Sega Genesis and Mega Drive mini consoles get September launch date

[Shawn Knight]

Something to look forward to: Sega is clearly off to a great start with its game selection as evident by titles like Ecco the Dolphin, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, ToeJam & Earl, Comix Zone and Sonic the Hedgehog. If Sega could somehow manage to add General Chaos, NHL 94, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Earthworm Jim, Mortal Kombat II and NBA Jam to the collection, I’d be a very happy camper.

Sega around this time last year announced plans to produce a miniature version of its Mega Drive console, better known as the Sega Genesis in North America. The retro gaming system was due out in 2018 but was delayed in order to give Sega more time to perfect and polish its 35th anniversary offering.

On Saturday, Sega announced a firm launch date for the console and the first 10 of 40 titles that’ll come pre-loaded on the machine. Games for the Genesis are as follows:

• Ecco the Dolphin
• Castlevania: Bloodlines
• Space Harrier II
• Shining Force
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• ToeJam & Earl
• Comix Zone
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Altered Beast
• Gunstar Heroes

The following titles have been confirmed for the Japanese Mega Drive:

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Gunstar Heroes
• Comix Zone
• Shining Force
• Space Harrier II
• Vampire Killer
• Puyo Puyo Tong
• Magic Story I
• Wrestleball
• Rent a Hero

The Sega Genesis Mini launches on September 19, 2019, for $79.99. It includes two wired control pads, a USB power adapter, a power cable and an HDMI cable. The Mega Drive mini arrives on the same day for 6,890 yen (around $63) with a single controller or 8,980 yen (about $81) with two controllers. Pre-order opportunities are coming soon, we're told.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79433-sega-genesis-mega-drive-mini-consoles-get-september.html

 

[psycros]

I'm assuming the cartridge slot is non-functional because it looks too small. If that's the case, they can keep this thing.

 

[m4a4]

Ah, Gunstar Heroes. I've gotta dust off my Sega Genesis and play that. Maybe even play some Sonic the Hedgehog 2...

 

[Vulcanproject]

I like Sega Forever on Android, only the pad support is a bit iffy. It's getting better, but it'll probably never be perfect on every game. Works well for the ones I like though.

So the only reason I would find to buy one of these is for collector purposes only.

 

[ZackL04]

Love these for their upscaling abilities to our modern tv’s, also for their true to form controllers vs emulation with a xbox controller or the real thing with horrible low res output converted to our modern displays

 

[Jeff Schmidt]

Sega needs to do something special for this launch. But I doubt they will since all these games have been released a billion times already. Probably going to take the 40 games that were on the atgames systems and just port them over.

I would rather see a mini version of the saturn or dreamcast than this. I know they would be more expensive but the saturn games are ignored beyond belief.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

If the Genesis Classic simply had Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic spinball, it would easily get 4/5 stars immediately, so long as they didn't screw anything up like the controller feel or the connectivity.

REVENGE OF SHINBOBI better be in there.

I would truly appreciate GAUNTLET IV, TMNT: Hyperstone Heist, Exosquad, Street Fighter II Turbo and F22.

Hopefully they'll include the 6 button controller instead of the classic 3-button.

 

[144hzGamer]

If the Genesis Classic simply had Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic spinball, it would easily get 4/5 stars immediately, so long as they didn't screw anything up like the controller feel or the connectivity.

REVENGE OF SHINBOBI better be in there.

I would truly appreciate GAUNTLET IV, TMNT: Hyperstone Heist, Exosquad, Street Fighter II Turbo and F22.

Hopefully they'll include the 6 button controller instead of the classic 3-button.

So true! Tmnt, micro machines, mortal kombat, rocket knight adventures to me. Shame they dont seem to be there

 

[Slappy McPhee]

The fact that Japan will be getting the 6 button controllers and the US will not is just true BS. Then the fact as well that they are USB controllers makes it worse. AtGames may have just "meh" quality, but at least they had the sense to have proper controller connections so that you could use your OG ones. I'll stick to emulating myself on my ShieldTV or Odroid boards, but thanks for playing. At the end of the day these "official" classic consoles are just little emulation boxes too so nothing truly special.

 

[kmo911]

The sale of 8 bir 16 bit was stopped. an nobody was making new ones. so we had to make some remakes rerton to get gaming again. buisniss have to learn to not take but give. so the strong version of console will be reused. so old stuff will be made on new. sale off games must go up again. selling nes snes sega sony console will get billions income . dont stop right in the meeting. cool swetting angel chinese

 

[Jeff Schmidt]

The fact that Japan will be getting the 6 button controllers and the US will not is just true BS. Then the fact as well that they are USB controllers makes it worse. AtGames may have just "meh" quality, but at least they had the sense to have proper controller connections so that you could use your OG ones. I'll stick to emulating myself on my ShieldTV or Odroid boards, but thanks for playing. At the end of the day these "official" classic consoles are just little emulation boxes too so nothing truly special.

Yeah, so many things they could have done to make it special. Like have both USB ports and original ports. Then have a switch to select the ones you want. And work with other companies to get original titles or create new titles for it. The best thing would be to create a store for it that has a lot of titles on it. And you get to select "x" number of titles and anymore you can purchase. I guarantee there was other companies that had finished or almost finished games that they could have purchased for almost nothing.

 

[erickmendes]

It would be so simple to make the "cartridge slot" an micro-sd slot...
I bet some chinese mock-off will come up with exactly this kind of approach, with some generic raspberry pi like hardware, running a generic open source emulator that will run anything from atari to Crysis... (joking, but Super Nintendo would be a piece of cake).

If the mock-offs sell enough, that would teach all those companies churning off "minis" how to do it right.