First revealed at last year’s SEGA Fes, SEGA had announced that they would be releasing a SEGA Mega Drive Mini (or Genesis Mini in North America) by the end of 2018, but the year has come and gone with little fanfare or details on their own retro plug-and-play console. It took another SEGA Fes for word to finally come on the delayed legacy system, as the company finally gave eager fans at Akihabara an inside look at the anticipated platform.
Packaged with 40 classic games, you’d best mark your calendars and start saving up, as the SEGA Genesis Mini will finally launch globally later this year on September 19.
This isn’t SEGA’s first crack at a throwback console, having released the SEGA Mega Drive Classic and Genesis Flashback HD
in partnership with AtGames. Those consoles were nigh universally panned, however, with critics citing poor emulation and shoddy hardware. While AtGames was initially meant to collaborate with SEGA again on the Genesis Mini, it appears that partnership has dissolved, with SEGA now working on the system internally alongside developer M2.
M2 is the same studio responsible for a lot of enhanced retro ports of classic games we see on modern platforms nowadays, such as the
SEGA 3D Classics for Nintendo 3DS and the SEGA Ages games for Nintendo Switch. As such, the Genesis Mini is already shaping up to stand on par with Nintendo’s NES and SNES Classics when it comes to quality. Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro is also working on the Mini, having composed the menu music for the system.
As for the games lineup, SEGA has announced that Japanese Mega Drive Mini will include the following among the confirmed 40 titles:
- Castlevania Bloodlines
- Comix Zone
- Gunstar Heroes
- Madou Monogatari Ichi (Story of Sorcery 1)
- Powerball
- Puyo Puyo 2
- Rent-a-Hero
- Shining Force
- Space Harrier II
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Meanwhile, the North American Genesis Mini will include the following, among others:
- Altered Beast
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Comix Zone
- Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Gunstar Heroes
- Shining Force
- Sonic The Hedgehog
- Space Harrier II
- ToeJam & Earl
As an added bonus? On top of save states, some games will come with regional variations that you can choose to play from. It’s certainly a nice touch to those who might appreciate some of the minute differences between certain localizations and outright changes between international versions of the same game.
The console will release in two variations in Japan. One edition will come with a single six-button Mega Drive Mini USB controller, with an MSRP of ¥6,980, while the second version comes with two controllers retailing at ¥8,980. This won’t be the case in North America, as the U.S. version will launch with two three-button Genesis-style controllers, totaling to $80.
Would you consider picking up a SEGA Genesis Mini later this year? What other games would you like to see packaged with the retro system? Personally, just give me
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and I’m good, but share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comments below!