This year marks Sega’s 60th anniversary. What does a company do when it hits 60? If you’re Sega, you decide to release a small form factor reproduction of an earlier generation handheld system.
For now, the Game Gear Micro appears to be an exclusive release in Japan. At 80mm wide (approximately 3 inches), the screen takes up about a third of the real estate, with two input buttons on the right-hand side and a four-direction D-pad on the left. The estimated retail cost of the Game Gear Micro is expected to be 4980 JPY, or roughly $45. It will be available in four colors: black, blue, red, and yellow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJD0VZQzK1s
Given the small form factor of the device, you’re not going to be able to insert cartridges as you could on the original Game Gear. There will be four games preloaded on the Game Gear Micro. However, the color of the Game Gear Micro will determine the games that you get. The list of titles for the corresponding colors is below.
-
- Black – Sonic The Hedgehog, OutRun, Royal Stone, Puyo Puyo Tsu
- Blue – Sonic & Tails, Sylvan Tale, Gunstar Heroes, Baku Baku Animal
- Red – Shinobi (Game Gear Edition), Columns, Megami Tensei Gaiden, Megami Tensei Gaiden II
- Yellow – Shining Force, Shining Force II, Shining Force: Final Conflict, Nazo Puyo Aruru no Ru
If you want to get all sixteen titles, you’re going to need to shell out approximately $180. But if you’re going to get all four, and have the foresight to pre-order them, you get a replica of the Game Gear’s “Big Window” magnifying lens, which certainly couldn’t hurt when trying to play games on a screen approximately as full as the average thumb is long.
The Game Gear Micro is slated to be released in Japan on October 6. One can only hope we get a diamond-encrusted Dreamcast for Sega’s 75th anniversary.
