This game brings back a ton of nostalgia for me. This is the only-and I mean that literally-the ONLY game I ever played on a Gamegear. My rich cousin had come to visit and he was playing his. I'd never even seen one in real life before. I asked to play it, he said "Noooo" but my aunt made him give it over. I got to play it for fifteen interesting minutes before he couldn't take it anymore, snatched it out of my hand, and went back to ignoring me. No loss.

I've been looking for this game forever, and now that I've found it...I confess, memory does make the heart grow fonder. And fogs the details.

This is a game that you will either like or hate. For the majority of people, it's going to be BORING. Seriously, tediously boring. Mind-numblingly boring.

For me? Well, I'm one of those kids who loved putting together puzzles and mapped out the original Nintendo Zelda on a huge series of graph papers (complete with carefully colored pencil individual bushes), so...yeah. I like this game, despite its many obvious glaring flaws.

The entire game consists of walking into things. You clear out the 'fog' on the map by walking against the bushes/flowers/cactus/rocks. You kill enemies by walking into them and letting the computer figure out if you hit it or not. That's it. Walk into things. You pick up various colored potions, books, rods and rings, you find different armor and swords, and you clear a level by finding (walking into) the gate. You have health, which you replenish with potions, and food that you pick up, which somehow helps you regenerate until you're out of food and then your hit points start to go down? I'm not entirely sure, even after playing it quite a bit, exactly what the relationship between these two things are except that you need food, and if you run out of food you are in trouble. So, just pick up the food. That's a pretty safe bet. 

A tip for anyone who wants to play it: THROW THE STUFF. If you pick it up, and it's labeled as a color, throw it. Don't use it, unless you want to maybe end up wearing a cursed ring that makes you randomly and annoyingly bounce around the map in random directions. Once you've thrown the item, the next time you pick it up, it will automatically be 'known' to you. Swords and armor are always labeled, but watch those rings!

Graphics: 2
Let's face it. These are some pretty bad graphics. Your guy looks like some kind of hulking ogre thing. The bushes and rocks all look the same. And the most interesting bad guy is a round silver ball. It's terrible. I don't know if that's an issue with the Game Gear, but it's pretty bad. The only redeeming quality is that you actually change appearance when you change armor, which is kind of interesting.

Sound: 1
I turned off the music in the first room. Ow, my poor ears. That's pretty usual in games of this era, though. 

Addictiveness: 8
"How can you give this an 8", I hear you cry. Here's the deal:
Yes. It's repetitive. Yes, you do the same thing over and over. BUT....
The map is always different. The potion ect. colors change with every game. And there's always just one more room, one more monster, one more level...it's never the same game twice. And I'm OCD, so clearing the maps is satisfying in a deep, probably mentally unhealthy way. This requires little thought or investment. It's an early flash game. You can pick it up, walk into stuff for a bit, die, and turn it off without caring much. Ultimate time waster. 

Story: 1
Story? Is there even a story? I have no idea. Doesn't matter much though.

Depth: 6
Ok, here's another place where the score seems kind of high, but let me explain. It's always different. Working your way through the maze before you run out of food, picking up the various armors and potions, figuring out which ring color is cursed this time around before you put it on...there's lots to do. You're constantly in and out of the menu. The game is quick and fun. You gotta keep moving. 

Difficulty: 5
Don't get me wrong. Walking into things is easy. The difficulty comes from the monsters, who are usually just strong enough to be a pain, and remembering where the heck you left the gate when you are suddenly out of food. I've beaten the game but it took about seventeen play-throughs, and most of the time I end up dying in about room 8 or 10. Those stupid silver balls....

Final Thoughts:
Play this game if you: a) need something stupid but engrossing to pass the time with, b) love to do those map puzzles on the back of cereal boxes (I totally do!), and c) have a squirrel-like love of gathering stuff. If you're looking for flash-bang excitement, pass on by. You're not going to like this game.

Good review, but all of the stuff you complained (or complimented) are atypical of roguelikes, of which this game is. The graphics are horrible because they're blown up on a much larger screen than the tiny Game Gear screen, same goes for the music. As for the story, there doesn't need to be a story because roguelikes are never story-heavy, and the ones that are, usually are referred to as rogue-lites. 

The point of the food is that, when you have a value of 0 in the food bar, your status is labeled as hungry, and thus your hit-points begin to deteriorate. It's a pretty common practice in games that involve a hunger meter, particularly dungeon crawlers and roguelikes.  All in all, for a roguelike on the Game Gear, which was severely lacking in Western RPG's, let alone RPG's in general, this is actually a very well-made and put together game for the time, and has plenty of depth, which you yourself brought up.