40 Fun Facts About Game Gear

Which falling-jewel puzzler was the Game Gear's first pack-in game, echoing Tetris on the Game Boy?

Columns was Sega's answer to the puzzle game Nintendo bundled with its handheld, and the Game Gear version even let players swap the jewels for fruit, dice or card suits.

With a whip-antenna add-on in its cartridge slot, the Game Gear could do what that no Game Boy could?

Show live television: the TV Tuner turned the handheld into a pocket set, and although it cost £74.99 in Britain the add-on helped the system's popularity.

Which Disney star leads Land of Illusion, the platformer GamesRadar+ ranked as the Game Gear's best game?

Mickey Mouse returned from Castle of Illusion for this 1993 follow-up, which Sega built for its 8-bit machines and gave a story unconnected to the earlier game.

In the Game Gear's 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which friend of Sonic has Dr. Robotnik taken captive?

Tails is not playable in the 8-bit game, and Sonic can rescue him only by collecting all six Chaos Emeralds along the way.

A special Game Gear sold in Japan in 1994 came bundled with a platformer starring which drink brand's mascot?

Coca-Cola lent Sega its Japanese ad character Cokey for a game called Coca-Cola Kid, and the cartridge shipped inside a console molded in the brand's red.

Which kart racer, the first racing game in Sega's hedgehog franchise, came out on the Game Gear only in Japan?

Sonic Drift took its cue from Super Mario Kart, but Sega cancelled the planned Western release over worries about the game's quality.

With a plug-in converter, the Game Gear can run cartridges made for which older home console?

Master System cartridges work because Sega built the handheld around that console's hardware, which is also why so much of the Game Gear library was ported from it.

Which handheld's Virtual Console service, announced in 2011, sold Game Gear games on a former rival's hardware?

Nintendo 3DS owners could buy games from a machine whose ads once mocked Game Boy players, with the emulation handled by the retro specialists M2.

Which arcade fighter, released on four home systems in one day, was America's top-selling Game Gear game of 1993?

Mortal Kombat landed on September 13, 1993, a date its ads called Mortal Monday, and the Game Gear version kept its blood locked behind a cheat code.

Which Formula One champion endorsed and advised on the Game Gear racing sequel Super Monaco GP II?

Ayrton Senna gave Sega his own advice on the circuits, and the game added a mode in his name that is raced on three invented tracks.

Which 1993 family comedy film handed a Game Gear a starring role, as a boy steers events through his handheld?

Surf Ninjas came with a tie-in game for the handheld, and the film-makers had first considered putting a Game Boy in the boy's hands instead.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, a Game Gear puzzler, is a Westernized reskin of which Japanese series?

Puyo Puyo had its cast swapped for villains from a Sonic cartoon because Sega feared the original would not catch on with Western players.

Defenders of Oasis, a Game Gear RPG about a heroic prince, borrows its setting from which classic work?

One Thousand and One Nights supplies the desert kingdoms, and the prince and his companions must stop an empire from reviving the dark god Ahriman.

Sega's 2020 anniversary re-release of the Game Gear, a tiny Japan-only console, added which word to the name?

Micro was no exaggeration: the screen is barely an inch across, so Sega gave people who pre-ordered a clip-on magnifier modeled on a 1990s accessory.

Which rival beat the Game Gear to market as the first handheld console with a color LCD screen?

Atari Lynx went on sale in 1989, and when Sega's machine reached Europe two years later it was priced above the Game Boy but below this color rival.

Which Sega arcade brawler got a 1991 Game Gear spin-off that sends its barbarian hero across a top-down overworld?

Golden Axe lent its barbarian to the spin-off Ax Battler, which adds an overworld map where random attacks switch the game to side-on fights.

Which Sega tactical role-playing series reached the Game Gear with The Sword of Hajya, later remade for Sega CD?

Shining Force side stories on the handheld began as a Japan-only release, and the Sega CD remake joined the first of them to The Sword of Hajya as one game.

Master of Darkness, a gothic Game Gear platformer from the studio SIMS, closely imitates which rival series?

Castlevania had yet to appear on a Sega console, so this tale of a psychologist hunting Dracula through London was the closest thing Sega owners could play.

Sonic Blast, the last Sonic game for Game Gear, copied the pre-rendered look popularized by which Super NES hit?

Donkey Kong Country set the fashion, so the graphics were rendered in 3D and converted to sprites to squeeze more out of the fading handheld.

Which Marvel superhero team starred in a 1994 Game Gear game that Sega followed with Gamesmaster's Legacy?

X-Men was the best-selling Game Gear game in the United States in February 1994, and Sega brought the mutants back to the handheld a year later.

Which Sega 3D arcade fighting series reached the Game Gear in 1996 as a 2D game based on its anime adaptation?

Virtua Fighter shrank so far for the handheld that three fighters seen in the anime were left out, and in Japan it sold under the child-friendly Kid's Gear label.

Which Capcom hero's only Game Gear outing, published by U.S. Gold in 1995, was sold solely in North America?

Mega Man was handed to an outside studio under a sublicense from Capcom, and the single-region release has turned boxed copies into costly collector's items.

Which 1995 handheld, a portable version of the Genesis, was the nearest thing to a Game Gear successor Sega released?

Nomad was meant to sit beside the older handheld rather than replace it, and it arrived only after Sega had dropped plans for a true 16-bit follow-up.

Which emerald-chasing villain, renamed Nack the Weasel outside Japan, debuted in Game Gear's Sonic Triple Trouble?

Fang the Sniper carried a gun in early promotional screenshots, but Sega removed the weapon before the game shipped.

Which ninja hero of Sega's Shinobi series must rescue four kidnapped comrades in The G.G. Shinobi?

Joe Musashi starts alone as the red ninja, and each comrade he frees becomes playable with a weapon and a power of their own.

Which composer founded the studio Ancient in order to make the Game Gear's first Sonic the Hedgehog game?

Yuzo Koshiro set up the company because Sega could not sign contracts with individuals, and he wrote a fresh soundtrack for the 8-bit game as well.

Which studio made Gunstar Heroes, the Genesis run-and-gun that M2 squeezed onto the Game Gear?

Treasure pushed the Genesis so hard that a handheld port was difficult, and Sega offered M2 the job after admiring its Genesis version of Gauntlet.

Which Sega Saturn rail-shooter series received a Game Gear spin-off in 1996 with the word Mini in its title?

Panzer Dragoon went small without its creator's team: the handheld game drops the story and lets players choose one of three stubby cartoon dragons.

In which isometric Game Gear game does Dr. Robotnik trick Sega's hedgehog into shoes that slow him to a walk?

Sonic Labyrinth leaves gaming's fastest mascot plodding through mazes, able to pick up speed only by rolling into a spin dash.

A blue 'sports' Game Gear sold in North America was bundled with World Series Baseball '95 or which Disney tie-in?

The Lion King was the choice for buyers who did not want baseball, and the blue console was one of several colored editions, including a white one sold with a TV tuner.

Which budget publisher relaunched the Game Gear under license from Sega in 2000, selling the console for about $30?

Majesco priced its cartridges at $15 and added new releases such as a port of Super Battletank, though its version of the console would not work with the old TV Tuner.

Under which planet-themed codename did Sega develop the Game Gear before its October 1990 launch in Japan?

Project Mercury had company among the planets: Sega later developed its portable Genesis under the codename Project Venus.

Which 8-bit processor, shared with Sega's earlier home console, sits at the heart of the Game Gear?

Zilog Z80 chips kept the two machines alike enough to make porting easy, yet the handheld could draw on 4,096 colors against the older console's 64.

Which Sega of America president told a rival to improve its products after it protested against Game Gear ads?

Tom Kalinske was answering Nintendo's bid to organize protests over ads that mocked Game Boy owners, a row that in the end made little difference to sales.

Which shoot-'em-up series gained a brand-new entry built for original Game Gear hardware in 2020?

Aleste got its third Game Gear chapter from the studio M2, and Sega gave the new game an official production code and packaging in the old style.

Revenge of Drancon, a Game Gear title sold in the United States, was a renamed port of which arcade platformer?

Wonder Boy lost its name in America, where the villain who captures the hero's girlfriend was called Drancon and took over the title.

Which role-playing series got a Japan-only Game Gear entry in 1996 about girls at a magic school?

Lunar: Walking School follows two farm girls who arrive to find the academy deserted, and the game was remade a year later for the Saturn.

G-LOC: Air Battle, a jet-combat arcade game ported to the Game Gear, is a spin-off of which Sega series?

After Burner lent its dogfights to a game named for the blackout pilots suffer under extreme acceleration, and the handheld port lets players spend points on upgrading the jet.

Which Japanese electronics company made the TurboExpress, a color handheld that the Game Gear outsold?

NEC built its handheld to play the same game cards as its TurboGrafx-16 home console, but a $249.99 launch price held it to about 1.5 million sales.

The Lucky Dime Caper, a 1991 Game Gear platformer, sends which Disney character after a stolen coin?

Donald Duck is chasing the witch Magica De Spell, who has taken his uncle's Number One Dime and kidnapped his three nephews for good measure.