Reviews
Castle of Illusion Game Gear Review: The Clever Castle
The 8-bit Castle is no consolation prize — a different, cleverer design built on the bounce and the carried block, in its warmest colour edition.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Micro Machines Game Gear Review: Breakfast-Table Racing, Perfected
Eleven tiny vehicles, a full championship and the finest linked duel on the system: Codemasters’ toy-box racer in its best portable form.
Reviews
Mortal Kombat II Game Gear Review: The Tournament, Summarised by Masters
Fatalities, the ladder and link-cable versus on 8-bit hardware: Probe’s courageous demake of 1994’s biggest fighting game.
Reviews
Ecco the Dolphin Game Gear Review: Smaller Seas, Same Melancholy
The strangest adventure of its generation in miniature: gentler, warmer in colour, and with its lonely cosmic soul completely intact.
Reviews
Ristar Game Gear Review: The Second Adventure Nobody Played
Not a port but a companion game: Ristar’s elastic-armed adventure redesigned planet by planet for the handheld, and every bit as charming.
Reviews
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap Game Gear Review: Five Forms, One Masterpiece
A curse, five animal forms and one perfectly interlocking world: the metroidvania that set the standard, complete in portable form.
Reviews
Streets of Rage 2 Game Gear Review: The Little Brawler That Could
Koshiro’s soundtrack, three of the four heroes and link-cable co-op: a good-hearted 8-bit demake of the greatest beat-’em-up ever made.
Features
The Halloween Shelf: The Scariest Games on Retro Hardware
Every gaming shelf has a Halloween section, whether you planned it or not. It’s the corner you reach for when the nights…
Reviews
Gunstar Heroes Game Gear Review: M2’s Impossible Demake
Treasure’s 16-bit masterpiece rebuilt stage by stage for an 8-bit handheld by M2: the weapon system intact, the crowds trimmed, the soul preserved.
Reviews
Columns Game Gear Review: The Pack-In That Matched Three
Sega’s answer to Tetris sold the Game Gear on colour and chain reactions: the pack-in puzzler whose magic jewel and Flash mode still hold up.