Sega · 1991–1997

SegaGame Gear

A color handheld that ate six AA batteries and never apologized. Sonic, Shinobi, Columns.

[n] Game Gear games available

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Why it mattered

A color screen that ate six AA batteries and lost to a gray one

Sega's answer to the Game Boy arrived in North America in April 1991 at $149.99 with everything Nintendo's handheld lacked: a backlit color screen, a horizontal layout, and a Master System inside. It also ate six AA batteries in three to five hours, which is the whole story of why the Game Gear sold about eleven million and the Game Boy sold over a hundred. What it had that nothing else did was Sonic — several Game Gear exclusives, plus a Sonic 2 that shares only a name with the Genesis game — and the strongest Disney platformers of the era.

Our Game Gear stock is mostly loose carts, so the label is the thing to look at: clean and flat, no lifting at the corners, and the board inside says Sega. Early US games shipped in cardboard boxes that crushed, later ones in plastic clamshells, so a complete early copy is scarcer than the game. Most Game Gear games don't need a save battery, but select RPGs, strategy games and other titles use battery-backed memory. On older cartridges, save functionality is something collectors should check carefully. The console itself is the risk: the capacitors fail, so every Game Gear needs a recap before it is trustworthy. Every cart is photographed and tested on working hardware.

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Fast facts

ReleasedApril 1991 (North America)
Launch price$149.99 — the Game Boy was $89.99
MediaCartridge; Master System carts via a converter
Units soldApproximately 11 million Game Gear units worldwide, compared with 118.69 million combined Game Boy and Game Boy Color units.
Best sellerThe Sonic games — Sonic 2 was the long-running pack-in
Did you know?The Game Gear takes six AA batteries and runs them down in three to five hours; the Game Boy took four and lasted ten to thirty. That is the whole console war in one sentence. Sega sold a rechargeable battery pack, a car adapter and a wall adapter, and most surviving Game Gears show the cable wear to prove it.
Did you know?Under the shell a Game Gear is a Master System: the same Z80 processor and the same video chip, given a wider palette (4,096 colors) and a smaller screen. Sega even sold a Master Gear Converter that let the handheld play full-size Master System cartridges — which is why so much of the Game Gear library is Master System games with the edges trimmed off.
Did you know?The TV Tuner plugged into the cartridge slot and turned the Game Gear into a portable color television, a genuinely startling thing to own in 1992. It only ever received analog broadcasts, so it can't tune today's digital TV signals directly, though its composite video input can still display compatible analog sources. They still sell, mostly to people who want the box on a shelf.
Did you know?Original Game Gears are known for aging capacitors that can cause sound and screen problems. The surface-mount capacitors Sega used leak and fail with age, and a console with faint audio or a dim, washed-out screen is not broken — it needs new capacitors, a routine job now. We test every cartridge on a recapped unit, and a Game Gear we sell has either been recapped or says so.
Did you know?Sega stopped making the Game Gear in 1997, and then in 2000 Majesco brought it back: a slightly redesigned console for around $30, plus reissues of a handful of games in new packaging, three years after the platform was supposedly dead. The Majesco units are the ones most likely to still work without a recap, and the Majesco-print games are a quiet variant collectors watch for.
Did you know?Mega Man on the Game Gear was released in 1995 by U.S. Gold rather than Capcom, stitching stages from Mega Man 4 and 5 into a new game with small, hard-to-read sprites. It had a small print run and is the most expensive North American Game Gear cartridge by a distance — a complete copy costs more than a working console with a recap.
Did you know?Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Game Gear is not the Genesis game. It is a different set of levels built for the small screen, with a hang-glider stage that has been ruining afternoons since 1992. Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift and Tails Adventure were built for the handheld too and never appeared on the Genesis at all.
Did you know?The Game Gear is effectively region-free: a Japanese cartridge plays on a US console with no adapter. That matters because Japan kept the best for itself — GG Aleste and GG Aleste II, Gunstar Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Mini, Magic Knight Rayearth and Royal Stone never left the country, and the imports are the top of the Game Gear market today.

Find your next Game Gear game

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Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

The grails

Mega Man, Shining Force: Sword of Hajya, Defenders of Oasis, Crystal Warriors, GG Shinobi, Ristar, Ninja Gaiden, Power Strike II — the Game Gear carts that cost more than the console.

Sonic, sideways

Sonic 2, Sonic Chaos, Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift, Sonic Blast, Tails Adventure, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine — the hedgehog's handheld years, none of them the Genesis game with the same name.

The Disney shelf

Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, Legend of Illusion, Deep Duck Trouble, The Jungle Book, The Lion King — Sega's Disney license made the best platformers on the system; the Illusion trilogy is the reason to own one.

Cartoons and comic books

X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman Returns, Judge Dredd, Jurassic Park, Taz-Mania, Ren & Stimpy, Power Rangers — the licenses, the lunchboxes, and the Saturday mornings of 1993.

Everything with a scoreboard

Madden 95, World Series Baseball, PGA Tour Golf, NBA Jam, Clutch Hitter, World Class Leaderboard, Sports Trivia — Sega Sports and EA on a three-inch screen, with a trivia game keeping score.

Sega's own

Ecco, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Columns, Puyo Puyo, Arena: Maze of Death, Fantasy Zone, Space Harrier, Out Run — the first-party shelf, most of it arcade games shrunk until they fit.

Fifty cents, on the go

Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Primal Rage, NBA Jam, Virtua Fighter Animation, Pac-Man, Bubble Bobble, Marble Madness — the arcade in your coat pocket, minus the change.

Save battery, six AAs, no pressure

Defenders of Oasis, Crystal Warriors, Shining Force: Sword of Hajya, Ax Battler, Dragon Crystal — RPGs on a handheld that lasts four hours per set of batteries. People finished them anyway.

Plastic that isn't a game

Game Genie, TV Tuner, Master Gear Converter, Gear-to-Gear cable, the Battery Pack, the Big Window magnifier — the accessories that made the Game Gear heavier and better, in that order.

Same name, different game

Familiar Genesis names, reimagined for a three-inch screen. Some are faithful adaptations; others are entirely different adventures.

Complete in box, best condition first

Explore complete-in-box Game Gear games currently in stock, selected for condition and ready for your collection.

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Cart with manual

Cart and manual, no box — the collector's middle ground.

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Loose carts

Cart only — tested, photographed, priced accordingly.

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Sealed

Factory sealed and photographed through the shrink.

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SegaGame Gear

A color screen that ate six AA batteries and lost to a gray one