http://www.rc4systems.net/Ben/29Mar2004-Ben/img_1524.jpg
I felt compelled to review -my- Sega Game Gear in contrast with all my other consoles, such as teh GBA and N64 and such... Where to begin.. XD
Bad stuffs: Firstly, this thing is big. And by big, I mean consisting of a mass equal to that of four GBA's, if not one PSone (the smaller model). I can almost garuantee you'd have trouble fitting this thing in your pocket. The thing takes six AA batteries and gobbles them up in nothing flat. Fortunately I was able to find an AC adapter that worked with it (it was supposed to go to a Sony telephone, but it works anyway).
Good stuffs: Light up screen! When I first played this, the only handhelds I had was a GB (original) and GBC (I still don't have an SP), so I found the light up screen to be really cool. Another good thing is that the graphics -and- sound surpass that of the 8-bit GBC, and it was around even before Nintendo released the black & white Gameboy Pocket! Aside from the poor (more like instantaneous) battery life, this thing sure does beat the living crap out of the original Game Boy that it once competed with!
Games:
Sonic Chaos: Argh. I grew up playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles (which was far superior to this puny excuse for a Sonic game, in graphics, sound, -and- gameplay) so you can imagine how much trouble I have appreciating SC. While the characters themselves (Sonic & Tails) are comparible to their 16 bit counterparts, with their smooth animation and highly detailed sprites in spite of the limited resolution, the graphics are lame (most levels are consisted almost entirely of stylized blocks with an occasionall spring, enemy, tube, etc set up in a seemingly random, uninspired layout, and the backgrounds don't scale!), the sound is degraded (I can't remember hearing any of the farmiliar sound affects from the 16-bit Sonic games), and the gameplay is pathetic. When you play as Tails, all you have to do is run through the level and get to the end, which is both simple and unspectacular. You merely run around, jumping like gravity just became arbitrary over every obstacle, and you get to the end in no time. With Sonic, you have to collect 100 rings in every level to get to a bonus world where you have to earn a Chaos Emerald, which is both overly difficult and frusterating! You have to hunt down every stinking ring in the whole area, and if you so much as tap an enemy you lose every single ring, which usually results in a delibrate suicide to start the level over again. Once you -finally- get to the bonus world, you don't know what the heck to do and you run around aimlessly before running out of time and missing your chance. I prefer to call "Sonic mode" and "Tails mode" "Too stinkin' hard mode" and "Stupidly pointless mode". Seriously.. if you want to play Sonic as it's meant to be played, get yourself a Sega Genesis and the original S&K and S3 carts so you can play Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
Sonic 2: Sonic Chaos all over again except more difficult. On the first boss you're given -no- rings so if you get hit so much as once you're dead. -If- you manage to get past that, the second world requires you to operate an impossible hang glider, which usually results in a series of deaths, which inevitably leads to a game over. The graphics are downgraded also.
Aladdin: I'll give em points for good graphics. On the first level you have to run away from an Arabain guard in a graphically breathtaking chase (breathtaking for an 8-bit handheld, at least..) You're running through the town, jumping over barrels and potholes in your path. The background looks photographic, almost 3-D in a strange way, and it ACTUALLY SCALES! Sheesh, if Disney Software Co. could have scaled the background in Aladin why couldn'y Sega scale their background in their own game?? They're the ones who made the Game Gear! Anywayz, second level is another running thing, where the screen scrolls automatically and you have to run along the rooftops with the princess, jumping over barrells, gaps, etc to avoid getting left behind. The background scales, and the foreground has that same awesome pseudo-3D quality to it. I guess they just colored it really well. Things go downhill on the third level, when you have to go underground to get the magic lamp. You have to jump across platforms, which might be somewhat easy if the folks at Disney Software had gone through the trouble to make some sort of a jumping system that's actually possible to use! You have to get a running start in order to jump, which can be impossible when you're on a platform with virtually no extra space and an unending pit of death on all sides. Also, some ledges are spaced insanely far away, so you have to jump of once you're literally one pixel away from falling off the edge and plumetting to your doom. I haven't played anything so frusterating since Marsupalami.
All in all: I'm sure I'd like my ol GG if I actually had some good games, but the folks at Ebay are crazy (50 USD for a used Shining Force: Sword of Hayja GG cart dry.gif) and I already have a GBA, so I guess all it's good for is being a good addition to one's collection of video games.
I felt compelled to review -my- Sega Game Gear in contrast with all my other consoles, such as teh GBA and N64 and such... Where to begin.. XD
Bad stuffs: Firstly, this thing is big. And by big, I mean consisting of a mass equal to that of four GBA's, if not one PSone (the smaller model). I can almost garuantee you'd have trouble fitting this thing in your pocket. The thing takes six AA batteries and gobbles them up in nothing flat. Fortunately I was able to find an AC adapter that worked with it (it was supposed to go to a Sony telephone, but it works anyway).
Good stuffs: Light up screen! When I first played this, the only handhelds I had was a GB (original) and GBC (I still don't have an SP), so I found the light up screen to be really cool. Another good thing is that the graphics -and- sound surpass that of the 8-bit GBC, and it was around even before Nintendo released the black & white Gameboy Pocket! Aside from the poor (more like instantaneous) battery life, this thing sure does beat the living crap out of the original Game Boy that it once competed with!
Games:
Sonic Chaos: Argh. I grew up playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles (which was far superior to this puny excuse for a Sonic game, in graphics, sound, -and- gameplay) so you can imagine how much trouble I have appreciating SC. While the characters themselves (Sonic & Tails) are comparible to their 16 bit counterparts, with their smooth animation and highly detailed sprites in spite of the limited resolution, the graphics are lame (most levels are consisted almost entirely of stylized blocks with an occasionall spring, enemy, tube, etc set up in a seemingly random, uninspired layout, and the backgrounds don't scale!), the sound is degraded (I can't remember hearing any of the farmiliar sound affects from the 16-bit Sonic games), and the gameplay is pathetic. When you play as Tails, all you have to do is run through the level and get to the end, which is both simple and unspectacular. You merely run around, jumping like gravity just became arbitrary over every obstacle, and you get to the end in no time. With Sonic, you have to collect 100 rings in every level to get to a bonus world where you have to earn a Chaos Emerald, which is both overly difficult and frusterating! You have to hunt down every stinking ring in the whole area, and if you so much as tap an enemy you lose every single ring, which usually results in a delibrate suicide to start the level over again. Once you -finally- get to the bonus world, you don't know what the heck to do and you run around aimlessly before running out of time and missing your chance. I prefer to call "Sonic mode" and "Tails mode" "Too stinkin' hard mode" and "Stupidly pointless mode". Seriously.. if you want to play Sonic as it's meant to be played, get yourself a Sega Genesis and the original S&K and S3 carts so you can play Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
Sonic 2: Sonic Chaos all over again except more difficult. On the first boss you're given -no- rings so if you get hit so much as once you're dead. -If- you manage to get past that, the second world requires you to operate an impossible hang glider, which usually results in a series of deaths, which inevitably leads to a game over. The graphics are downgraded also.
Aladdin: I'll give em points for good graphics. On the first level you have to run away from an Arabain guard in a graphically breathtaking chase (breathtaking for an 8-bit handheld, at least..) You're running through the town, jumping over barrels and potholes in your path. The background looks photographic, almost 3-D in a strange way, and it ACTUALLY SCALES! Sheesh, if Disney Software Co. could have scaled the background in Aladin why couldn'y Sega scale their background in their own game?? They're the ones who made the Game Gear! Anywayz, second level is another running thing, where the screen scrolls automatically and you have to run along the rooftops with the princess, jumping over barrells, gaps, etc to avoid getting left behind. The background scales, and the foreground has that same awesome pseudo-3D quality to it. I guess they just colored it really well. Things go downhill on the third level, when you have to go underground to get the magic lamp. You have to jump across platforms, which might be somewhat easy if the folks at Disney Software had gone through the trouble to make some sort of a jumping system that's actually possible to use! You have to get a running start in order to jump, which can be impossible when you're on a platform with virtually no extra space and an unending pit of death on all sides. Also, some ledges are spaced insanely far away, so you have to jump of once you're literally one pixel away from falling off the edge and plumetting to your doom. I haven't played anything so frusterating since Marsupalami.
All in all: I'm sure I'd like my ol GG if I actually had some good games, but the folks at Ebay are crazy (50 USD for a used Shining Force: Sword of Hayja GG cart dry.gif) and I already have a GBA, so I guess all it's good for is being a good addition to one's collection of video games.