GameGear

"This system should have succeeded."

This is a review of the SEGA Gamegear.

Introduction
The Sega Gamegear was a hand held released in the early nineties to compete with the Nintendo giant, the Gameboy. It is a technological marvel when compared to other hand held systems like the Gameboy. First and foremost unlike the Gameboy, the Gamegear had color. It also had a back lit screen.

System Design (7)
The Gamegear is a very bulky system, and it could not easily fit in your pocket. It is still comfortable to hold. There is a d-pad on the left side of the screen that can move in eight different directions. On the other side of the screen are two buttons one labeled (1) the other labeled (2). Above the two buttons is the (start) button. It takes six AA batteries and has compartments on both sides of the Gamegear holding three batteries a piece

Accessories (10)
The Gamegear had many accessories. There is a rechargeable battery pack (which will save you money since the gamegears battery life is horrible), A radio tuner, and my personal favorite the tv tuner.

Game library (5)
I didn't feel the Gamegear had many good titles for it, but the ones that were good were great. I really liked the Sonic series. Defenders of oasis was a great rpg. The Mortal Kombat games were great too.

Control (10)
The control for the Gamegear is perfect. The position of the buttons made for comfortable handling while playing. (to understand position of buttons check the system design portion of the review)

Graphics (10)
The graphics for the gamegear are amazing when compared to the Gameboy. Many colors are displayed on the screen, and everything is easily recognizable. You wont have to look at things and guess at what they are.

Battery life (just info not ranked)
The battery life is horrible for this system. I have heard from many accounts that the battery life is somewhere around 2-6 hours. I myself have not tested it, but it is somewhere around there.

My thoughts
The Gamegear was a great hand held system that should have evolved into something better (like the Gameboy evolved into the Gameboy color). It was very advanced for its time.

buy?
If you can get it for a decent price (I would say thirty dollars or less) then go for it. Not much more than that though (unless its a limited edition or still packaged one then I would suggest going much higher).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06