Look closely at the Game Gear box.  You'll see it.  Look at it.  Closer.....closer.......that's it:  It came with an adjustable wrist strap!  Nintendo wanted Sega out of the industry so that they could aquire Sega's wrist strap technology.  Fall out from the Nintendo/Sega war is still being felt today.

I don't think this is the morst interesting generation, 2nd yes but not most.

I still think the Nintendo64, Sega Saturn and PSOne was the most interesting generation. For many of the same reasons you find this one interesting.

1st - nobody expected Sega to bomb. Infact the Genesis handed SNES its butt on a silver platter. Sega was viewed as Sega does what Nintendon't. With the SegaCD being mildly successful and CD's being seen as the future Sega Saturn looked poised to rock the world.

2nd - Nobody suspected Sony would even enter the race. I mean the SNESCD was in ruins after having been axed by Nintendo. Nobody saw the PlayStation coming. Sony entered the industry with a bang and caught both Nintendo and Sega off gaurd.

3rd - Nobody expected Sony to win. I mean barely anyone. Seriously it was Sony up against raining champs Nintendo and Sega. Both companies were very successful and had alot more experiance in the games industry then Sony did.

4th - Nobody expected GameGear to get its butt handed to itself by the inferior GameBoy. But with Pokemon and Tetris Nintendo kicked Sega's butt despite Sega having graphics and the Genesis's success stacked against it.

5th - Nintendo 64 caught the world by storm introducing the first 3D console. I think the jump to 3D was far more mind blowing then the Wiimote and/or Kinect. Nintendo wowed me with Mario64 and I was impressed up until the day the DreamCast was announced.

6th - Nintendo stuck with the cartridge, I expected Nintendo64 to be CD based like PSOne and Saturn. But Nintendo decided to stick with the cartridge. No loading times and better quality hardware lead to the cartridges last stand.

7th - The analog stick. I was amazed by the analog stick, Nintendo launched the 64 with the worlds first analog fitted controller. When Sony adopted the feature I was stunned. It started the whole Sony copies Nintendo drama we still see today.

8th - Rumble, up until 64 their was no such thing as rumble and after Rumble was introduced it was impossible to live without. Rumble even today is essential to gaming on all three major platforms and it all started back in the fifth generation.

9th - The demise of Atari, seriously Atari was king back in the day. Nintendo , Atari and Sega all looked invincable. But when the Atari Jaguar was released we all had high hopes. Well many had high hopes that Atari would retake the thrown. But after failing to deliver software and at a huge cost to consumers Atari finally bit the dust. One of the most dramatic things to happen in gaming next to only Sega's demise.

10th - Lack of Sonic, when the Saturn launched a Sonic title was announced. I remember waiting for that Sonic game. It was the first generation where a new platformer featuring everyones favorite HedgeHog never showed his face since Sega entered the wars with Master System.

In the end I can think of even more reasons why the fifth generation was far more interesting then the 7th. But to be honest its getting late. I know their are many reasons to argue the 7th generation is just as interesting but to be honest I expected a Nintendo come back, I saw Sony going down and Microsoft getting better. It was all really predictable to me, so it wasn't that interesting. Though I did not expect casual gaming to over take hardcore markets!

Well..Yes.