Fatal Fury Special (Sega GameGear) Review

The Fatal Fury series hit many platforms and the GameGear was no stranger to the series. 

In honesty, it's not that bad of a game. Plays very similar to the Fatal Fury games, but with a simpler control system and move-set. 

Fatal Fury was never the greatest fighter out there, but this version is surprisingly well done given hardware limitations. However it simpleness does catch up with it, and that's what kinda ruined the game a bit for me. 

Score: 6 out of 10

Virtua Fighter Animation Review

Virtua Fighter was a huge success for Sega back in the day, and they needed to milk that cow for all it's worth. The GameGear was not discriminated against when it came to Virtua Fighter.

They did a fairly decent job "De-making" Virtua Fighter. Most of your favorite fighters are here, and play similar to their 3D incarnations. 

The graphics are a bit laughable, but it's surprisingly deep for what I expected. Then again I didn't expect very much from it. Some of moves transfer over to the GameGear version, but the fighting is far less detailed and complex. It's a admirable try for such a limited hardware system, but it's not that great of a game. 

Score: 3 out of 10

Jeopardy! (Sega Game Gear) Review

I love my Jeopardy games apparently. Had to try out the old Sega Game Gear version of the classic game show. 

The graphics are quite a bit better than the NES version, even though it looks like I'm playing as Willie Tanner from ALF. There's only one other contestant though, whether you're facing the CPU or a human.  The sound is also horrid when they try to put in verbal sound clips from the show itself. The Sega Game Gear was not powerful enough for that. 

While the game-play moves a bit slow, and the questions are dated (of course) I liked most of the answers that they asked. Decent mix up on the categories, even though I stink at a few of them.

In short, it's really not a bad version. Could be better, but I could hope all day and never get anything. If you're a Jeopardy! fan I'd give it some consideration.

Score: 7 out of 10

Panzer Dragoon Mini Review

The Panzer Dragoon series have had their fans over the years. It's never been as successful as the StarFox games, but among critics it's very comparable. Sega actually made a Panzer Dragoon game for the Sega GameGear back in the day, but only for Japan. 

The game requires no knowledge of Japanese (what little is written is in English), so there's no language barrier to hold you back. The graphics do look simple, but it plays remarkable well for what a Panzer Dragoon on GameGear might sound like. You can still fly around and dodge, shoot, and even lock-on enemies. 

The game consists of five stages, and most of the time you have a slew of land and air enemies, a mid boss, more enemies, and then the stage boss. I had a good time playing through each stage, and despite the technical limitation of the system it's actually well put together. 

Granted it's a very short game, those five stages won't last for long, but it's a short and sweet experience for sure. Some great boss fights I might add as well. Don't spend too much to obtain this small gem, but if you get a chance to play it, don't pass it up. 

Score: 7 out of 10

Ninja Gaiden (Sega Game Gear) Review

Like the Sega Master System Ninja Gaiden, this is another "lost" Ninja Gaiden game. Many people remember the recent ones, and the NES trilogy, but the Game Gear got a unique version of it's own. 

The graphics are simple, but the gameplay is bit more Shinobi than NES-Gaiden. I frankly like it since I thought platforming was the worst part about those games. 

The levels are mostly hack and slash, but I really liked the troll boss. It was bit hard to figure if he was taking damage or not, but then I got the hang of it. 

The 2nd boss I find almost impossible to beat. So I basically got stuck right there. Oh well, it's kinda hard for the sake of hard, not for the sake of challenging skilled players. I like the idea, but they could have made a much better game out of it. 

Score: 5 out of 10 

Things I Hate: Sega GameGear

Despite being more powerful than the Gameboy, the GameGear never really took off. It was too expensive, and had mostly a bunch of shitty games.