Before I begin my ranting on this little piece of device, I wanted to share the small history of SEGA's 8-bit handheld called Game Gear which was released in early 90's. It is a portable system that is quite similar to SEGA's home console from the mid-80s such as Master System featuring full-color backlit screen with a landscape format, mono speaker, and supported over 4096 colors palette, but also requires 6 AA battery of 3 hours play.
After the release of SEGA Game Gear, the system itself had less successful which SEGA had failed to beat their rivalry against one of the Nintendo's best-selling devices for handheld marketing is Game Boy had sold 10 times better than the SEGA's handheld device due to price cost is £50 cheaper came with individual or bundled with games.
Game Gear are also been hurted by its primary focus on its home console systems especially with SEGA's add-ons for Genesis/MD and developing 32-bit system such as Saturn which is the reason why SEGA had declined the handheld gaming.
Despite lacking success, the system had fair share with memorable titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit conversion), The GG Shinobi, Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Mega Man, Tails Adventures, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible, Puyo Puyo, and Shining Force Gaiden.
While system was praised with number of libaries and colourful graphics, it was heavily criticised for its bulky design and weaker battery life which is unfavourably compared with Nintendo Game Boy had longer battery life and compact design.
To tell you the truth, I had nothing to against SEGA's portable technology because the system aren't as bad as many critics says because I want to give SEGA Game Gear a credit for its backlit screen which is innovative at the time where you can able to play handheld gaming system without relying on playing on the lamp or sunlight to being able to see the games easily on the screen and the use of colourful graphics that utilised the color palettes making the game very appealing for the handheld system instead of using dull green screen like Nintendo Game Boy, so that a two cool features that the Game Gear had included on the system.
Okay, going back to my reaction and rant on the gaming news, after I've read the SEGA's big announcement celebrating their 60th anniversary on June 4th, while they working on Fog Gaming Technology for SEGA's Arcades, they had revealed their miniature portable system which is Game Gear Micro, yes everyone SEGA had made their tiny little portable console that is scheduled for release in Japan on October 6, 2020, while worldwide release has yet to be announced soon, as it comes with 4 different colour variants and 4 separate games out of all 16 games libraries.
Each units measuring 80 mm × 43 mm × 20 mm size of the system with a 29 mm screen display, gives you an option to use 2 AAA battery or powered with USB cable, has headphone jack and magnifying accessory that is attached on system screen to display bigger size.
My thoughts on Game Gear Micro reveal is kinda disappointing because I never liked the way SEGA had designed the system so super tiny that is smaller than my hands.
The biggest issue is that is not the only the portable system that is so small to hold, but it is a 1 inch size of the screen is looked terrible for Game Gear games that makes it so difficult to play a handheld system with tiny screen making it harder to read text, see surroundings during gameplay, and it makes your eyeball painful when playing games with shrinking display which I didn't like it at all.
There are all 16 games been confirmed on each units can only get 4 pre-installed games such as Outrun, Columns, Sonic, Gunstar Heroes and more of them which is fine, but the issue is that having 4 games separately on each units is not worth for £40 which is seems to be wasting money, so I am not gonna buy all 4 systems to get all 16 games that adds up to £160 is not worth for paying penny.
It would have been sounds better if SEGA could have made the system a bit bigger almost like the original with better screen size, loaded with all 16 games in just one system rather than separating games in each units, and the pricing point should have been worth cost between £40 to £50 at release.
So far, it looked pretty bad in my opinion, so I wish SEGA could have done something better than this because that poor Game Gear didn't deserve this kind of awkward thing.
I hope they working on Saturn or Dreamcast Mini in sometime future and please SEGA don't make a same mistake as you just revealed the Game Gear Micro.
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.
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