Sega, however, was pretty confident that it could win the handheld war, by releasing a full colour machine. Now get a load of this controversial opinion: in many respects, the Game Gear was the better hardware. At least you could play it in low light situations, and it never gave anybody the clap (legal disclaimer: neither did the Game Boy, probably).
Admittedly, it wasn't quite as pocket-friendly as the Game Boy, and it chewed through batteries like a dog with an advent calendar, but it was essentially a hold-in-your-hand version of Sega's Master System, and that's a pretty remarkable thing. Heck, with the TV tuner add-on you could even watch Going For Gold and Fort Boyard on it.
Unfortunately, where the Game Gear stumbled was its game library - lots of Master System ports, basically - which simply wasn't as diverse or strong as the Game Boy's. And yet... there were some surprising gems in there which bucked the trend.
Here are 10 Game Gear games which might just make you think again.