Sega Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console!

[Jeckidy]

As a 3DS (actually, 2DS) user, I must say that I really enjoy Sega's selection of Game Gear titles for the 3DS Virtual Console/eShop. There isn't a whole lot, but being mainly first party titles, the selection is still in good taste. The most desirable and the first ones I bought, being Shining Force: Sword of Hajya and Tails Adventures, the latter being a long-time favorite and the former being a new one (despite being acquainted with the SF series already). I always said that Tails Adventures would be my first purchase on 3DS eShop if it ever arrived there. You have proper save states and not just basic resume, and for battery backed games like SF, it warns you that the save states ('Restore Points', here) could conflict with the normal save files created in the actual game, just like on real machines or computer emulators. The screen settings are Dot for Dot (actual pristine 1:1 display with Game Gear border image), Normal, or Full Screen. I always use Normal. The latter creates distortion, much like the L and R buttons do when widening GB/GBC games on a GBA. And more importantly, contrary to popular belief, the pixels and graphics are not really more distorted than the original system, as looking at the Dot by Dot display will show. Real GG games look like that, too. You can also turn the blur effect on and off, like the original system, which, believe it or not, has merit for racing games like Sonic Drift 2, smoothing the tracks. Lastly, there is a the setting of Performance: Original and Special, which I am not sure what they do as of now, but it probably enhances the game for flicker issues and other problems of the GG hardware. Buttons can also be reconfigured.

The games I have are (with US prices):
Sonic the Hedgehog - $4.99
Sonic Drift 2 - $3.99
Sonic Triple Trouble - $4.99
Shining Force: Sword of Hajya - $3.99
Tails Adventures - $4.99

[DragonFire]

I've been extremely impressed with all of Sega's classic games on the 3DS. They clearly put in a lot more effort than Nintendo did, because the Sega virtual console games have significantly more bonus features than the very bare-bones Nintendo virtual console games.

I think my favorite little touch is the 3D effect. If you're playing in dot-by-dot mode, the game is rendered in the original resolution and framed by a Game Gear to take up the extra screen space. If you use the 3D slider on the console while using this mode, the Game Gear is actually 3D. The buttons stick out, the console has curves, the big bulky screen protector protrudes, and the actual game is sunken into the screen. You can even chose the color of your game gear. It doesn't make the games better and the screen is very small if you do this, but it's a nice little touch that makes the games seem less like ROMs and more like proper re-releases.

Also, save states are a godsend in games without traditional save functions.

[Hidden_Darkness]

I'm still waiting for sega to release sonic chaos and more game gear games on the 3ds virtual console, I don't really see it happening at this point though.

[QuickSciFi]

I would buy Sword of Hajya if it was a physical release.

[Baloo]

I would buy Sword of Hajya if it was a physical release.

Why would anyone make a physical release for a $4 game?

I like that SEGA is doing this on the Virtual Console.