Reviews
Deep Duck Trouble Game Gear Review: Donald, Unleashed
Feed Donald a chilli and stand back: Aspect’s short, vivid Duckburg adventure is the funniest platformer on the Game Gear, rampages and all.
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
Land of Illusion Game Gear Review: The 8-Bit Mickey Masterpiece
Fourteen stages, a pocketful of magical tools and a gentle metroidvania structure: the finest hour of Sega’s Illusion series, in its richest colour.
Reviews
Defenders of Oasis Game Gear Review: The Arabian Nights RPG
A prince, a thief, a warrior and a genie save Shanadar in the Game Gear’s warmest adventure — a full Arabian Nights RPG with a battery save, in 1992.
Reviews
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya Game Gear Review: A War in Your Pocket
A twelve-strong army, promotion decisions and half-hour grid battles on a handheld in 1994: the Game Gear’s tactical RPG crown, complete and uncompromised.
Reviews
Tails Adventure Game Gear Review: The Fox, the Toolkit and the Island
No Robotnik, no speed, no problem: Tails alone on Cocoa Island in a gadget-driven exploration adventure that owes more to Metroid than to Green Hill.
Reviews
Sonic Triple Trouble Game Gear Review: The 8-Bit Sonic at Its Peak
Tails playable, Nack the Weasel debuted and a train-top set piece for the ages: the Game Gear-only Sonic that stopped apologising and topped the 8-bit series.
Reviews
Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear Review: The Secret Sibling of the 16-Bit Classic
Aspect’s 8-bit Sonic is no shrunken port but a secret sibling — its own zones, an emerald hunt in the levels themselves and a Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack for the ages.
Features
CD-i Hidden Gems: 10 Discs Worth Digging Out of the Bargain Bin
Beyond the Nintendo curiosities lies a stranger, better shelf: SPC shooters, shelved sequels, Cinemaware strategy and an arcade laserdisc port. Ten CD-i discs worth digging for.
Features
Not Just Games: CD-i, the First Multimedia Living-Room Box
Encyclopaedias, storybooks, language courses and art discs: the CD-i was the set-top box before broadband and the learning tablet before touchscreens. A defence of the format’s real ambition.
Features
The Deal That Gave Philips Mario and Zelda
One CES weekend in 1991 humiliated Nintendo, empowered Sony — and left Philips holding a licence to Mario and Zelda with no supervision attached. The full story of the strangest deal in games.