I Shall Call Him.... Mini Sega!

The Sega Scream.  That quick little shout.  It's iconic.  Although, a lot of people are more familiar with this:

The reason why I really love the scream "SEGA!" over the more remembered singsong "Seeeegaaaaa" is because that scream represented an attitude change when Sega, at least in the states, became more serious when competing against Nintendo.  We all know the slogan "Sega Does What Nintendon't."  It's classic. And we all remember this classic commercial: 

Ahh, Blast Processing!  That lovely marketing term that convinced a lot of gamers that Genesis was the more powerful system over the Super Nintendo, which it really wasn't.  But Sega of America wasn't going to let themselves believe they had the weaker system.  What they lacked in hardware power they made up in marketing.  Console Wars still go on to this day, but if you ask me, there was no better Console War than the 16-bit era, the war between SNES and Genesis.  Sega will always have a special place in my heart because they had the balls to go after Nintendo the way they did.  And well, the Genesis had some incredible games at that. 

Anyway, enough waxing nostalgia.  Let's talk about what was just announced yesterday.

 
"Meh.  What's the big deal?"  Yeah, I feel you on that.  There's been a ton of "Classic" Genesises (Genesisi?  Genies?) and "Minis" and whatnot.  The big deal is that this is actually a first-party Sega made Genesis.  Sega is using a team that knows what they're doing when it comes to emulation.  And also, look at that middle bullet point.  FORTY games!  That's 10 more than the NES Classic and twice as many as the SNES and PlayStation Classic! 

I went ahead and preordered one from Amazon today.  I have the NES and SNES Classic and even... the PlayStation Classic, so I guess I'm collecting these now... There's only a couple of concerns that I have with this currently.  One, I'm getting conflicting information in regards to the cartridge slot.  Someone said that it will be able to play Genesis carts but if you take the a look at the picture, the slot is in proportion to the rest of the Genesis.  Honestly, I think some people are getting the Mini confused with the recently released 190 dollar M2.  If the Mini is a mini replica, the slot will be smaller and carts will not fit.  Maybe they'll use an adapter?  I dunno, but I do know Sega loves stacking things on its Genesis!

The other concern, the one that makes me worry because Sony burned me, is that the full games list has not been revealed.  So far, we have:

• Altered Beast
• Castlevania: Bloodlines
• Comix Zone
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• Ecco the Dolphin
• Gunstar Heroes
• Shining Force
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Space Harrier 2
• ToeJam & Earl

So far, that's a pretty solid list.  I've played and own a few of these still, and it will be nice to play them again in HDMI.  My old Genesis is buried deep in my closet, so having a replica Genesis next to my other classic systems will be handy when I just want to retro game.  And if the next 30 games are anywhere near as good as these, (you can bet more Sonics will be on there), we could be looking at the best officially licensed Mini/Classic system yet. 

But even then, Sega hasn't learned from Nintendo and Sony, because this will be closed source.  It would have been nice to be able to hook this system up to the internet and buy more games.  Of course, it will be hacked so if you're into that sort of thing, you'll be able to get access to the entire library for free, just like the other systems.  Still, though, people would support an online store for their classic systems if only the companies would make one.  I'm surprised Nintendo didn't because they really love reselling their old games.  

Actually, there is one other thing that bothers me.  The Japanese version, the Mega Drive Mini, will have the six button version of the controller.  The US version will only have the three button controller.  Still, it will have two controllers, and I honestly can't think of many games I remember needing the six button controller.  I know Street Fighter II: Championship Edition needed it, or else you had to hit the select button to change the A, B, and C buttons between punch and kick.  We'll see.. maybe the controllers will be compatible since they're USB... 

I also don't think you're going to have trouble finding one.  Yes, the Sega Genesis is a beloved system, but I'm not sure it has the same collector frenzy that Nintendo consoles have.  Also, as I mentioned before, there's already been a ton of different Genesis replicas released over the years.  Plus, there's been several Genesis collections released on different platforms.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to adding yet another classic console to my collection.  I'm going to have to make some kind of shelf for them in the future because so far, it looks like this: