The retro craze is well and truly alive. We’ve already seen mini versions of NES and SNES from Nintendo but many gamers have been wondering when we can experience the wonders of the SEGA Mega Drive or Genisis as it was known in some areas.
The good news is that it’s on the way and it’s not only affordable it’s probably the best value for money retro console yet.
The machine will be based on the original model 1 Mega Drive which launced in October 1988 in Japan, 1989 in America and November 1990 everywhere else. Wow that’s a throwback in itself, remember when we didn’t have worldwide releases? They were crazy times
Like other mini retro machines there will be a number of classic games that come with the system, the Mega Drive mini won’t skimp on them either with around 40 titles available here’s the list of games announced so far.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Space Harrier 2
- Shining Force
- Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- Toejam & Earl
- Comix Zone
- Altererd Beast
- Gunstar Heroes
- Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
- World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck
- Thunder Force III
- Super Fantasy Zone
- Shinobi III
- Streets of Rage 2
- Earthworm Jim
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Contra: Hard Corps
- Landstalker
- more to come…
Now it wouldn’t be called a mini if it was the same size as the original console and this model will come in at 55% the size of it’s parent console.
M2 is handling the porting process and they are well known for working on SEGA AGES and SEGA 3D Classics Collections. Both had really impressive interfaces and seemless transitions creating a faithful emulation.
The recommended retail price in Australia will be around $139.95 which works out at about $3.50 per game so not bad value at all.
Plus the system itself comes with two controllers that plug into the USB ports and a HDMI cable.
I’m excited to see what other titles will be added to the list and can’t wait to get my hands on one as I have very fond memories of playing with this console as a kid. Two games I’d like to see on the system are “Columns” which was a Tetris like battle game and “Quackshot Starring Donald Duck” which I still think is one of the greatest platform adventure games ever created. Looks like they have access to some Disney Games so it wouldn’t be a stretch to see this on the retro mini version of the console.
We can expect the Sega Mega Drive mini to hit stores on the 19th of September this year.
