Retro Video Gamer

I had a couple of friends with one of these when I was at school and owned one myself more recently for about 6 months but despite my love for Sega the machine did nothing but disappoint me. Despite that here are my top 10 games for the handheld in no order.

G-Loc
Columns
Outrun
GG Shinobi
Woody Pop
Baku Baku
Fantasy Zone
Pengo
World Class Leaderboard
Halley Wars

I remember Woody Pop.  Used to love that game.

On another note I've heard Primal Rage holds up very well on the Game Gear.

I downloaded GG Shinobi from the 3DS eshop today. This was my favourite Game Gear game from when I originally owned the console, with this in mind I was curious to see how it held up; I was very impressed.

The virtual console emulation  on the 3DS is an improvement over its Wii counterpart too, with some nice additional options. I really enjoyed playing Shinobi with the Game Gear border on and blur option on.

Quote from: "MondoWray"I downloaded GG Shinobi from the 3DS eshop today.

ZOMG!!! Finally 3DS has a decent game!

Here is 10 of my favs/ most played.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1EKUel_gs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1EKUel_gs)

Nice list! Castle of Illusion, Road Rash and Micro Machines really look like standout titles.

Quote from: "dubchaser"I remember Woody Pop.  Used to love that game.

Huh huh. Woody. Huh huh. Pop.

For serious, though, if you can only get one Sonic game on the Game Gear, make sure damn sure it's Triple Trouble. The previous GG Sonic games had their own issues, but this game's so far improved I'd say it's one of the best games on the system. There's tons of entirely new powerups, some new special stages complete with secret boss fights, and some of the best music you'll hear on the Game Gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dot0iGpUL5I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dot0iGpUL5I)

It does have nice sounds. I agree at least with the first Sonic. That game made me jump off the Game Gear boat.

I think Sonic 1 and 2 for the GG have about the best game music ever, just behind the Katamari Damacy series. The tunes sounded better than on the Megadrive.

Quote from: "zapiy"Here is 10 of my favs/ most played.

Excellent 
Especially for Fatal Fury Special and Ristar, which are not the most famous ones on Game Gear but really awesome...

Whats the score with the GG version of Tails Adventure ?

I have the Pal version and it appears to be very rare as I cant find another anywhere.

I'd have to agree with the Sonic Triple Trouble shout, prob my fave gg game, I also love Haley Wars and have a bunch of others, Chakan is pretty good on GG and so is Out Run... another good racer is Sonic Drift

Any other opinions on great GG games?

I thought about this, and there are some really great and underrated Game Gear games.  Some of them are JP only and not very playable without a patch, I'll make note of that.

Sylvan Tale – A really underrated action RPG, it's JP only.  It came out in 1995, which is probably why it never got an English release.  I think it's one of the best games on the console though, maybe someone will make a repro cart for the Game Gear or Master System.  It has a patch.

Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict – It's an JP only SRPG and there are patches and even repro carts out there.

Phantasy Star Adventure + Phantasy Star Gaiden – Both of these have patches, being spin offs of PS1 and PS2.

Dragon Crystal – It's an underrated roguelike, I talked about it in the Master System thread awhile back.  It was import only on the Master System but came out in English markets for the Game Gear.

Psychic World – This is another one on the Master Sytem also, it's a really underrated platformer.

I'm not a big Sonic fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I absolutely ADORE the first Sonic on Game Gear. One of the best soundtracks EVER, hands down. Maybe I like it so much as it's closer to Super Mario than Sonic? I'm a HUGE Mario fan.

I don't care much for the Sonic games on Genesis. I mean, they're good, but not superb. Sonic 1 on Game Gear (and Master System, though I prefer the Game Gear release as it's just a tad more forgiving) is truly fantastic in my opinion.

I haven't played much Game Gear. My only exposure to it has been Sonic and Mean Bean Machine on the 3DS Virtual Console, but I would like to pick one up someday. Before that, however, I think I need me a Model 1 Genesis with the Power Base Converter. Genesises at my local game dealer are only about 30 bucks a pop and I believe they come with a game (Sonic 1 or Altered Beast probably) as well. The Power Base Converter is more expensive!

I'm not a big Sega fanboy, and I've only played GG, Genesis, and Master System before and some of their newer games like JSRF on non-Sega platforms. I'm much more of a Nintendo guy. I like the Genesis for what it is and I think it has a pretty solid library but compared to the Super Nintendo? Come on now. It's no contest. The Genesis doesn't have Super Mario World and Super Metroid.

Interesting take on the Sonic games.  Since I don't have a GG, I didn't realize the game was so different between the Master System, GG and Genesis in terms of gameplay. I figured the Genesis was a visual update with maybe some game elements added or new levels. 

Basically, the key difference is between the Genesis version and both Master System and Game Gear. The Genesis version is the one everyone knows with all the loops and speed sections and tubes and ramps and things. That one really shows that the Genesis was a capable machine. Many of the levels in the MS and GG versions were more like the Marble Zone levels in the Genesis game. Not many speed sections. It's much more of a Super Mario Brothers ripoff than the Genesis game was. I believe the Genesis Sonic was the first one to market. Here in the US, Master System Sonic was the last officially released MS game. In other regions where the MS saw more popularity, other Sonic games got ports to the machine like Sonic 2. We saw those games here as well on the Game Gear, though they were slightly altered for handheld play.

The Master System and Game Gear versions of Sonic 1 were near identical. Which one you prefer is a matter of preference. The Master System version looks a little nicer and has much less screen crunch, but the Game Gear version offers more opportunities for continues and is generally a bit more forgiving if I remember correctly. Not to say it's an easy game; it's not. It is really quite difficult if you ask me, but it's a blast to play.

Interesting.  Thanks for explaining.  I only really know the Genesis version.

You might want to try that out sometime, @TrekMD. It's a really good game. I personally think it's much better than the Genesis version, though that's an unpopular opinion. This oft-forgotten game is definitely worth a try sometime.

Thank you, @HDN. I never looked at the Game Gear version of Sonic that way. I am so used to the speed of the Genesis version that when I first played Sonic on the GG it left me feeling disappointed.