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31. Sonic Drift 2
Sonic Drift 2 was a big step up from the first. It had seven characters over the originals four, more varied tracks, and featured much more aggressive AI. Dr. Robotniks Egg Mobile was still pretty dominant though. It made you wonder why Sonic didnt just get out and run.
30. Fantastic Dizzy
Codemasters heroic walking egg takes on pirates, wizards, monsters, and anyone else who crosses his path. The series had originated on the low-power, high-creativity home machines beloved by proponents of the New Wave of British Bedroom Coding, making superstars of its creators and propelling Dizzy into a worldwide brand with adventures on any platform thatd have him.
The Game Gear provides an excellent home for Dizzys finest hour, its small screen perfectly suited to the games bright, iconic graphical style, and portable burst-play is a great way to experience Dizzys episodic escapades.
29. OutRun
Segas cruise-racing OutRun was a huge arcade hit, and saw conversion to platforms many and varied; but many of these, developed by third parties, failed to capture the originals addictive flair. The internally developed Game Gear port is an exception, wisely squishing the signature Testarossa-esque player vehicle to allow maximum real estate for the road before you.
Cornering is fast and smooth, and the games signature branching pathways allow replay. Itll take skilled play and an eye for the games twisty later levels to see all the title has to offer.
28. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Besides side-scrolling and girlfriend-rescue, the game had other similarities to Mario. There was platforming aplenty, and jumping on enemy heads was your primary mode of attack. As in many of the eras family-friendly Disney titles, Mickey threw apples at enemies to defend himself, lives were re-labeled tries, and the game featured music reminiscent of mouse house films.
27. Defenders of Oasis
The Game Gear wasnt known for a wealth of RPG titles, so a top-of-the-line genre standout like this is something to celebrate. Despite bearing no official links to Sega/Ancients later Beyond Oasis and The Legend of Oasis, the games story of desert-bound djinn and warriors of light lays undeniable groundwork for what would follow.
Of course in 1992 players had no way of knowing that: They just enjoyed a deep, rich turn-based RPG with an engrossing story and few peers on its home platform.
26. Ayrton Sennas Super Monaco GP II
The Game Gear version of Segas Ayrton Senna-produced racer makes some compromises to fit everything in, but the crucial elements are still on show. Opening with the same iconic Senna signature as its big-screen equivalents, you know youre in good hands from the get; and the small-sized version doesnt disappoint, delivering high-speed third-person racing action with a conveniently persistent map keeping the action to a manageable segment of the screen.
The same impressive range of customization options is on show as in the games Master System iteration, with password backup for dedicated careerists and Gear-to-Gear linkup for competitive racers.
25. Star Wars
It may have come before Lucasarts took the reigns to Star Wars games on consoles, but it was no embarrassing cash-in. There was solid platforming, tooling around in the landspeeder, meeting up with Han, and flying the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid belt made for terrific gameplay.
24. Desert Strike
As comprehensive a shooter as Desert Strike may seem far too sizeable a package for scaling down to the baby Game Gear; but if the Master System can do it, Segas portable is here to give it a good shot, which in this case turns out to be a surprisingly complete effort. Its admirable just how much of the 16-bit shooter has made it to the Game Gear.
Choose your co-pilot, receive your briefing from not-Norman-Schwarzkopf, check your list of objectives to be completed however you see fit, register enemies on your radar, and fly into the sand-filled combat zone. The Game Gear port will keep you busy with as many opponents, ground- and airborne, as can reasonably be expected.
23. Shining Force: The Sword of Hadja
The Shining Force series and mobile platforms were a perfect match. Numerous entries in the series were produced for PSP, and the games are still popular on mobile phones in Japan.
22. Dynamite Headdy
Totally bonkers platformer Dynamite Headdy may have seemed like it was hogging a goodly chunk of the Genesis resources with its never-ending stream of barely comprehensible action challenges, but this Game Gear downscaling proved such a competent effort that it was even converted onward to the Master System (well, in Brazil anyway).
Mad puppet Headdy navigates a succession of colorful, theatrically inspired levels, adding variety whenever the action slows down by switching out his head for a different noggin which grants new abilities. Treasures all-action confuse-em-up is a great showcase of just how much color and variety the Game Gear was capable of delivering.
