focusing on Sega CD and 32X to give a damn about its portable, almost like it conceded the hand held battle to Nintendo and Alexy Pajitnov before it had run its course. Thus, it's just a relic. It was the only system to really give the Game Boy some serious competition, but when I say that I mean "serious competition."
posted May 22, 2006