The Video Game Critic

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Noticed you forgot to mention how the Game Gear has the ability to Sega Master System games. Which is fantastic.

Missed opportunity that the Master System (or perhaps the Genesis) did not have an adapter to play GG games. Although I agree that the packaging is a bit rough for the GG, from what I know they were supposed to hang on a spinning rack (Like a sunglasses display?). The Japanese packages look really fantastic though I'd recommend to google. Also the little clear plastic clam shells that held the Game Gear games were fantastic.

Although from what I've gathered as not your particular thng - the Sega Game Gear actually hosts quite a lot of RPG games, very weird for that era/on the go.

Atari Lynx is such a weird system. Looks more like a hover board Biff would use to chase Mcfly more so than a video game console. Can't say I've personally had the pleasure but I've emulated a few games and enjoyed my time.

Zach,
You've raised a few interesting points. I think I'd go back and adjust the review with the new info people are passing on.
VGC

I went ahead and included the points Zack raised about the clam cases, SMS adapter, and RPGs.
I think the review is much better now.

Hey that's cool!

Side note here: there's a pretty active modding community for the game gear. Somebody once made a game gear into a console. I personally have a game gear with a new screen and AV out ports to play on the television/capture gameplay. I wish I owned a nomad but I'm content with my Genesis mk 1. Great reviews, I grew up on the gameboy but I wish I spent time with the game gear those decades ago!

Don't think I can justify an Atari lynx but would like to hear people who have had the experience.

I made two more small changes (probably more to come)
Lynx: under graphics, it's possible to display more than 16 colors with a programming trick
Game Gear: problems with leaky capacitors

Supposedly the Game Gear was a tick above the Master System in terms of technology which is why it could play Master System games but not the other way around. Suffice to say some of the GG games couldn't have run on MS.

I just added "20 Games That Defined..." youtube videos to both reviews. These are fun to watch.

Great to finally see these. I enjoy both these systems. While the move to Digital TV has rendered the TV Tuner useless for the Game Gear, I did get one good use out of it before that happened.... In like 2008, I was forced to come into work on a Sunday one time, which would have meant missing football. Undeterred, I grabbed my Game Gear and TV Tuner and sat at work watching the games. It must have looked ridiculous, a grown man using a '90s handheld and giant rabbit ears in 2008, but I couldn't miss football.

Just a couple notes:

- In the Lynx review, you give the media an A, saying that the curved carts are easy to insert and remove. However, prior to those curved carts, there were 2 other versions of the carts. They were completely flat and a real pain to remove. People complained and Atari finally fixed the issue. But I do have one or two of the flat carts in my set, and thank god they fixed it. The only benefit of the flat carts is that they can be stacked and stored easier.

- You mention the washed out screen on your Game Gear... I wonder if that is how the GGs are right out of the box, or if your system is actually slowly getting the same screen issues that many other GG owners get. i.e., the caps starting to go. I'm not sure...just throwing the idea out there.

- As I've mentioned before, all 3 of my Game Gears stopped working recently, so I question their reliability, but I think having them in storage for a few years likely contributed to it. So I assume heat or cold exacerbates the capacitor issue, though I have nothing to back that up.

Great reviews ! The original lynx was much more comfortable to me. Though even the games with the curved ends were hard to get out, but it just had a better feel than the lynx 2. The d pad on the lynx 2 is very mushy compared to the one , but maybe that's just me ! Either way , great review!