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It has been a long, winding journey for fans awaiting a proper, quality miniaturization of Sega’s beloved Genesis console. The drama began with the launch of Sega Genesis Flashback HD, a retro console produced by AtGames. You can read about the system here, but suffice to say it’s a middling effort at best. It looks the part (mostly), but underwhelmed with shoddy emulation and a suspect roster of games.
Flash ahead to Sega Fes 2018, the annual festival where the developer shows off its upcoming products, and the first word of a proper Sega Genesis Mini began to take form. In an embarrassing twist for AtGames, the company cheered on the announcement, mistakenly believing it would be providing the hardware once more for this new initiative. Alas, Sega would not be working with AtGames this time around (which promptly deleted its previous social media posting about the project!).
In September of 2018, Sega revealed that Genesis Mini had received a great deal of positive response outside of Japan and would thus not be releasing the system that year, as planned, instead opting to shoot for a proper simultaneous global launch in 2019. News had been quiet since then, with no further word on the console… until now! At Sega Fes 2019, the developer announced that on September 19, Sega Mega Drive Mini will be coming to Japan and Europe, while Sega Genesis Mini will arrive in North America!
There will be 40 games preinstalled, although at this point only the following ten have been revealed (more details might be unveiled about the lineup on April 18 during a scheduled Famitsu broadcast devoted to the upcoming system):
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Space Harrier 2
- Shining Force
- Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- ToeJam & Earl
- Comix Zone
- Altered Beast
- Gunstar Heroes
It’s assumed that the final lineup of titles might not be the same in all regions. Sega Genesis Mini will sell in North America for $79.99 and comes bundled with two three-button USB versions of the classic Genesis controller; European fans, meanwhile, can choose to buy either a single-controller bundle for €69.99 or a two-controller variation for €79.99. Save states will be part of the package, and for those who are true retro fans it will be especially exciting to know that developer M2 (masterminds of the Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics lines of games!) will be handling emulation duties.
Throw in a menu screen featuring music by longtime Sega composer Yuzo Koshiro and HDMI output, and this is one retro console that will be very hard to resist. Considering the disappointing failure of Sony’s PlayStation Classic, it’s nice to see Sega pulling out all the stops to ensure that Genesis gets a proper revival. The console is easily as important as Nintendo’s own SNES and deserves the sort of honor and recognition that these miniature retro recreations provide (or should provide, at least).
Will you be preordering yourself one (or two)? Share your plans in the comments and on social media!
Source: Sega
