Sega Game Gear -- Another Nintendo Victim.
Written: Jun 17 '02 (Updated Jun 19 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Color; backlit screen; inexpensive; some great titles.
Cons: Eats batteries like crazy; no support to speak of these days; bulky.
The Bottom Line: If you can overlook the horrible battery life and dig through a few bad titles, you'll love this under-appreciated system.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: Sega Game Gear |
I absolutely love the Sega Game Gear. Indeed, I rank this little portable right up there with my beloved Atari Lynx, and that's saying something as I've been an Atari fan since the late 1970s (well, I don't care for the Jaguar or the 5200, but that's another story).
Indeed, Atari and Sega managed to put out some of the finest hand-held gaming systems in the 1990s. However, Nintendo managed to stomp them both with the Game Boy for four very simple reasons -- size, battery life, marketing and software.
Let me explain. The Game Gear, on its surface, trumps the Game Boy in just about all categories imaginable. It's got a color screen that's backlit and was release in 1990 against a black and white Game Boy (we all know the trouble associated with Nintendo's refusal to put a light on the Game Boys).
A TV tuner is available for it, thus making the thing a portable television. Furthermore, there's a device that allows for the adaptation of Sega Master System games for use on the Game Gear. Indeed, the idea of a portable SMS was (and still is!) very appealing to a number of people.
The Game Gear also boasted a larger display than either the black and white Game Boy or Game Boy Color (a whopping 3.2" display, in fact). Also, the CPU used in the Game Gear is very similar to the one in the Game Boy -- an old eight-bit Z-80 running at 3.58 MHz. Back before "bloatware" was the rule, a portable system packing a 3.58 MHz was powerful enough for some action-filled games. To keep things good and active, the Game Gear can display up to 64 independent sprites on the screen at once.
So, why did the Game Gear fail? Well, first and foremost, the thing eats batteries like crazy. Expect three to four hours of play out of six "AA" batteries. That can add up to some serious money if one likes to utilize the "portable" aspect of this machine and play without and A/C adapter.
Now, here's where Nintendo showed some great planning. The backlit screen on the Game Gear is great, but it also means that a lot of power is used to maintain that screen. The Game Boy, on the other hand, has no such problem and boasts battery life that's far ahead of the Game Gear. Sure, Game Boy fans have to contend with those silly "worm lights" and such for a power source and deal with a smaller screen, but those machines are cheap to operate when compared to the Game Gear.
Also, the Game Gear is bulky as hell when compared to the Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Color (I'm not going to bother with mentioning the Game Boy Advance as it came out after Sega was soundly thrashed in the portable market by Nintendo). Indeed, the Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color are much more portable than the Game Gear (which is about he size of a brick), and there's something to be said for that.
Also, for some reason, it's pretty easy to scratch up the protective cover over the Game Gear screen. That's a small complaint, but one that should be mentioned.
In spite of the aforementioned limitations, the Game Gear is still a very appealing machine. Sure, it's bulky and is plagued short battery life, but some might argue that the color graphics, TV tuner and etc. make up for that.
However, Sega never seemed to treat the portable market in the same way Nintendo did. Simply put, Nintendo put a hell of a lot of money behind promoting the Game Boy and the result of that effort is seen today -- Nintendo rules the portable market without question.
And, what did Sega do to challenge Nintendo? The company didn't really promote the Game Gear that hard (remember, the Sega Genesis seemed to get most of the attention back when the Game Gear was in production) and put out a bunch of "shovelware" for the system. What I mean by "shovelware" is that there are a number of scaled-down ports of console games for the Game Gear.
Now, I enjoy playing titles from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Road Rash on the Game Gear as much as the next guy, but Nintendo just whipped Sega in the portable software category. I mean, laugh at Pokemon if you want, but Nintendo promoted the hell out of the Pokemon series for the Game Boy. In addition to those unique titles, there were some other titles utilizing licensed characters such as Mario that came out for the Game Boy. And, I'm not talking about just scaled-down versions of console games, but unique adventures tailored for the Game Boy. The approach, see, was different.
And, speaking of software, there's just a ton available for the Game Boy. I don't know how many games are available for the old Game Boy black and white, but I know there's a hell of a lot more than what was made for the Game Gear. And, a good deal of that contains licensed characters. It's hard to compete with that, and Sega didn't compete for long.
Of course, the Game Gear's demise can't be blamed entirely on Nintendo. Indeed, Sega only had one console that was a true success in the U.S., and that was the Genesis. While Sega often had machines with superior hardware (compare the Dreamcast to the Nintendo 64 or Sony Playstation, for example), the company was often clueless on how to market products and how to keep customers happy and sticking with the firm when the time came to purchase a new system. One can't blame Nintendo because Sega was just inept a good part of the time.
However, I still love my Game Gear, and will likely use it for quite some time. Now, here's some good news -- Majesco revived the old Game Gear in 2000 and sold it through Toys 'R' Us outlets. I don't know how many of those units are still floating around, but I saw a couple at Toys 'R' Us (and, in fact, purchased one) as recently as March for a mere $29.99. That's a good deal, particularly when you consider I can pick up titles at the local Game Xchange for around $10 apiece. That's cheap entertainment, and there are certainly enough top-notch titles out there to keep people happy. Also, I've noticed that Toys 'R' Us still has some new titles for sale for the Game Gear (typically on clearance, of course).
Ah, and I should mention that eagle-eyed MrReEvolution pointed out that Majesco not only re-issued the Game Gear, but re-released some software for it, too. I can file that away in the "learn something new every day" category and thank MrReEvolution for bringing that to my attention. I guess that explains why there's still some new software available for the system.
So, the story of the Game Gear is similar to the tale of Sega's other advanced portable, the Nomad (which was nothing more than a portable Genesis). Like the Nomad, it was a portable with impressive features in its day that was killed by some limitations and poor marketing. Still, if you're looking for some inexpensive fun on the road, a Game Gear may be just the thing you need.
Recommended:
Yes
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HawgWyld
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
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The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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