RETRO CONSOLE OF MAY... GAME GEAR
This month's Retro Console goes to the underrated Sega Game Gear!
The Game Gear was released in October 1990 by the games company Sega. The Game Gear was rushed to the games market and it's primary competitors were the Nintendo Gameboy and Atari Lynx. One reason why the Game Gear did so well was that it had a unique game library which many users loved. However, it's short battery life was a major downfall for the console.
The Game Gear was originally known as 'Project Mercury' and when it actually came to being released, it was being sold for £99.99 in Europe. The game that came with the console was a game called Columns which was a version of the Nintendo game, Tetris.
One benefit of the Game Gear is that it was one of the first handheld consoles which uses colours. The Sega Game Gear used around 4000 colours. The idea of the Game Gear was that it was able to port over to the Sega Master System (the home console which was out at the same time). However, the Game Gear only lasted 5-6 hours (with 6 AA batteries) whereas the Game Boy (it's main competitor) lasted up to 30 hours (with 4 AA batteries).
The most popular game for the Game Gear was Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is Sega's mascot and his game for the Game Gear was released 1991. This version of Sonic the Hedgehog is the simplified version of the Sega Genesis console game. The game itself sold 15 million copies (Genesis and Mega Drive versions included).
I had one of these consoles when I was younger (fully functioning unlike now) and personally, I loved it. One of my all time favourite games for the Game Gear was Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden was a game released in 1991 for the Game Gear. The main style for this game was a platform jumping game. Even though I was a bit too young to understand the game, it was fun enough to play.
Sadly, the Game Gear was discontinued in 1996. But fear not! Nintendo announced in 2011 that some of their eShops on the Nintendo 3DS would have some Game Gear games on them, available for download.
So that does it for today, so until next time...
Peace Out - Geekette
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