The Game Gear Thread

So, I dug my ye olde Game Gear out of the cupboard on Friday. As I say every time I do this, every couple of years or so: the Game Gear hardware still impresses me. It's huge but comfy, a well-designed Game Gear game is very pretty indeed, that D-pad is super comfy, and the fact that it's a portable Master System with an adjustable backlight is the icing on the cake. Quite a meaty sound from that little speaker, too.

Had a blast playing Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Sonic the Hedgehog, which in its own way is arguably more fun and pure that the Mega Drive original. How many Game Gear owners do we have round these parts? Loads of great Game Gear games are insultingly cheap on eBay, so it's almost rude not to own one.



Please note: experience much enhanced by playing through the Mega Drive's AC adapter. Words cannot describe how gash the battery life is.

I've not owned a Game Gear for a good while but is a great retro system to pick up due to nearly everything being rather cheap on it, that you can get a nice collection easily.

But I say that but I would still buy a Game Boy even as a SEGA kid growing up a loving Sonic over that slow boring Mario on the SNES, the game gear never did anything for me as I thought the Sonic's etc on my Mega Drive were better.

Even now I do find it hard to find many great games on it that you get else where but it does have a few exclusive sonics but don't know good those are.

I never actually owned a Game Gear when it was on shop shelves, but even so I have fond memories of Batman, Shinobi, Sonic 1 and 2 and The Jungle Book on my friends' Game Gears. I knew three people who had one, and none of those had a Game Boy so we were fortunate to be able to play each-others' consoles.

Sonic Chaos wasn't bad from what I recall, but that's another Master System port. I'd really like to try Tails' Adventure (an exclusive), but because of the price of it it would be wiser to get it on VC.

Or Sonic Gems Collection for GameCube or is it the other collection on GameCube

I never got on with the MS either there's something about the 8-Bit unless it's something like SMB3 or Kirby on NES most even to me feel dated or just don't stand up but I got this feeling it's because I started with 16-Bit that everything should be like that at least.

I think it was Gems Collection. Sadly, I don't own that, only Mega Collection. And in Mega Collection you had to fanny about unlocking the more obscure games, if I recall.

Outside of Alex Kidd, I'm not really an MS fan either. This is probably just down to my overriding love of portables, though.

I've never had a Game Gear, and I've not played too many of the games. I've just played a dozen-or-so Master System ports, the stuff on the aforementioned Sonic collections and a couple of 3DS ROMS. There's the odd game I quite like - Sonic Chaos, G.G. Shinobi and Streets of Rage are three - but I've never once felt compelled to go buy one. I'd quite like to play the version of Rister though, as it's totally different from the Mega Drive classic.

I didn't realise Ristar was a totally different game. The Game Gear is a great place to try some platformers out, even if they are available elsewhere. I'll never stop banging on about Land of Illusion. Haven't had much time with it yet, but The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck looks quite promising, too.

I've no idea why they never ported the original Alex Kidd to Game Gear. It would suit handheld play more than console, in my opinion.

I absolutely loved The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck on the Master System. Think I borrowed it off a neighbout for about two years. Six-year old TCK highly recommends it!

I'll take that trusted endorsement.

I was this close to finally taking the time to beat Land of Illusion yesterday, but I set the Game Gear down when the telephone rang and accidentally knocked the cartridge, crashing the game.