I feel like the Game Gear’s legacy is largely seen as “the handheld that failed against the Gameboy” and I think that’s both sad and unfair. If you judge the game gear for what it was rather than for what it wasn’t, you’ll find that it was a great little handheld!
@@SomeOrangeCat Like I said, I (strongly) believe that things should be judged for what they are rather than what they are not. Was it the Gameboy killer that Sega advertised it to be? No, it absolutely did not turn out to be that. But what it DID turn out to be was a great handheld with a lot of fun games. It definitely wasn't perfect, but it was certainly ahead of its time IMO
Imagine a world where pokemon red launched on the GB and pokemon blue on the Game Gear and you could trade between both with a newer, joint company, game link cable. Both could have sold +60 million, maybe +100 if you get gold/silver generation there.
01:54 Honorable Mentions 04:06 Best Puzzle Game 05:29 Best Racing Game 06:49 Best Shoot-em Up 08:30 Best Platformer 09:53 Best Fighting Game 11:16 Best Strategy or RPG 13:02 Best Adventure Game 14:46 Best Beat'Em Up 16:13 Best Sports Game 17:54 Best Run'n Gun 19:37 Best Action Game 21:05 Best Exclusive Game 22:44 Best Sound 24:27 Best Graphics 25:47 Best Overall Game
Wow thx and here my list: Sonic Chaos Sonic Triple Tails Tempo Ristar - RASTAN Shinobi2 Megaman Earthworm Jim Battletoads - NHL Nba jam JOEMONTANA Faceball2000 SONIC spinball - Fatal fury Samari showdowd Mk2 Primal rage Vf - Fantasy zone Ggaleste 123 Jungle strike - Gunstar heroes Gg turrican Robo vs term Alien 3 or Xmen legacy Arena maze death - ECHO Colums Donaldduck trouble Master darkness SHINOBI1 Oasis Physic world Road rash Sor2 Dynamite heady
Christmas '92 for me. Came with a voucher to come back after Christmas to pick up Sonic 2, since they couldn't sell the game until then. Disappeared two moves ago. I miss it.
Your knowledge about everything Sega is so impressive. Can't believe you nailed the puzzle genre with Popils, not that many people know about that amazing game.
The Game Gear was great when I was a kid because I could use it in my room without taking up the living room TV (since I didn't have my own). Never actually took it anywhere because of the battery consumption, lol.
@@themadmadcow Same with mine, i only used it when i was at home resting in my bedroom. Never took it outside mostly because i could get robbed anytime. So basically only used it with the ac adaptor.
Same here always plugged in & playing in my room. GG was and is special to me I still have it, but it needs to be recapped etc. And my soldering skills aren't good enough...
I had a game gear and turbo grafx express way back in the 90s on board the USS Shennandoah ad44. They were in constant use and nothing ever ever broke except the turbo grafx power cord needed to be taped. But on board a ship they were used 24/ 7 . Quality
Fatal Fury Special on GG is FANTASTIC. It's honestly pretty insane how well it turned out considering the limitations of the hardware. The graphics are great, the controls work really well, the gameplay is smooth, etc. Hell, it even has the day and night cycles for the stages that the Sega CD version lacks. Beautifully done job by Takara. Also yes, the GG version of Streets Of Rage 2 is AWESOME. It even has The Predator as the boss for stage 3 (seriously, I'm not even joking) that isn't in the SMS version. In fact, the SMS version of SOR2 is pretty trash overall.
Oh, and yeah. SMS Streets of Rage games were weird. First was better than the second by a lot, but even in that one the grab range is ridiculously huge.
Never had a Gamegear proper but Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic Chaos were both really fun games. Now I’ve got an Analouge Pocket with a Gamegear adapter and a handful of games on the way. It’ll be fun to try some of these out
I never did get a chance to own the Game Gear, but I did get to play Shining Force via emulation. For the time, I was impressed with it's really nice music, and addictive gameplay!
So many similar games (not to mention the hardware itself). A Game Gear vs. Master System (and which game to choose, when the versions are similar) would be really cool!
I second this. I can say that Streets of Rage 2 is good on GameGear and horrendous on Master System. On the opposite end, Sonic 2 is much better on Master System because of the extended screen real estate, especially in the first boss I think it is. It's like an antlion with bombs dropping in on you, and you can barely see anything on GameGear, it's obnoxiously difficult.
I LOVED my Game Gear as a kid, and this was not even knowing the Master System existed! It was indeed an amazing system just as long as you had the official batter pack! Yep I was smart enough to realize how important it was even as a young kid. I dunno why that was so hard for some ppl to get...
@@drunkensailor112 What do you mean what was it? It was the battery pack. What else would it be? It looks like a big cylindrical thing that you charge & plug into the power port.
@@thePoetDominic Indeed, that is also what I always used while at home or at someone's house. While in the car I either used the Cig Lighter adapter or the Battery Pack.
I was never a Game Gear owner (I was a Lynx guy - don't @ me), but this video was terrific - I'm inspired to check a bunch of these games out. Another great video, sir!
I'm glad you brought up Popils. I always loved games early on that allowed you create your own stages. I would spend hours building something and testing it out.
Nice to see the Game Gear getting some love. I had one and I agree Streets of Rage 2 burned thru allot of batteries. I'm gonna try out those English patched RPGs now👍
I ran through entire packs of batteries trying to play through Shinobi 2. One of the few games that actually made backtracking enjoyable. And I never played the game gear shining force and didn't realize it connected 1 and 2. That would explain things since I remember playing shining force 2 and not understanding why there was no story connection to the first one.
If you are into strategy RPG like Shining Force which also got two Game Gear entries, check out a game called Royal Stone which also was only translated by fans. Visually the game can almost pass off for a Sega 16 bit game.
Terrific list. I don’t think I would change one bit. I’m delighted to see most my favorites, some usually overlooked, being represented, like Lucky Dime Caper, Master Of Darkness, Land Of Illusion, etc.
Another great job. I missed out on the Game Gear thinking it was just a poor man's Sega Nomad but boy was I wrong. I love the fact the Game Gear had many games that were unique to the system and many of the Master System ports where not just watered down Genesis ports but unique games in their own right such as the Sonic games and Mickey games. Thanks to the Analogue Pocket and its Game Gear adapter I am enjoying these great games both on the go and on my TV via the dock.
One thing that bears mentioning... the Game Gear has excellent controls and feels very comfortable to hold. Anyone who's ever crippled their hands on a Wonderswan or GBA SP will appreciate the feel of a Game Gear.
Wow-such a great trip down memory lane, as always! My Game Gear library was modest-just a handful of titles-but SoR2, NBA JAM TE, and NHL Hockey were my favorites and provided hours upon hours of fun on-the-go. The Game Gear is definitely an underrated gem, its strengths often overlooked in the shadow of the Goliath Game Boy.
Wow, you’re being VERY generous with those screen images. The Game Gear is the only portable console I ever owned back in the day, even though from the early 80’s to today I’ve had about 10 home consoles. When the Nintendo Gameboy came out in ‘89, I can remember being blown away at just the concept of being able to take cartridge games with me and play them like at home on my NES. But frankly, very disappointed with the pea green, non-backlit screen. So I never really made much effort to get one. But even though I was MUCH more into Nintendo (although I did have a Genesis too), the color backlit screen, horizontal shape, and even some accessories like the TV tuner we’re just too much for me to resist. I honestly only ever had about 4 or 5 games for my Game Gear the entire run that I had it. And you couldn’t rent games for it by me either like home consoles. I also never did get the TV tuner accessory, and the movement on the screen was SO blurry. But at the time, it still looked a whole lot better than the Gameboy to me. In the end, it ended up being more of a novelty for me. I never really got into any of the games or was hooked. But it’s still a fun memory for me, during the 7-8 years that I was THE most into video games from the late 80’s until the late 90’s.
Thanks for this video. I mainly used my Game Gear with the TV tuner back in the day, and most of the stores nearby didn't have a huge selection of titles anyway, so it's fun to see, and I will definitely be checking out many of these on the strength of your recommendations!
After you sung praise to the GG Shinobi I bought the title on the 3DS virtual console. You were not kidding that game is absolutely incredible. I still had no interest in starting a gamegear collection since the original hardware is a pain to deal with. But when I saw the GG adapter for the Analog Pocket I cashed it. Since then I grabbed so many games including a repro of Sylvantale. That game is just dropdead gorgous. And just last week I found a copy of GG shinobi 2 so you know I'm in portable heaven right now.
I got a Sega Game Gear during its launch year and loved it to death. I also had a Gameboy, but for me, the Game Gear won out because of the backlit color screen. I have a lot of fond gaming memories with the GG. Both Shinobi games were absolute masterpieces. I also loved the Lucky Dime Caper and Castle of Illusion. There were some duds on the system, but overall, I had a lot of these on my own Game Gear. Oh, and Aladdin is it's own game; it is not a port of either the Genesis or Nintendo versions, and I think it's all the better for it. The TV tuner was also amazing to me; I could watch TV in the car or while waiting after school.
This video hit at the perfect time. My analogue pocket with the gamegear adapter is finally coming. and I have the Everdrive cart for it loaded it up and ready to play.
I got a preowned gamegear with the sega carry case from the pawnshop with Crystal Warriors, what a summer that was. My dad also got rechargeable batteries for me. When I wasn't playing on the go I was hold up next to the outlet by our front door with the AC adapter because those batteries went out so quick. I was blown away nearly 20 years later to find out there was a sequel to Crystal Warriors called Royal Stone and it was translated. GameGear looks nice and crispy on modern handheld emulators now these days.
Being a portable master system is a pretty good description and nothing to scoff at. You do kind of step over the lower screen size making some games appear cropped.
Modded my system recently and I have another one I'm fixing up hopefully everything goes well as I sense it's a little bit more than the capacitors but at least the thing is coming together! Also I know you mentioned in the past video but Batman returns on game gear was rather fun. It was a game that I would play with friends at school and see how far we can get
That would have been a great improvement for Gamegear sound. Even better if Sega managed to mix the FM sound with the PSG sound to make more complex music and SFX and in stereo.
Yeah amount of colors and good color use are sometimes mutually exclusive. I remember 16 color games like The Catacomb Abyss having much more detailed graphics than some 256 color games released after.
I loved this Video and it brought back a lot of memories. Thanks, SLX! I had a Master2Gear converter and was playing my Master games on the GG on the go (albeit a short amount of time due to battery life)
Late to the party but you were talking about the hardware and I wanted to chime in with a little tidbit. Yes, the specs were more along the lines of the MasterSystem. They both had the Zilog Z80 as their main CPU clocking in at 3.5Mhz. The interesting thing is the color palette. The Master had a paltry 64 colors in its palette. Granted, that was a bit more than the 50ish the NES had. But the GameGear had 4000 colors it could pull from. Only 32 on screen, again same as the MasterSystem but far more shades to choose from. To give you an idea of how insane that 4000 number is, the Genesis only had a palette of 512. So, yeah, it could definitely throw some beautiful colors on screen. Which was the big selling point over the GameBoy's black and green colors.
During the end of peak 8-bit and first year of 16-bit, my portable was an Atari Lynx. Sure, the library was dwarfed by GB and GG, but the Lynx had some titles - Blue Lightning, Roadblasters - with outstanding 3D scrolling/scaling effects that you wouldn't even see in most 16-bit console titles. And somehow I had a circle of friends who also convinced parents to get them a Lynx. We had some truly fun local multiplayer get togethers, like 6-player Slime World and 4-player Gauntlet (played in vertical screen orientation! Raiden too). The Lynx simply felt very unique at the time. In retrospect, the truth is that it only had about 9 or 10 honest-to-goodness bangers. A bit like the situation on Atari Jaguar, which I also owned a few years later. Another system with some slick hardware tricks that bested the competition, but poor library support and eventually failure. I always had every possible current generation of Sega home console hardware, and on the side these more exotic handhelds and niche consoles like Lynx, Jaguar and 3DO. It kept things feeling fresh and experimental.
This video is a great advertisement of what the Game Gear has to offer, with a good selection of games on display. Nice to see Battletoads get some airtime - the colours are a beauty over the NES version. For runner-up fighter I would go for one of the Power Rangers games, Virtua Fighter Animation or even Buster Fight despite its odd controls - all of those titles show what 8-bit fighting games can offer with the sacrifice of small sprites.
I had a Gameboy but I use to borrow my friend's gamegear from time to time. It was amazing to see color on a portable system back then! But yes, it did eat batteries on a daily basis
Game Gear only weakness honestly was its battery, a friend of mine owned one and I had the pleasure to play Shinobi and Lucky Dime Caper at the time! Wonderful games.
Good and understandable choices. I have fond memories of my game gear. One game that never seems to come up in these lists is the game gear version of Lemmings as I spent ages playing that....all 120 levels with many Sega special ones and it was probably extra tricky because of the tiny screen and game gear controls. Not sure I'd do so well with 40-odd year old eyes and reactions though ☺
I loved the game gear, especially shining force, but the fact it only lasted twelve seconds on 6 or however many fresh batteries was really what kept it from being bigger. You were forced to buy a battery pack if you weren't plugged into the wall at all times and it sucked having a bag with all the extra gear just for a short road trip, but man it was so cool and mind blowing back then.
I love this device it was my first portable,I got it with sonic and also got outrun and wonder boy a few months later.i used to play it at the shop where my mum worked,in the back room there plugged in with the AC adaptor.great days I miss very much 🙂
Tengo que decirte que me encanta el canal. Si bien cuando yo era chico tenía consolas de Nintendo, jugaba mucho al SEGA en un videoclub de mí barrio. Creo que es el único canal de Sega que veo, se nota la pasión que te despierta Sega. Y no es para menos porque tenía excelentes juegos. Saludos desde Argentina ❤
This is an excellent video. I missed out on the Game Gear and just started picking up a few games to play on the Analogue Pocket. Great to find such a well made vid with well explained picks!
Man I remember walking by the GameGear at KB Toys, Toys R Us and every other store and just begging my parents to buy it! It was “to expensive” and this is still one of the only gaming devices I have never personally owned! I know the batteries died quick but I was such a Sega fanboy I didn’t care lol
The Dragon's Trap remake was SO good. Captured everything from the Master System while showing the absolute promise of a modern game. The graphics/music toggles were awesome. Also Joe Montana football on Game Gear was pretty good, especially as it's the only football game I've ever really sunk time into XD
I loved this video and wanted to see more. I know there were runner ups and hinorable mentions, but in a perfect world: i wish youd make a follow up with ALL your highly reccomended games. Like, a followup of just more honorable mentions / hidden gems, SLX level.
I cannot BELIEVE the first game you showed was Madou monogatari! Legit respect, I thought that game would have flown under the radar on a video such as this, and as a major Madou / Puyo fan it made me super happy to see :)
I loved my Gameboy by the game gear was special to me. I remember when the TV tuner came out i thought it was the coolest thing ever to watch tv under my covers. Had the nomad (still do) years later, but will always love the game gear
I think outrun is the only title that is both for the Sega Master system and Game gear but were both developed by two different teams. I think every other game that is released on The Game gear there's also found on the Master system are the same game or by the same team
Excellent video! My experience with the GG in the 90's was brief, I only really remember playing some Sonic. Looking forward to rediscovering the games you recommended- especially Shinobi II! This type of video is so clear, helpful, and entertaining so - thanks!!
Streets of Rage II has some of the best 8-bit music I've ever heard. Recently installed as many GG games on my New 3DS XL as I can and have been having a blast.
Good list! I loved the Game Gear! I had played Castle of Illusion, Columns, Mega Man, the Donald Duck games, Ristar, Sonic Chaos and Sonic 1 as a kid back in the day. Though, the Game Gear was an absolute battery hog, so you really needed the AC adaptor back in the day. I didn't have a battery recharger at the time, so my parents would get steamed when I kept using up all the AAs! I just wish some of the heavy hitting franchises had made it to the Game Gear like Contra and Castlevania, but I know Konami was ultimately more focused on Nintendo's platforms and didn't have that same relationship with Sega. Had I known how good the Shinobi games were on the Game Gear, I would have definitely picked those up as a kid! I'll probably still check them out now as I'm a sucker for a solid 2D action game.
Thanks for the nostalgia video man, this took me back. I remember the awesomeness of video games back in the day they held so much more hit than miss compared to now. I was thinking about it and man our parents must have loved us lol, games were like 70 bucks for some SNES games and almost all N64! And that’s in the 90’s! They also dropped $200-250 for systems too! Games also shipped as full games…for the most part but crap was rightfully scrutinized like a certain Superman game. I remember by the time PS2 came out when I was a sophomore in high school that it was a mind blowing system. I think I played X-Box once because my roommate in college had one and I played one game: Fable. I just wasn’t that impressed by the games on it and thought it was inferior to PS2 by miles.
I think you hit on all the bangers on the system. The biggest miss by Sega is not releasing a Game Gear adapter for the Genesis. They could've sold three times as many units. Luckily, we have things like the Mega SG and Pocket, now!
That would have been similar to the Super Gameboy, that allowed to play Gameboy games on a Super Nes. But i don´t think such adapter could have sold more Gamegears or Gamegear games, because most Gamegear games were ports from existing Master System Games so the motivation to play the smaller field of view Gamegear version on a TV vs playing the full field of view version Master System version was not goig to be that impactful. In Nintendo´s case most of the Gameboy games were original Gameboy versions that could not be played anywhere else, so there was some motivation in playing and watching those games on a big screen and with some color added too.
Great video really enjoyed. I remember playing some of these titles. On my game gear and Sega master system. I wish they would release some sort of mini console.
GG Shinobi 1 music clip is basically "Long distance" from the Revenge of Shinobi OST. I'd also put the GG Shinobis at the top, followed by the GG Alestes. Road Rash, NHL and Ristar are pretty impressive Genesis ports.
My memories on GameGear from the 90s is about Star Wars. Finding Han Solo with his big gun and cutting enemies with the laser-sword into pieces was great with that BOOM-sound.
The Sega Game Gear is one, of the handhelds i´ve never owned. Console wise i own nearly every console, except the ps4. Handheld wise it´s a different story. Nonetheless this episode, showed me a few games that might consider me, to get a Sega Game Gear in the future.
Glad to see GG Streets of Rage 2 get the love, if you'll forgive a little plug I made a video recently about the differences and why I think they made the right cuts. GG games seem to have undergone a strange turning of the seasons, early on they were squished SMS games, but as the Genesis/MD took over it feels like games were developed first for the GG then just put out an SMS port as the hardware is so similar, especially here in Europe where the SMS enjoyed a long tail. Sure the GG never sold as much as the Game Boy, but by that metric the PS1 was a "failure" too, who can challenge a system with Pokemon? One thing that won't come across in the footage here is that the screen had the typical slow response time of the era, so you have to keep scrolling slow, but this also means flicker is much less egregious.
Pokemon didn´t appear until 1995 i think, so the Gamegear had basically 5 years to surpass the Gameboy and it couldn´t, even without Pokemon in the market yet. Those lcd screens had terrible response times so most games were developed with somewhat "choppy" scrolling and slow movement to lessen the ghostling effect on those screens. Sadly very few people show these portable systems in the original hardware with its original screens, so this game design choices will be more impactful.
I had Castle of Illusion, Lucky Dime Caper, Ecco the Dolphin, Columns, Sonic the Hedgehog, Dragon Crystal, Shinobi, and Mortal Kombat for my Game Gear. Great games on a great system.
So glad I got the McWill mod on my GG! Got most of the games I wanted before 2020, though Popils has been on my short list for a while. Perhaps it’s time to pick it up!
I loved me some Game Gear as a kid, and still have a soft spot for it. Great video. Thanks to you, I've picked up the GG Shinobi games recently and see the appeal. I haven't gotten to sit down with them long enough to finish them yet, but I hope to. Also grabbed Master of Darkness and dare say it is better than some of the 2D Castlevania games.
My friend did the translation for Sylvan Tales, awesome action RPG! I translated one of the GG's gundam game into English, which was a strategy game. Another strategy game I'd recommend is Royal Stone. Great graphics for the system.
I had a GameGear emulator on my Compaq 2015C WindowsCE handheld, so it was even a similar sized device, making it a lot like having a GameGear with a word processor, spreadsheet, and web browser. Probably a lesser quality (passive) screen, and I actually never played it that much, but a nifty thing in theory, at least. And I DO recall specifically playing one of the Donald Duck games, and a Daffy Duck game as well, and being VERY impressed by the graphics on both.
I loved my Game Gear and loved the TV tuner when i was out with friends ( i did have the battery pack ) my favorite game on long journeys was either Columns or the GG Shinobi
Waa hoping that Defenders of Oasis was on the list - you didn’t disappoint! I’m not really into RPGs but Defenders of Oasis was my fave Game Gear game.
It was one of my favorites back then. Kinda sucked there was no backgrounds in battle and they made you backtrack to old locations a lot but it was still great. I liked the voice samples it had too which was rare at the time.
I enjoy the picks you did an amazing job I like your picks and can't argue. Those were the best picks thanks for the videos your big fan Eric have great day Sega Lord X piece
I feel like the Game Gear’s legacy is largely seen as “the handheld that failed against the Gameboy” and I think that’s both sad and unfair. If you judge the game gear for what it was rather than for what it wasn’t, you’ll find that it was a great little handheld!
It was ahead of its time
The way Sega marketed it, especially in North America, I'd say the legacy it received is warranted.
@@SomeOrangeCat Like I said, I (strongly) believe that things should be judged for what they are rather than what they are not. Was it the Gameboy killer that Sega advertised it to be? No, it absolutely did not turn out to be that. But what it DID turn out to be was a great handheld with a lot of fun games. It definitely wasn't perfect, but it was certainly ahead of its time IMO
Imagine a world where pokemon red launched on the GB and pokemon blue on the Game Gear and you could trade between both with a newer, joint company, game link cable. Both could have sold +60 million, maybe +100 if you get gold/silver generation there.
@@juansanchez209 It definitely had it's fans, but I'm not among them. It all comes down to the library for me.
01:54 Honorable Mentions
04:06 Best Puzzle Game
05:29 Best Racing Game
06:49 Best Shoot-em Up
08:30 Best Platformer
09:53 Best Fighting Game
11:16 Best Strategy or RPG
13:02 Best Adventure Game
14:46 Best Beat'Em Up
16:13 Best Sports Game
17:54 Best Run'n Gun
19:37 Best Action Game
21:05 Best Exclusive Game
22:44 Best Sound
24:27 Best Graphics
25:47 Best Overall Game
Wow thx and here my list: Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple
Tails
Tempo
Ristar
-
RASTAN
Shinobi2
Megaman
Earthworm Jim
Battletoads
-
NHL
Nba jam
JOEMONTANA
Faceball2000
SONIC spinball
-
Fatal fury
Samari showdowd
Mk2
Primal rage
Vf
-
Fantasy zone
Ggaleste 123
Jungle strike
-
Gunstar heroes
Gg turrican
Robo vs term
Alien 3 or
Xmen legacy
Arena maze death
-
ECHO
Colums
Donaldduck trouble
Master darkness
SHINOBI1
Oasis
Physic world
Road rash
Sor2
Dynamite heady
My first portable system. My dad helped get me the Game Gear on my Birthday of 1994.
Same for me for Christmas 94
Same for me! I got it for my 8th birthday and rode home from New Jersey to VA, and the 6 AA batteries held strong the whole 6 hour trip 😂
Christmas '92 for me. Came with a voucher to come back after Christmas to pick up Sonic 2, since they couldn't sell the game until then. Disappeared two moves ago. I miss it.
I WANT DARK CHOCOLATE PRETZELS!
The game gear saved the battery industry 🪫
My dad could afford to buy me a GG, but he couldn't afford the supply of Energizers.
@@GeraldGarciaShould've picked up the charge cable too, it was available at launch or shortly after. I only used batteries for car trips.
😆👍
I just used the adapter for the genesis and it worked fine. Batteries drained way too fast
Always happy to see videos for the wonderful, battery-guzzling Game Gear.
I Had the AC PowerCord.
@@aretnap3653 It was a required accessory.
@@aretnap3653 So did everyone else. But it's a portable console on the road and the game boy crushed it when it came to battery life portable.
I remember getting my GG on my bday. My parents got me the Lil suitcase too. Had a handful of games. I loved the GG
Your videos can really bring me a bit of joy even in the most depressing times of my life, thank you!
You are very welcome.
Same here, the right kind of person can always cheer us up :)
Your knowledge about everything Sega is so impressive. Can't believe you nailed the puzzle genre with Popils, not that many people know about that amazing game.
Bro these retro videos always put a smile on my face. 😀
The Game Gear was great when I was a kid because I could use it in my room without taking up the living room TV (since I didn't have my own). Never actually took it anywhere because of the battery consumption, lol.
You had an ac adaptor?
Basically how I use my switch lite today! 30 years later and the habits never change.
@@laughingseal2282 Yup, always plugged in. To this day, I don't think I've ever used a Game Gear on AAs.
@@themadmadcow Same with mine, i only used it when i was at home resting in my bedroom. Never took it outside mostly because i could get robbed anytime. So basically only used it with the ac adaptor.
Same here always plugged in & playing in my room. GG was and is special to me I still have it, but it needs to be recapped etc. And my soldering skills aren't good enough...
It's 2023 and we are still playing those old games, and i love it!
You made my day, and i hope you're making videos for a long long time!
I had a game gear and turbo grafx express way back in the 90s on board the USS Shennandoah ad44. They were in constant use and nothing ever ever broke except the turbo grafx power cord needed to be taped. But on board a ship they were used 24/ 7 . Quality
Fatal Fury Special on GG is FANTASTIC. It's honestly pretty insane how well it turned out considering the limitations of the hardware. The graphics are great, the controls work really well, the gameplay is smooth, etc. Hell, it even has the day and night cycles for the stages that the Sega CD version lacks. Beautifully done job by Takara. Also yes, the GG version of Streets Of Rage 2 is AWESOME. It even has The Predator as the boss for stage 3 (seriously, I'm not even joking) that isn't in the SMS version. In fact, the SMS version of SOR2 is pretty trash overall.
Oh, and yeah.
SMS Streets of Rage games were weird. First was better than the second by a lot, but even in that one the grab range is ridiculously huge.
Never had a Gamegear proper but Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic Chaos were both really fun games. Now I’ve got an Analouge Pocket with a Gamegear adapter and a handful of games on the way. It’ll be fun to try some of these out
I never did get a chance to own the Game Gear, but I did get to play Shining Force via emulation. For the time, I was impressed with it's really nice music, and addictive gameplay!
So many similar games (not to mention the hardware itself). A Game Gear vs. Master System (and which game to choose, when the versions are similar) would be really cool!
I second this.
I can say that Streets of Rage 2 is good on GameGear and horrendous on Master System. On the opposite end, Sonic 2 is much better on Master System because of the extended screen real estate, especially in the first boss I think it is. It's like an antlion with bombs dropping in on you, and you can barely see anything on GameGear, it's obnoxiously difficult.
I LOVED my Game Gear as a kid, and this was not even knowing the Master System existed! It was indeed an amazing system just as long as you had the official batter pack!
Yep I was smart enough to realize how important it was even as a young kid. I dunno why that was so hard for some ppl to get...
What was the official batter pack?
@@drunkensailor112 What do you mean what was it? It was the battery pack. What else would it be? It looks like a big cylindrical thing that you charge & plug into the power port.
Or the AC adapter to plug it into the wall - that’s what I always used as a kid
@@thePoetDominic Indeed, that is also what I always used while at home or at someone's house. While in the car I either used the Cig Lighter adapter or the Battery Pack.
I was never a Game Gear owner (I was a Lynx guy - don't @ me), but this video was terrific - I'm inspired to check a bunch of these games out. Another great video, sir!
Lynx is underrated!
dude
Have you gotten around to checking any of them out yet?
Lynx guy here
My grip strength as a ten year old was top tier after having to hold that giant brick.
I'm glad you brought up Popils. I always loved games early on that allowed you create your own stages. I would spend hours building something and testing it out.
Nice to see the Game Gear getting some love. I had one and I agree Streets of Rage 2 burned thru allot of batteries. I'm gonna try out those English patched RPGs now👍
I ran through entire packs of batteries trying to play through Shinobi 2. One of the few games that actually made backtracking enjoyable.
And I never played the game gear shining force and didn't realize it connected 1 and 2. That would explain things since I remember playing shining force 2 and not understanding why there was no story connection to the first one.
I enjoy playing game gear games both on my RetroPie and my gaming tower PC with retrobat.
If you are into strategy RPG like Shining Force which also got two Game Gear entries, check out a game called Royal Stone which also was only translated by fans. Visually the game can almost pass off for a Sega 16 bit game.
@@TheDutchGhost
Hard second on Royal Stone, the game is genuinely gorgeous and the fact it runs on it at all is crazy.
Terrific list. I don’t think I would change one bit.
I’m delighted to see most my favorites, some usually overlooked, being represented, like Lucky Dime Caper, Master Of Darkness, Land Of Illusion, etc.
I'm collecting for the Sega Game Gear now. This video helps a lot. Thank you for making this.
very cool! not an easy console to collect for, but totally worth it. best of luck my friend
Another great job. I missed out on the Game Gear thinking it was just a poor man's Sega Nomad but boy was I wrong. I love the fact the Game Gear had many games that were unique to the system and many of the Master System ports where not just watered down Genesis ports but unique games in their own right such as the Sonic games and Mickey games. Thanks to the Analogue Pocket and its Game Gear adapter I am enjoying these great games both on the go and on my TV via the dock.
Dude you are just killing it with the uploads these days. Don't think we haven't noticed the increasing output.
Great list! My only objection would be Shining Force: Final Conflict. I think that Sword of Hayja is just a tiny bit better.
One thing that bears mentioning... the Game Gear has excellent controls and feels very comfortable to hold. Anyone who's ever crippled their hands on a Wonderswan or GBA SP will appreciate the feel of a Game Gear.
Very true.
That version of Road Rash is incredible.
Wow-such a great trip down memory lane, as always! My Game Gear library was modest-just a handful of titles-but SoR2, NBA JAM TE, and NHL Hockey were my favorites and provided hours upon hours of fun on-the-go. The Game Gear is definitely an underrated gem, its strengths often overlooked in the shadow of the Goliath Game Boy.
Wow, you’re being VERY generous with those screen images. The Game Gear is the only portable console I ever owned back in the day, even though from the early 80’s to today I’ve had about 10 home consoles. When the Nintendo Gameboy came out in ‘89, I can remember being blown away at just the concept of being able to take cartridge games with me and play them like at home on my NES. But frankly, very disappointed with the pea green, non-backlit screen. So I never really made much effort to get one. But even though I was MUCH more into Nintendo (although I did have a Genesis too), the color backlit screen, horizontal shape, and even some accessories like the TV tuner we’re just too much for me to resist. I honestly only ever had about 4 or 5 games for my Game Gear the entire run that I had it. And you couldn’t rent games for it by me either like home consoles. I also never did get the TV tuner accessory, and the movement on the screen was SO blurry. But at the time, it still looked a whole lot better than the Gameboy to me. In the end, it ended up being more of a novelty for me. I never really got into any of the games or was hooked. But it’s still a fun memory for me, during the 7-8 years that I was THE most into video games from the late 80’s until the late 90’s.
Thanks for this video. I mainly used my Game Gear with the TV tuner back in the day, and most of the stores nearby didn't have a huge selection of titles anyway, so it's fun to see, and I will definitely be checking out many of these on the strength of your recommendations!
Love this channel, man. I've been going back and watching all these vids.
Watching this video made me wonder what was Sega Nomad and Sega Pico after all. I really appretiate a video about obscure Sega consoles.
More ways of losing money for Sega? 😆
@@jsr734 Actually not; I'm looking for history only kkkk
After you sung praise to the GG Shinobi I bought the title on the 3DS virtual console.
You were not kidding that game is absolutely incredible.
I still had no interest in starting a gamegear collection since the original hardware is a pain to deal with.
But when I saw the GG adapter for the Analog Pocket I cashed it. Since then I grabbed so many games including a repro of Sylvantale. That game is just dropdead gorgous. And just last week I found a copy of GG shinobi 2 so you know I'm in portable heaven right now.
I got a Sega Game Gear during its launch year and loved it to death. I also had a Gameboy, but for me, the Game Gear won out because of the backlit color screen. I have a lot of fond gaming memories with the GG. Both Shinobi games were absolute masterpieces. I also loved the Lucky Dime Caper and Castle of Illusion. There were some duds on the system, but overall, I had a lot of these on my own Game Gear. Oh, and Aladdin is it's own game; it is not a port of either the Genesis or Nintendo versions, and I think it's all the better for it. The TV tuner was also amazing to me; I could watch TV in the car or while waiting after school.
This video hit at the perfect time. My analogue pocket with the gamegear adapter is finally coming. and I have the Everdrive cart for it loaded it up and ready to play.
Sylvan Tale is my favourite GG title, glad you acknowledged it. Absolutely stunning game!
I remember buying one in 1992.
My favorite thing about it was the TV adapter.
I was the only person in Army training with a tv.
😂😂😂
I loved my Game Gear, but that thing was always plugged into a wall; six batteries was not worth 90 minutes of unplugged play.
Thanks!
You bet!
Awesome. Great list. I still have my game gear to this day! Thrilled to see the shining force love. And GG outrun is very special indeed
Sega Lord X Enjoy Your Weekend Thanks For Everything You Do For SEGA
I got a preowned gamegear with the sega carry case from the pawnshop with Crystal Warriors, what a summer that was. My dad also got rechargeable batteries for me. When I wasn't playing on the go I was hold up next to the outlet by our front door with the AC adapter because those batteries went out so quick. I was blown away nearly 20 years later to find out there was a sequel to Crystal Warriors called Royal Stone and it was translated. GameGear looks nice and crispy on modern handheld emulators now these days.
Being a portable master system is a pretty good description and nothing to scoff at. You do kind of step over the lower screen size making some games appear cropped.
Well said about about Road Rash. I played the hell out of that game on my game gear.
Modded my system recently and I have another one I'm fixing up hopefully everything goes well as I sense it's a little bit more than the capacitors but at least the thing is coming together!
Also I know you mentioned in the past video but Batman returns on game gear was rather fun. It was a game that I would play with friends at school and see how far we can get
amazing 8 bit system! at times it felt like it had better use of colors than even the Genesis! I do wish it kept the FM sounds from the SMS though
That would have been a great improvement for Gamegear sound. Even better if Sega managed to mix the FM sound with the PSG sound to make more complex music and SFX and in stereo.
Yeah amount of colors and good color use are sometimes mutually exclusive. I remember 16 color games like The Catacomb Abyss having much more detailed graphics than some 256 color games released after.
I loved this Video and it brought back a lot of memories. Thanks, SLX! I had a Master2Gear converter and was playing my Master games on the GG on the go (albeit a short amount of time due to battery life)
Late to the party but you were talking about the hardware and I wanted to chime in with a little tidbit. Yes, the specs were more along the lines of the MasterSystem. They both had the Zilog Z80 as their main CPU clocking in at 3.5Mhz.
The interesting thing is the color palette. The Master had a paltry 64 colors in its palette. Granted, that was a bit more than the 50ish the NES had. But the GameGear had 4000 colors it could pull from. Only 32 on screen, again same as the MasterSystem but far more shades to choose from.
To give you an idea of how insane that 4000 number is, the Genesis only had a palette of 512. So, yeah, it could definitely throw some beautiful colors on screen. Which was the big selling point over the GameBoy's black and green colors.
During the end of peak 8-bit and first year of 16-bit, my portable was an Atari Lynx. Sure, the library was dwarfed by GB and GG, but the Lynx had some titles - Blue Lightning, Roadblasters - with outstanding 3D scrolling/scaling effects that you wouldn't even see in most 16-bit console titles.
And somehow I had a circle of friends who also convinced parents to get them a Lynx. We had some truly fun local multiplayer get togethers, like 6-player Slime World and 4-player Gauntlet (played in vertical screen orientation! Raiden too).
The Lynx simply felt very unique at the time. In retrospect, the truth is that it only had about 9 or 10 honest-to-goodness bangers. A bit like the situation on Atari Jaguar, which I also owned a few years later. Another system with some slick hardware tricks that bested the competition, but poor library support and eventually failure.
I always had every possible current generation of Sega home console hardware, and on the side these more exotic handhelds and niche consoles like Lynx, Jaguar and 3DO.
It kept things feeling fresh and experimental.
This video is a great advertisement of what the Game Gear has to offer, with a good selection of games on display. Nice to see Battletoads get some airtime - the colours are a beauty over the NES version.
For runner-up fighter I would go for one of the Power Rangers games, Virtua Fighter Animation or even Buster Fight despite its odd controls - all of those titles show what 8-bit fighting games can offer with the sacrifice of small sprites.
I played castle of illusion on the Genesis and loved that game. Brings back so many memories
I had a Gameboy but I use to borrow my friend's gamegear from time to time. It was amazing to see color on a portable system back then! But yes, it did eat batteries on a daily basis
Game Gear only weakness honestly was its battery, a friend of mine owned one and I had the pleasure to play Shinobi and Lucky Dime Caper at the time! Wonderful games.
Good and understandable choices. I have fond memories of my game gear. One game that never seems to come up in these lists is the game gear version of Lemmings as I spent ages playing that....all 120 levels with many Sega special ones and it was probably extra tricky because of the tiny screen and game gear controls. Not sure I'd do so well with 40-odd year old eyes and reactions though ☺
I loved the game gear, especially shining force, but the fact it only lasted twelve seconds on 6 or however many fresh batteries was really what kept it from being bigger. You were forced to buy a battery pack if you weren't plugged into the wall at all times and it sucked having a bag with all the extra gear just for a short road trip, but man it was so cool and mind blowing back then.
I love this device it was my first portable,I got it with sonic and also got outrun and wonder boy a few months later.i used to play it at the shop where my mum worked,in the back room there plugged in with the AC adaptor.great days I miss very much 🙂
I can't stress this enough : More Sega Please.
Tengo que decirte que me encanta el canal. Si bien cuando yo era chico tenía consolas de Nintendo, jugaba mucho al SEGA en un videoclub de mí barrio. Creo que es el único canal de Sega que veo, se nota la pasión que te despierta Sega. Y no es para menos porque tenía excelentes juegos. Saludos desde Argentina ❤
This is an excellent video. I missed out on the Game Gear and just started picking up a few games to play on the Analogue Pocket. Great to find such a well made vid with well explained picks!
Man I remember walking by the GameGear at KB Toys, Toys R Us and every other store and just begging my parents to buy it! It was “to expensive” and this is still one of the only gaming devices I have never personally owned! I know the batteries died quick but I was such a Sega fanboy I didn’t care lol
I had the power cable so that wasn't really even a problem for me.
The Dragon's Trap remake was SO good. Captured everything from the Master System while showing the absolute promise of a modern game. The graphics/music toggles were awesome.
Also Joe Montana football on Game Gear was pretty good, especially as it's the only football game I've ever really sunk time into XD
I loved this video and wanted to see more. I know there were runner ups and hinorable mentions, but in a perfect world: i wish youd make a follow up with ALL your highly reccomended games. Like, a followup of just more honorable mentions / hidden gems, SLX level.
A great selection with good reasons, I can’t fault those choices - I’ll be seeking them out
I cannot BELIEVE the first game you showed was Madou monogatari! Legit respect, I thought that game would have flown under the radar on a video such as this, and as a major Madou / Puyo fan it made me super happy to see :)
I loved my Gameboy by the game gear was special to me. I remember when the TV tuner came out i thought it was the coolest thing ever to watch tv under my covers.
Had the nomad (still do) years later, but will always love the game gear
I had a game gear when it was new and got a game boy several years later. No regrets there!
Weirdly i preferred first GG shinobi... great game!
I think outrun is the only title that is both for the Sega Master system and Game gear but were both developed by two different teams.
I think every other game that is released on The Game gear there's also found on the Master system are the same game or by the same team
Best video game TH-camr. Period!
Haha, I appreciate that!
Excellent video! My experience with the GG in the 90's was brief, I only really remember playing some Sonic. Looking forward to rediscovering the games you recommended- especially Shinobi II! This type of video is so clear, helpful, and entertaining so - thanks!!
Best thing about the GG was the "Master Converter", which enabled you to play any Master System game.
Streets of Rage II has some of the best 8-bit music I've ever heard. Recently installed as many GG games on my New 3DS XL as I can and have been having a blast.
Good list! I loved the Game Gear! I had played Castle of Illusion, Columns, Mega Man, the Donald Duck games, Ristar, Sonic Chaos and Sonic 1 as a kid back in the day. Though, the Game Gear was an absolute battery hog, so you really needed the AC adaptor back in the day. I didn't have a battery recharger at the time, so my parents would get steamed when I kept using up all the AAs!
I just wish some of the heavy hitting franchises had made it to the Game Gear like Contra and Castlevania, but I know Konami was ultimately more focused on Nintendo's platforms and didn't have that same relationship with Sega.
Had I known how good the Shinobi games were on the Game Gear, I would have definitely picked those up as a kid! I'll probably still check them out now as I'm a sucker for a solid 2D action game.
Man, Fatal Fury Special must have some kind of gift, given it also punched a bit above its weight on the SNES by having legit Dolby Surround audio!
I adored my game gear and enjoyed this video, quite a few titles I’ve not come across before
Thanks for the nostalgia video man, this took me back. I remember the awesomeness of video games back in the day they held so much more hit than miss compared to now. I was thinking about it and man our parents must have loved us lol, games were like 70 bucks for some SNES games and almost all N64! And that’s in the 90’s! They also dropped $200-250 for systems too! Games also shipped as full games…for the most part but crap was rightfully scrutinized like a certain Superman game. I remember by the time PS2 came out when I was a sophomore in high school that it was a mind blowing system. I think I played X-Box once because my roommate in college had one and I played one game: Fable. I just wasn’t that impressed by the games on it and thought it was inferior to PS2 by miles.
I think you hit on all the bangers on the system. The biggest miss by Sega is not releasing a Game Gear adapter for the Genesis. They could've sold three times as many units. Luckily, we have things like the Mega SG and Pocket, now!
That would have been similar to the Super Gameboy, that allowed to play Gameboy games on a Super Nes. But i don´t think such adapter could have sold more Gamegears or Gamegear games, because most Gamegear games were ports from existing Master System Games so the motivation to play the smaller field of view Gamegear version on a TV vs playing the full field of view version Master System version was not goig to be that impactful. In Nintendo´s case most of the Gameboy games were original Gameboy versions that could not be played anywhere else, so there was some motivation in playing and watching those games on a big screen and with some color added too.
Road Rash is even smoother that their 16 bit counter part.
Great video really enjoyed.
I remember playing some of these titles. On my game gear and Sega master system. I wish they would release some sort of mini console.
My mom bought me one 30yrs ago when I was in the 6th grade.
GG Shinobi 1 music clip is basically "Long distance" from the Revenge of Shinobi OST. I'd also put the GG Shinobis at the top, followed by the GG Alestes. Road Rash, NHL and Ristar are pretty impressive Genesis ports.
I only had a gameboy as a kid but I wanted a game gear so bad. I had a friend that got one and boy was i jealous!
This kind of video is full of nostalgia... Gotta love the 8 bit soundtracks....
My memories on GameGear from the 90s is about Star Wars. Finding Han Solo with his big gun and cutting enemies with the laser-sword into pieces was great with that BOOM-sound.
Mel, the flash mode exists in all Columns games, including the Genesis/MegaDrive classic.
Not like it exists in Super Columns.
The Sega Game Gear is one, of the handhelds i´ve never owned.
Console wise i own nearly every console, except the ps4.
Handheld wise it´s a different story.
Nonetheless this episode, showed me a few games that might consider me, to get a Sega Game Gear in the future.
Glad to see GG Streets of Rage 2 get the love, if you'll forgive a little plug I made a video recently about the differences and why I think they made the right cuts. GG games seem to have undergone a strange turning of the seasons, early on they were squished SMS games, but as the Genesis/MD took over it feels like games were developed first for the GG then just put out an SMS port as the hardware is so similar, especially here in Europe where the SMS enjoyed a long tail. Sure the GG never sold as much as the Game Boy, but by that metric the PS1 was a "failure" too, who can challenge a system with Pokemon? One thing that won't come across in the footage here is that the screen had the typical slow response time of the era, so you have to keep scrolling slow, but this also means flicker is much less egregious.
Pokemon didn´t appear until 1995 i think, so the Gamegear had basically 5 years to surpass the Gameboy and it couldn´t, even without Pokemon in the market yet.
Those lcd screens had terrible response times so most games were developed with somewhat "choppy" scrolling and slow movement to lessen the ghostling effect on those screens. Sadly very few people show these portable systems in the original hardware with its original screens, so this game design choices will be more impactful.
I had Castle of Illusion, Lucky Dime Caper, Ecco the Dolphin, Columns, Sonic the Hedgehog, Dragon Crystal, Shinobi, and Mortal Kombat for my Game Gear.
Great games on a great system.
still got my old one that i got as a kid, but sadly not working anymore... it was a legendary litte portable console.
Could be the capacitors. They sell kits to fix that these days
So glad I got the McWill mod on my GG! Got most of the games I wanted before 2020, though Popils has been on my short list for a while. Perhaps it’s time to pick it up!
I loved me some Game Gear as a kid, and still have a soft spot for it. Great video. Thanks to you, I've picked up the GG Shinobi games recently and see the appeal. I haven't gotten to sit down with them long enough to finish them yet, but I hope to. Also grabbed Master of Darkness and dare say it is better than some of the 2D Castlevania games.
Always love your videos man. The sega game gear was my first system as a kid and i loved the power rangers games and sonic 2. 👍
The backlit screen kept me up all night 😂
Played World Series of Baseball and sonic a lot. 6 AA batteries to run it!!
My friend did the translation for Sylvan Tales, awesome action RPG! I translated one of the GG's gundam game into English, which was a strategy game. Another strategy game I'd recommend is Royal Stone. Great graphics for the system.
I had a GameGear emulator on my Compaq 2015C WindowsCE handheld, so it was even a similar sized device, making it a lot like having a GameGear with a word processor, spreadsheet, and web browser.
Probably a lesser quality (passive) screen, and I actually never played it that much, but a nifty thing in theory, at least. And I DO recall specifically playing one of the Donald Duck games, and a Daffy Duck game as well, and being VERY impressed by the graphics on both.
Master or Darkness!
Someone needs to make a sequel and make it 16 bit.
Which one
I loved my Game Gear and loved the TV tuner when i was out with friends ( i did have the battery pack ) my favorite game on long journeys was either Columns or the GG Shinobi
I used to have Gameboy. One day a friend gave me his GG. The very first game I played was Lucky Dime Caper. I was thrilled ❤❤.
Waa hoping that Defenders of Oasis was on the list - you didn’t disappoint! I’m not really into RPGs but Defenders of Oasis was my fave Game Gear game.
It was one of my favorites back then. Kinda sucked there was no backgrounds in battle and they made you backtrack to old locations a lot but it was still great. I liked the voice samples it had too which was rare at the time.
@@Chaz4543 I remember the first time I got the Barbado, made things a lot easier. What a great game, a bit of a hidden gem.
I enjoy the picks you did an amazing job I like your picks and can't argue. Those were the best picks thanks for the videos your big fan Eric have great day Sega Lord X piece