Wow. Over three months since my last post. Well, grad school will do that to ya. Steal all your time and money. Well I managed to find some time and it is now time for part II of my (largely unnoticed) journey through all my game systems. Tonight's episode: Game Gear

I loved my Game Gear. It had color, it had style, and it had a backlight so I could play at night. And oh, did I play at night. Those long nights where I was convinced my house was haunted, and I knew if I went to sleep I would become possessed. All I could do was hide under my blankets, flick the switch to 'on' and I was protected from all sorts of ghosts. That's nice.

My Game Gear doe not work anymore. It began to fall apart many years ago. First, the back battery lid fell off. So I covered it with some duct tape for safety. Then the other one fell off. So, I put tape over that side too. Finally, the back light gave out, so I could only play at day. But by that point, I had moved on to the SNES, thus dooming it to a life in the bottom of my closet. None the less, I still can hold the dead machine (which is about the size of a PSP, only thicker) and recall playing my favorite game ever (on the Game Gear): Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

While I will never deny my love for Nintendo, Sonic blew my mind when I first laid eyes on it. The speed, the super awesome spin move, and the pretty worlds I got to play in. There were green fields covered with mechanical crabs. There was a wide, sweeping Casino that played like a slot machine. And bonus stages that made me vomit from all the swirling. Ah, to be young.

I played Sonic for HOURS. The only thing that stopped me was the battery life of the Game Gear. Yeah, it was 12 hours, but do you know how much it costs to replenish 6 AA batteries? That was like two weeks allowance for me! But it taught me how to save money. From an early age, I was forced to make that choice that all gamers make: will my money go towards games or everything else in life. Looking back, I guess it might have been more frugal of me to choose "life." Ah well. Back to Sonic.

Another added bonus of Sonic 2 was that cute little mutant called Tails. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, Miles "Tails" Powers. That boy sure did love adding "s" to the end of his names. Tails served to purpose whatsoever other then to follow Sonic around. You could use him to float occasionally, and that was all right. But mostly, he was fun to kill. I would often sit at the bottom of ocean levels and take all the water and watch Tails slowly drown. It made me smile then, and it makes me smile now just thinking about it. Then again, it could be that I did the same thing to an ex-girlfriend of mine when we were playing co-op Sonic on the Gamecube. After I let her drown, she got all indignant on me saying "Hey! I need air too!" I told "No you don't. I'm Sonic, I'm the hero. You are expendable." Since she's now my ex, I guess she was.

I didn't own many games of the Game Gear, but I still have many good memories about it. Such a fine system it was. I mean, nothing super, but a nice memory for me. Except Sonic Spinball. That game was from the devil himself.

I mean God. That was a hard game.

Next time: SNES ASAP. WTF? BYOB. LOL. MMM BBQ...