Jeremy Parish

Game Gear 1990 Pt. 2 of 3 (Game Boy Works Gaiden #10) (Patreon)

Published:

2020-11-18 14:00:03

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

game boy works gaiden game gear mahjong platformer sega strategy wonder boy

Content

Bonsoir, mes amis! Unless you're in the western hemisphere, in which case, good morning. This week brings us the second of three Game Boy Works Gaiden episodes about Game Gear's 1990 lineup. One more of these, one more Lynx episode, about 10 more Game Boy Works and we'll be completely through with 1990. Incroyable!

Once we hit the end of 1990, I will be hitting the brakes on Game Boy/Game Gear/Lynx coverage for quite a while and focusing on NES Works (and related Gaidens) to bring it to the point in the game chronology where we'll be with portable titles: i.e., the beginning of 1991. That's going to be a pretty hefty pause spanning several years, but I do promise to check in on handhelds from time to time! Game Boy is where this series started, and I can never fully forsake it.

As for this episode, there's a nice surprise inside for anyone not familiar with the system's library. Revenge of Drancon may not look or sound promising from the box, but I guarantee it's a treat for fans of beloved video game classics.

Files

Game Gear 1990 (2 of 3): Zan Gear / Mahjong Haopai / Revenge of Drancon | Game Boy Works Gaiden #10

Moving beyond the three launch-day Japanese releases for Sega's Game Gear, we venture into November 1990 with three more titles that continue checking off the obligatory boxes for a new game platform: Strategy, mahjong, and platformer. Two of these games never made it to the U.S., continuing the precedent set by Pengo: Ultimately, a sizable percentage of Game Gear's library would fail to reach the States. Not that American kids were necessarily clamoring for a dense strategy title set in the Warring States era of Japan, or for a conversion of a tabletop game typically enjoyed by the elderly. They probably WERE clamoring for a great conversion of Wonder Boy, though! Too bad some of them never realized it was available right from the console's beginnings due to Sega of America's bizarre decision to rename Wonder Boy "Revenge of Drancon." Not to belabor a point, but... what? Still, another convincing case for Game Gear's merits versus the competition as it hits on some nuts-and-bolts titles that demonstrate both capable technical performance and appealing visuals. Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-gg-x7-black.html Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.