The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
At the time the Sega GameGear was in my opinion the best hand held games console around. It was a coloured screened, 8-bit mean machine with the games to match. The GameGear was undoubtedly the only competitor to the Gameboy (The Artari Lynx doesn't even come close, the Commodore 64 was a better hand held console...my point exactly) but for some reason one survived and the other didn't.
If you look at the styling of the two consoles - the Gameboy was your Rosanne Bar - short and chunky, while your GameGear was your Liz Hurley - very curvaceous with lots of style. If you then look at the capability of the two consoles the GameGear again wins with a superior memory capability. Then look at their screens - While the Gameboy is dull and monotone, the GameGear is colour (why you could even get a TV adaptor).
The games on the GameGear were also far far better than those on the Gameboy. While the Gameboy only really had Tetris and Super Mario Bros, the GameGear had Sonic 2, Streets of Rage, George Foreman Boxing as well as loads of others converted from the Megadrive down (you could even get an adaptor to play Mastersystem games on it). The GameGear therefore was far more technologically advanced, maybe too far for it's time.
If you look at todays handheld consoles however theres only really one to name - the GameBoy Advance. The difference between Sega and Nintendo is that Sega decided that the future lay more in consoles that linked to your TV while Nintendo took some time out and thought about it's plan and saw how Sega had dropped the GameGear like it was a Happy Meal without a toy, and thats when they seized their chance.
Sega then came out with the Saturn and Dreamcast....nuff said, while Nintendo came out with the Cube and GBA. Nintendo's GBA is seemingly a GameGear in disguise - colour screen, practically same button layout, same sort of games and accessories but with a Nintendo badge, and obviously by this time it's way too late for Sega to resurrect the console that the GBA is impersonating.
If you look at the styling of the two consoles - the Gameboy was your Rosanne Bar - short and chunky, while your GameGear was your Liz Hurley - very curvaceous with lots of style. If you then look at the capability of the two consoles the GameGear again wins with a superior memory capability. Then look at their screens - While the Gameboy is dull and monotone, the GameGear is colour (why you could even get a TV adaptor).
The games on the GameGear were also far far better than those on the Gameboy. While the Gameboy only really had Tetris and Super Mario Bros, the GameGear had Sonic 2, Streets of Rage, George Foreman Boxing as well as loads of others converted from the Megadrive down (you could even get an adaptor to play Mastersystem games on it). The GameGear therefore was far more technologically advanced, maybe too far for it's time.
If you look at todays handheld consoles however theres only really one to name - the GameBoy Advance. The difference between Sega and Nintendo is that Sega decided that the future lay more in consoles that linked to your TV while Nintendo took some time out and thought about it's plan and saw how Sega had dropped the GameGear like it was a Happy Meal without a toy, and thats when they seized their chance.
Sega then came out with the Saturn and Dreamcast....nuff said, while Nintendo came out with the Cube and GBA. Nintendo's GBA is seemingly a GameGear in disguise - colour screen, practically same button layout, same sort of games and accessories but with a Nintendo badge, and obviously by this time it's way too late for Sega to resurrect the console that the GBA is impersonating.
At the time the Sega GameGear was in my opinion the best hand held games console around. It was a coloured screened, 8-bit mean machine with the games to match. The GameGear was undoubtedly the only competitor to the Gameboy (The Artari Lynx doesn't even come close, the Commodore 64 was a better hand held console...my point exactly) but for some reason one survived and the other didn't.
If you look at the styling of the two consoles - the Gameboy was your Rosanne Bar - short and chunky, while your GameGear was your Liz Hurley - very curvaceous with lots of style. If you then look at the capability of the two consoles the GameGear again wins with a superior memory capability. Then look at their screens - While the Gameboy is dull and monotone, the GameGear is colour (why you could even get a TV adaptor).
The games on the GameGear were also far far better than those on the Gameboy. While the Gameboy only really had Tetris and Super Mario Bros, the GameGear had Sonic 2, Streets of Rage, George Foreman Boxing as well as loads of others converted from the Megadrive down (you could even get an adaptor to play Mastersystem games on it). The GameGear therefore was far more technologically advanced, maybe too far for it's time.
If you look at todays handheld consoles however theres only really one to name - the GameBoy Advance. The difference between Sega and Nintendo is that Sega decided that the future lay more in consoles that linked to your TV while Nintendo took some time out and thought about it's plan and saw how Sega had dropped the GameGear like it was a Happy Meal without a toy, and thats when they seized their chance.
Sega then came out with the Saturn and Dreamcast....nuff said, while Nintendo came out with the Cube and GBA. Nintendo's GBA is seemingly a GameGear in disguise - colour screen, practically same button layout, same sort of games and accessories but with a Nintendo badge, and obviously by this time it's way too late for Sega to resurrect the console that the GBA is impersonating.
If you look at the styling of the two consoles - the Gameboy was your Rosanne Bar - short and chunky, while your GameGear was your Liz Hurley - very curvaceous with lots of style. If you then look at the capability of the two consoles the GameGear again wins with a superior memory capability. Then look at their screens - While the Gameboy is dull and monotone, the GameGear is colour (why you could even get a TV adaptor).
The games on the GameGear were also far far better than those on the Gameboy. While the Gameboy only really had Tetris and Super Mario Bros, the GameGear had Sonic 2, Streets of Rage, George Foreman Boxing as well as loads of others converted from the Megadrive down (you could even get an adaptor to play Mastersystem games on it). The GameGear therefore was far more technologically advanced, maybe too far for it's time.
If you look at todays handheld consoles however theres only really one to name - the GameBoy Advance. The difference between Sega and Nintendo is that Sega decided that the future lay more in consoles that linked to your TV while Nintendo took some time out and thought about it's plan and saw how Sega had dropped the GameGear like it was a Happy Meal without a toy, and thats when they seized their chance.
Sega then came out with the Saturn and Dreamcast....nuff said, while Nintendo came out with the Cube and GBA. Nintendo's GBA is seemingly a GameGear in disguise - colour screen, practically same button layout, same sort of games and accessories but with a Nintendo badge, and obviously by this time it's way too late for Sega to resurrect the console that the GBA is impersonating.
You're spot on. I owned a Game Gear with a couple of games and i thought it was fantastic. The only downpoint was that the battery life was slightly short, but other than that it was an amazing console. Why it lost out to the Game Boy, i don't know. It's one of those mysteries thatcan never be explained.
"battery life was slightly short"
Understatement of the year. The GameGear alone was responsible for a 23.4% increase in UK battery sales in 1991. And they'd only sold four GameGears at the time.
Seriously, the GameGear was a monster, it could eat six (or did it take eight?) AA batteries in a matter of hours.
The real reason it failed though, wasn't the bettery life or the price, but the handheld market simply wasn't big enough to support two consoles. Nintendo got there first, marketed to the right age group and released good games. Sega didn't do anything wrong, but they didn't have so much third party support and the Gameboy was 'the standard'.
Understatement of the year. The GameGear alone was responsible for a 23.4% increase in UK battery sales in 1991. And they'd only sold four GameGears at the time.
Seriously, the GameGear was a monster, it could eat six (or did it take eight?) AA batteries in a matter of hours.
The real reason it failed though, wasn't the bettery life or the price, but the handheld market simply wasn't big enough to support two consoles. Nintendo got there first, marketed to the right age group and released good games. Sega didn't do anything wrong, but they didn't have so much third party support and the Gameboy was 'the standard'.