SEGA Mega Drive Mini - Out Now

SEGA's official Japanese Twitter account has announced that they're going to stream the unveiling of the final ten unannounced games on Tuesday. The Western reveals so far have taken place at the same time as the Japanese reveal, so hopefully we'll find out the full forty games we're getting in the next couple of days

There's still the fear that they'll plunder this with utter riff-raff like Super Thunder Blade, Eternal Champions and a load of inferior prequels and sequels to games that are already on this. But I think they'll deliver something big for the last announcement. I think it's got to be Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, with all the lock-on stuff too.

Beyond that, I think Super Hang On, Alien Storm and Virtua Racing are very decent shouts, and I'd really, really like to see M.U.S.H.A. and Pulseman on this too. Rocket Knight Adventures would be especially welcome too, it's a cracking game.

The final 12 games, yes 12

- Tetris
- Darius
- Road Rash II
- Strider
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Alisia Dragoon
- Columns
- Dynamite Headdy
- Kid Chameleon
- Monster World IV
- Light Crusader
- Eternal Champions

It's okay but nothing to exciting from those

What?! I think that's more than okay, who expected to see Tetris for example?

Anyhow I'm excited to try stuff like Strider, Road Rash II, Dynamite headdy, & Virtua fighter 2 - Overall there is a fair few games on this mini system I haven't played at all and ones I haven't played in donkey's years I just hope their stock is decent and I don't miss out on getting one.

Sure it's Tetris is a decent, I wasn't expecting that much like Star Fox 2 but I can think of better games that could have replaced some of them such as Rocket Knight.

True, but overall it is still a good selection of games & it'd be mad to expect them all to be belters.

I'm just a tiny bit underwhelmed with the final lot of games, although that's probably because I had my expectations really high, and I got my hopes up for a few games that aren't to be found here. On the whole, I think what was announced today was a much more standard collection of Mega Drive games than I'd allowed myself to get excited for, with a few notable exceptions.

I called Eternal Champions "utter riff-raff" a few posts up, but it's Tekken 3 compared to Virtua Fighter II. Despite not being brilliant themselves, I get why stuff like Eternal Champions, Alex Kidd and Golden Axe are here - they're popular. Virtua Fighter II is beyond redemption though. It's an absolutely appalling remake of a Saturn game that you can't have any fun with. If anybody, anywhere plays more than one round of this before switching it off for good, I'll be amazed. But not as amazed as I am that it's on this mini system in the first place.

Columns and Kid Chameleon aren't up to much these days, and I don't consider them amongst the Mega Drive's best. However, they're pure nostalgia choices, much like Ecco the Dolphin and Altered Beast are. They're better than those though. I can live with them, just about.

I don't have an good opinion on Light Crusader as I didn't play it for long, it just wasn't my sort of game. I don't have an opinion on Alisia Dragoon either, but that's because I've not played it. It's meant to be quite good though, so I think I'll give it a go.

Strider and Monster World IV have been rereleased before too, but not as often as you'd maybe think. I'm happy to play them again. Good stuff.

Dynamite Headdy is another game that's been rereleased before, and it's everywhere. On one hand, I wonder if it needed yet another outing, as it's not hard to find in it's original form and it's dead cheap digitally. Yet on the other hand it's an absolutely superb platformer with clever mechanics and developed at a time when the Mega Drive was at it's peak and by a team who know how to get the most of the hardware. It's in my personal Mega Drive top five.

Road Rash II! YALDY!

Tetris and Darius sound good to me. Not much else to say, sorry!

I'm surprised that it's launching without Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Nintendo stuck all three Super Mario Bros. games on the NES Classic, so I would have thought SEGA would have done the same with their biggest series.

Been issues with those games for years now though

Anyway looking back at the games I said would be in the collection and what is in the collection

This I said and didn't make it in
Pulseman, Alien Soldier is in the Asian mega drive mini, Mortal Kombat II, Phantasy Star II, NBA Jam, NHL 94, Mega Bomberman, Soleil, Rocket Knight Adventures, Golden Axe 2, Ristar, Aladdin, Shining Force II is in the Asian Mega drive Mini

These are in over my picks
World of Illusion, Thunder Force 3, Super Fantasy Zone, Earthworm Jim, Landstalker, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Golden Axe, Tetris, Darius, Virtua Fighter 2, Alisia Dragoon, Kid Chameleon, Eternal Champions, Columns

I think I've got the better bunch of games

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles seem to be affected by soundtrack licensing problems. Here's a good article about those here: http://www.pauseresume.com/michael-jackson-sonic-3/

On another note, as pleased as I am with the overall variety of the Mega Drive Mini, there's some cracking stuff missing that's found on the Mega Drive Classics collection that Argos are selling for cheap on the three main consoles. I think games like Revenge of Shinobi, Ristar, Streets of Rage 1 and Decap Attack make that worth having too.

Slight delay for this in Europe and the Middle East, as it's now coming October 4th.

The usual YouTubers are starting to get their hands on the Mega Drive Mini and are uploading their impressions:



The general consensus is that it's very good.

Yay

Double Post as I was Yay but after watching some vids on it and having a think about I'm not sure if I will get or not.

It sounds like great emulation, the fact you can switch to Japanese and have Puyo Puyo as Puyo Puyo and Sonic running better etc that's cool but I look at the 42 games with these being the ones I don't own

Alisia Dragoon
Beyond Oasis
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Contra: Hard Corps
Darius
Dynamite Headdy
Earthworm Jim
Ecco the Dolphin
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Kid Chameleon
Landstalker
Light Crusader
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Monster World IV
Phantasy Star 4: The End of the Millenium
Shining Force
Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master
Space Harrier II
Strider
Super Fantasy Zone
Tetris
ToeJam & Earl
Thunder Force 3
Vectorman
Virtua Fighter 2
Wonder Boy in Monster World

That is a still a lot of games but part from really Castlevania which I could play via the Collection that's on PS4, ONE, Switch. Nothing is screaming play me, and last Christmas I got the PS1 Mini which I've not used, the year before the SNES Mini which I used Christmas day not since and the NES Mini I bought through work I've not played either.

Those, well maybe not the PS1 Mini, have some bangers which I don't really own on other systems (Link to Past I have the GBA version for instance) that I think I'll just do the same plug it, mess around with for a day then not use again.

Same may happen with the PC Engine Mini but with that, I don't think I own any of the 57 games in any form that I do have more of a reason to get it.

The whole thing's a tenner more than that boring Mario Superstars Baseball GameCube game that you're willing to plant £60 on...!

When you put that way

Plus not to mention these mini consoles in general are technically collectors items, I don't think many folk will be buying them to rinse through every single game.

Why I own the other 3 Minis as cool collectors item like you say and planning to get the PC Engine

Anyone pick one of these up? I did decide to cancel mine in the end as I've got so much to play and just couldn't see me using it like the other Mini's.

I've got this! I've already commented on the games, so here's some other points:

• The build quality is very impressive! No surprises with the design though - it's just the first Mega Drive, miniaturised, with modern ports. Still, a working cartridge flap and an on/off switch that turns it on/off are nice touches.
  
• The pads have long enough cables. I heard that short cables buggered the NES Classic, but these are all right.
  
• The interface is really easy to navigate. There's different ways to display the games library - such as in alphabetical order, in order of release date, by looking at the spines - and it's all very nicely presented.
  
• Fantastic menu music here
  
• The emulation appears to be fine. I've seen that a few YouTubers have complained that performance can be a little bit off, but if it is, it's surely by a midge's bawhair.
  
• I think there's surprisingly few features for customising. There's not that many backgrounds, or ways to change the look of the screen, or much of that sort of thing.
  
• There's no rewind feature in any of the games! I was genuinely surprised to find that out - I just assumed it would be here, just like it is on the Mega Drive compilation on PS4/XBox One/Switch.
  

I'm just fannying about on a few games, not playing anything in particular. However, I'd say that there's eleven games that I know I'll never touch, because they're shite or because they're RPGs. There's probably another ten that I've probably played to death already. Still, I'm happy-ish with this. I think they might do another in the future though.

Some of the RPGs are Zelda-like or made by Treasure that still might be worth a gander at.

This afternoon SEGA announced a Mega Drive mk2 Mini which will have 50+ games on it including Mega CD games like Sonic CD and some Arcade versions etc

No word if it's coming to the west or what all 50 games are, put Snatcher on it and I will buy.

Is this the millionth miniature Mega Drive?

SEGA need to stop fannying about and give us the Saturn Mini or Dreamcast Mini. Even a Master System Mini!

Yeah more than likely with all the Atgames ones etc but least Mega CD is different.

The Mega Drive mk 3 Mini to have 32x then.

It's amusing because this exactly what fucked Sega over back in the day; desperately trying to extend the Mega Drive and delaying the true successor.