Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sega Genesis Mini – Best Classic Mini Console?”.
What’S up folks how’s it going, this will watch hope you guys are all doing well and today we’re going to be taking a look at the sega genesis mini now. The original console was a very near and dear to my heart holds a lot of nostalgia. It’S pretty much the console that i grew up on so when i heard that sega was going to be recreating the genesis in a miniature form. I was super excited to not only play some of my favorite genesis games but also add a mini console to my existing library of mini retro console collection that i have going right now now the genesis mini is sold for around 79.99. It comes with two controllers and a miniature version of the classic genesis console that’s about 55 of the original size.
The authenticity of this a piece of molded plastic looks very accurate, based on my memory as a kit, and although i don’t have a real genesis to do a side by side comparison uh from my memory, i really couldn’t tell the difference. Besides the obvious size. Difference now what i can compare with is one of my favorite miniature cases, which is the mega pi case from retro flag. This is a case design for the raspberry pi 3 model b, which is an awesome platform for running all sorts of different emulators and, besides the minor size difference, there isn’t a big difference between the two.
Now the eject button on the actual mega pi case. Actually ejects the cartridge holder at the top of the mega drive case and on the official case, it’s actually a volume dial for your headphone jack and the official case also has flaps for the game cartridge opening. Obviously, you can’t put a real game cartridge in there, because the size is wrong but definitely looks pretty authentic and it feels pretty authentic as well, and we also have the official logos typefaces on uh, the sega mini genesis console versus the retroflag can only emulate those To some extent, because they don’t want to get sued by sega for any kind of trademark infringement. Now the genesis controller that comes with the mini console is pretty much a one-to-one replica of the original controller and uh looking back at it now and having it in the hand, really feels like something that batman would use to play.
His video games on his downtime and although i really like this controller growing up, i could see why some people have criticized it for being not the best thing out there uh. Firstly, it only has three buttons abc and playing games designed for the super nes that had a b x y configuration could be tricky and difficult at times. Also it had this kind of large floppy, d-pad design kind of reminds me of the original xbox controller. Just a large circular blob and wasn’t as precise as certainly for playing fighting games, and things like that.
Now the connectivity options on the genesis mini are dead simple. Basically, you have a two connections for the dual controllers that come with it at the back. You have an hdmi output as well as a micro, usb power in, and you can power this thing through a usb power port on your pc or any usb uh power, brick that you have laying around. So it’s pretty universal in terms of powering this thing up now the console outputs at 720p 30fps, you can view the games either in the original 4 3 aspect ratio or a widescreen.
If you want to stretch the original image, there’s also some wallpaper designs as well. Crt filters, if you want to get a more authentic kind of retro, feel now at the menu you’re going to be able to browse the 42 games that come with this console. It’S a fairly eclectic list that features the classic staples sega genesis, uh titles such as sonic the hedgehog, but also some oddball and rarities, which is nice to see. I certainly remember a lot of these games for the genesis back in the video store days and always wanted to try them, but just didn’t have the time to actually rent them out.
Now i get the opportunity to relive some of those moments and play as some of these classic titles. This is a definitely a big improvement from what i encountered with the sony, playstation classic console, which barely had any games to begin with. Now, if you listen to the 8-bit style, menu music, it’s actually new music, specifically composed for the genesis mini by yazoo kashiro, who originally composed the theme of streets of rage, and that just adds a level of authenticity and detail that we just don’t see from other Mini classic consoles now, navigating to the game that you want to play can be a little bit finicky. At times i did find with even the slightest touch of the directional pad. The selector will jump two or three game title selections. So that’s definitely a little bit tricky and a little bit glitchy at times, but once you get into the games, you do have a number of different save points.
So if you want to save your progress in a particular game, you have multiple uh ways to do so, which is a nice feature and coming back to the gaming titles themselves. As we mentioned before, 42 titles, super eclectic, you have the classic sonic the hedgehog series, including the first sonic, the hedgehog sonic, the hedgehog 2, as well as the hedgehog spinball game. You also have some other classics: titles such as streets of rage, 2, virtual fighter 2, contra hardcore and some of the games that i’ve always wanted to try, but never got the opportunity back in the day was earthworm gym, which is kind of frustrating in terms of Control wise and echoed the dolphin, which also uh, was the precursor to echo uh for the dreamcast. That is one of my favorite games of all time and uh.
There are some third-party games that were originally designed for arcade and super nintendo that were ported over to the genesis, such as street fighter ii, uh special champion edition. And although you can execute a lot of combinations and functionally, it does work. But if you have some muscle memory engraved into you where you’re used to the abx y buttons, it’s kind of hard uh adapting it to an a b c uh button situation. So that’s just more of a bias on my part than anything else being a super nes player for street fighter, specifically, but other than that. I really love the selection of the 42 games that we have over here and there’s tons of obscure games that i’m completely unfamiliar with and when i have time, i’m gon na dive into it.
But uh really happy with the selection. And although there will be possibility of hacking, this thing in the future, i’m sure there’s uh some stuff in the works right now and uh modmy classic is a great resource to go to. If you are interested in unlocking this thing’s true potential in terms of adding different games or putting in another emulator, i honestly don’t think that there’s any need for it, because you do have the raspberry pi it’s fairly affordable.
You can get authentic. Looking cases for the raspberry pi that’ll give you a fairly accurate and high quality retro console. Look the cases from a retro flag are probably the best cases out there and they’re readily available on amazon, and, at the end of the day, the raspberry pi will always be the more versatile uh emulating platform for all of your classic gaming console needs. I think why we are interested in these official mini consoles is of more from a collectibility standpoint and the fact that it is an official licensed product from that specific company. That’S why uh the nintendo mini consoles have sold so well, and that’s probably why this will have uh some traction and even though the sony, playstation mini classic console, didn’t initially do too well. But after a significant price cut, as well as being hacked its sales improved steadily as well, and it’s actually a pretty decent platform now for emulating playstation 1 style games now, in summary, i’m really happy with the genesis mini. I think it’s a fantastic collectible item, especially for sega fans like myself, and it’s a solid package that delivers everything you want a classic console to deliver. It comes with a reasonable price tag. It’S very authentic to the original design, comes with two controllers and has an awesome eclectic list of gaming titles that represents its time and era in the gaming world. Now, besides those notions, that’s really it.
I would love to know what you guys think of these retro consoles. Do you think it’s a nostalgic cash grab by big corporations? Do you think that there’s any value in these retro consoles from a collectibility standpoint, or do you think everyone should just stick to emulating their favorite retro games on a raspberry pi, save their money and move on from the past? I certainly think that these mini consoles have a place. There’S definitely a market for it, and companies like nintendo sony, commodore 64, as well as sega, have now launched official versions of their classic consoles and not to mention there’s dozens of knockoff versions of these classic consoles and pretty soon.
Perhaps nintendo is going to come out with a miniature version of the n604. I’M sure that’ll sell pretty well as well as the gamecube sony might come up with the ps2 and then microsoft might want to get into the game, sell it. Miniature version of the original xbox and sooner or later, we’re gon na have things like a miniature version of the ps4 and xbox one.
For me, personally, i think uh, the bucket list, retro console for me, is an official licensed miniature version of the sega dreamcast. That was my favorite console growing up and that may or may not happen, but i’d be pretty happy and definitely would buy one if it’s under a hundred dollars. But that’s just from my standpoint love to know what you guys think give me a thumbs up. If you like this video and also check out our mini console collection video, we brought that out a few months back. It’S almost been a year now, but it covers most of the popular miniature consoles that are out there as well. Some great emulating platforms, including the raspberry pi and nvidia shield tv, so check out that video, if you haven’t done so already other than that, we’ll see you later and thanks again for your support, take care. .