Sega unveils novelty Game Gears

Following Sony in how to balls up your legacy, Sega introduced four mini Game Gear Micro models in Japan over night. The four colour models are really, really dinky, pretty cheap, and come with four different games each, but is this really the best use of the company's portable history?

At 4.980 yen (£36, $46) they are more like novelties, and might sell well with collectors and Sega-philes, but can't see many more rushing out to grab them. With a 160 x 144 pixel screen, we don't really need a lot of real estate for the display and the pad/buttons look like they'll do the job for the short-bursts of gaming that these titles offer, but it doesn't look particularly comfortable.

Buy them all together and you get a Game Boy-style magnifying glass to see the screen a bit better, which kind of suggests the whole idea is rather a silly one. Looks like only available in Japan for now.

Black: Sonic, Out Run, Royal Stone and one other puzzle game
Blue: Sonic & Tails, Gunstar Heroes, Sylvan Tale and one other puzzle game
Yellow: Three Shining Force games and one other puzzle game
Red Columns: Shinobi GG and two Last Bible games

If three of the collections can't even muster four proper games without a filler puzzle title, is this really maximising their appeal? With some 390 games available for the Game Gear, a little more curation could have been in order.