A new SEGA Game gear concept has recently whizzed past our desks and it struck our hearts with a mild level of sadness.
Remember the good old days when SEGA were top of their game? I remember playing my best SEGA Game Gear games on a handheld that was above and beyond what Nintendo was ever capable of.
Now many years later, the tables have turned and Nintendo are kings of the hill, laughing down at SEGA with their failed Game Gear Micro launch and constant merchandise tweets reminding us that all they want is our money instead of our hearts.
What happened to SEGA? Where did the magic go, and why did they give up one of the best consoles of all time? Who knows.
I was a SEGA kid growing up, I had the Game Gear and the Mega Drive, I remember having Sonic plushes and many moments day dreaming about golden rings. I want that back, but SEGA has nothing for me to remind me of those good times. It genuinely makes me quite sad to think of what SEGA has become.
Don’t get me wrong, SEGA are still a great company, but the 90’s was an era when SEGA was innovating, investing in gamers and smashing Nintendo out the park with their products. Now it just seems like they’re going for the quick cash cows, and all they have to hang onto is Sonic The Hedgehog.
Artist Joseph Dumary has recently created a bunch of awesome new SEGA Game Gear concepts that will blow your mind. Almost as if SEGA did it themselves, but we should be so lucky!
This new SEGA Game Gear concept has a 5″ full HD display, with HDR+, touch screen, and an anti-reflective eye comfort screen, which we have no idea what that actually means, but hey, it’s a concept!
The shell looks as if its made by two different shades of aluminium, making collectors of rare SEGA Game Gears go all oozy at the knees.
The two joysticks also have fingerprint sensors in each one, making it the world’s first “dual analogue stick finger printer reader”… that’s if it came to fruition.
Just below the screen, near the chine of the handheld you can see the “quick bar”, a touch sensitive screen that grants you swift access to your favourite games, menus and settings. This could be helpful, and looks very much like the iPhones shortcuts.
You can see on the back that Joseph has added a textured back panel to this new SEGA Game Gear which adds grip and a touch of “premium”.
Oh and don’t forget the HD camera on the back for when you need to snap those pictures on the go. Admittedly this was a very underused feature of the Nintendo DS but i’d rather have it than not! Perhaps it can be used with QR codes or some kind of augmented reality games?
Once the handheld is on, you can customise the quick menu at the bottom, or use the games internal settings to change it for you based on what buttons and menus you use most throughout your gaming experience.
One neat feature that we think will happen more throughout the best retro handhelds of the future is backlit keys. These keys will light up when you play and change colour depending on what happens in the game.
For example, if you are low in health, then the buttons will glow read, if you’re scoring a goal in Fifa they will glow white etc. This is an awesome feature, and one we want in future handhelds from Nintendo.
The analogue sticks are positioned incorrectly in our honest opinion, we would have preferred them above the D-PAD and action buttons, a bit like the RG351M, but hey, we’re not complaining, this thing looks awesome.
Overall, this is an awesome concept and Joseph should be proud of what he has designed. The small touches like the 4K screen mirroring, backlit buttons and touch screen menus are incredibly though out and it’s something we want SEGA to make a reality, even though that’s probably never going to happen.
We hope SEGA see’s this concept and thinks about resurrecting the new SEGA Game Gear into reality, because like myself, many people will buy it. Heck, they can do what Evercade did and bring back the cartridges to work with small developers again, it doesn’t have to be “big” like the Nintendo Switch.
Sega, please. Bring back the Game Gear.
Please find Joseph’s concept video below.
