When it comes to handheld gaming consoles, the Game Boy is probably the first thing that comes to mind. But 25 years ago, Sega made a hard run at the handheld market with their own portable device, the Game Gear.

Thanks to popular characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega had a pretty solid chunk of the gaming market in the 1990s. With Nintendo’s Game Boy experiencing massive success around the world, the company decided to rush their own handheld to the market; the Game Gear arrived in Japan on October 6, 1990, and in North America the following spring. The handheld was essentially a portable version of the Sega Master System and featured a significantly more powerful processor as well as a full-color screen (the Game Boy wouldn’t go full-color until 1998). However, the powerful technology came at the cost of battery life; the Game Boy required four AA batteries and would run for about 30 hours, but the Game Gear required six AA’s and would burn through them in about 5 hours.

The Game Gear experienced a strong initial launch, thanks in part to Sega’s marketing plan that made it seem like a more “mature” option to the Game Boy (as well as by directly comparing the graphic capabilities of the two) in a similar fashion that they took to promoting the Sega Genesis. However, the Game Gear experienced a pretty quick decline due to the fact that the battery life was so shoddy and that Sega had refocused their efforts into the successor to the Genesis, the Sega Saturn. Though it sold 11 million units, it was never able to catch up to the Game Boy, and the Game Boy Pocket’s release in 1996 was the final nail in the coffin for the Game Gear.

A number of popular titles were released for the Game Gear over its lifespan, which helped keep the system relevant for much of the early 1990s. These included Earthworm Jim, Ecco the Dolphin, Shinobi, NBA Jam, Prince of Persia, and a number of different Sonic the Hedgehog titles.

Though the Game Gear never became a big success for Sega, it’s still fondly remembered by many gamers of that era, and is now a collectible item for many. For those looking to experience the system’s most popular software – ironically enough – many titles were made available on Nintendo’s eShop service for their 3DS system.