Mega Drive Mini, and now... Mega Drive Mini 2!

[Dudley]

Which title music does Sonic Spinball have if you're in english, there are 2 distinct versions.

[MW_Jimmy]

Top Tip: Savesates carry across regions so to stop flicking between different regions all the time, create a save from the title screen of say Japanese version of PuyoPuyo and then boot Mean Bean Machine as normal each time. Et volia!

[LaveDisco]

Mine came! (something else is at the depot!). 
 

This is a little box of joy. 
 

As a kid in the nineties that looked up from his master system with awe at the powerhouse SNES and mega drive, and knew in his heart that his parents could never afford either, it blows my mind I’ve now little perfect replications of both under my tv. 

[Down by Law]

Super Fantasy Zone is so good. Its so cheery and colourful, totally at odds with the blow shit out of everything gameplay. The bosses are amazing. Only give this a quick look before but it's ace. 

[Klatrymadon]

The crushing thing about reviews of the Mini isn't that they don't talk about regional differences or input latency, it's that nobody has a clue what Darius is.

[spanky debrest]

3 hours ago, MW_Jimmy said:

Tetris is really interesting. Doesn't follow a lot of the standard rules:

 

- Doesn't follow the 7 bag. You can get the same shape 3 times in a row.

- Cannot slide pieces at the fast speeds

- Cannot hold pieces

- Only see the next piece

- Hard drop present but switched off by default

 

Thanks for this detail. I read that this new version of Tetris is the only modern release to be approved by the Tetris Company that is out of official spec. Perhaps the decision to approve it might have something to do with it being an authentic arcade port and remaining exclusive to the Mini console..

 

Speaking of which I hope that M2's other unique arcade ports for Mega Drive (seven of them with only Spatter and Super Locomotive being officially confirmed) can somehow find release before too long. Sega clearly didn't want to dilute the Mini's line up with ports of ancient games that nobody asked for and yet rejecting them still seems like a missed opportunity.

[spanky debrest]

 

17 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

Super Fantasy Zone is so good. Its so cheery and colourful, totally at odds with the blow shit out of everything gameplay. The bosses are amazing. Only give this a quick look before but it's ace. 

 

I love this game.

 

Sunsoft were pros at making Fantasy Zones by the time they made this original entry; they had truly nailed the unique magic of the series IMO.

[SqueakyG]

Never having owned a real Mega Drive, I'm surprised by how large the 3-button controllers are. It feels very unfamiliar in the hands. Also the D-pad has pretty sharp edges -- not like the D-pads on every replica 6-button MD controller I've ever used, which have softer edges.

[strider]

1 hour ago, Klatrymadon said:

The crushing thing about reviews of the Mini isn't that they don't talk about regional differences or input latency, it's that nobody has a clue what Darius is.

We knew what it was.

[Popo]

6 hours ago, Sketch said:

I'm probably enjoying this hunt for the truth more than I'll enjoy seeing the machine collect dust on my shelf

Glad you were able to reach that conclusion without having spent a lot of money in the process. 
 

 

[spanky debrest]

8 hours ago, SqueakyG said:

Never having owned a real Mega Drive, I'm surprised by how large the 3-button controllers are. It feels very unfamiliar in the hands. Also the D-pad has pretty sharp edges -- not like the D-pads on every replica 6-button MD controller I've ever used, which have softer edges.

 

I like the OG pad almost as much as the 6-button because of how the buttons mimic a typical arcade stick layout. No accidentally hitting the usually redundant X, Y or Z. Just quickfire instant-access ABC shaped for human fingertips in a way no other controller can match. 

[LaveDisco]

Yeah the controllers are even bigger than I remember. 

 

They remind me of 'The Duke'.

 

[Sketch]

10 hours ago, Popo said:

Glad you were able to reach that conclusion without having spent a lot of money in the process. 
 

 

You kidding? After Down by Law made this post, I went on Amazon and ordered it with a 6 button controller, at roughly 17:58 British time. Just because I am aware of the fact I indulge in capitalism by collecting objects I seldom use doesn't mean I'm capable of preventing this.  

 

In fairness my SNES Mini gets a bit of playtime these days. I finished Lost Vikings 2 a couple of days ago on it, for the first time. Once the MD Mini is hacked I'm planning to be going through Shin Tengai Aseimei Daibouken in no short order.

[Klatrymadon]

Why is this "16 bit" rendered exactly like the Tesco logo? What about that one, YouTube reviewers? 

 

I picked mine up today, having bought it solely for Darius. It hasn't disappointed. It's the most exhaustive port of the game we've ever had, and at this point the definitive home version, showing an unprecedented level of faithfulness to the source material for a pre-Saturn/PS1 conversion - it feels like it shouldn't be possible on the console. Darius MD is worth the price of admission by itself and I wish more people understood how unlikely and special it is!

 

By the way, if you enter the initials ZTT (for Zuntata) in the high score table, you'll unlock a sound test at the options screen.

[dug]

Mine arrived yesterday! 

 

I immediately gave it to my wife so she can wrap it up and give it back to me for my birthday next month. 

[SqueakyG]

Another thing I don't think any review mentioned - even Digital Foundry - is that the video output is only limited colour range, with no option to turn it to Full. This means black is dark grey and everything is a bit washed out, on my screen which is technically a PC monitor. To be fair the Nintendo minis were the same, but it's still a little disappointing.

 

Also getting obvious "double pressing" happening in the menus, which feels like a case of D-pad sensitivity -- anything more than a quick tap seems to count as holding it down.

[Fry Crayola]

I don't think that's double pressing, as much as just a very low threshold set in the menu for the gap between a single press and a held press. If it's a d-pad sensitivity issue you'd see it on all games.

[Keyboard Koala]

I'd forgotten just how lovely those Disney games were (and still are) on the MD. A shame there's no Quackshot to complete Yamamoto's MD trilogy.

 

[Popo]

Or indeed Aladdin. 

[Dudley]

Yeah, I suspect that was nixed by the upcoming remake.

 

When I ran through all 40 before the machine came back what struck me about both Mickey games, especially Castle is that in the 15 minutes I gave each game, both had more ideas and variety than you'd get in some entire games.

[MW_Jimmy]

Finished Sonic 2 yesterday which is still as good as it ever was.

 

I've gravitated towards Contra/Probetector which I've never played before for some reason. It's pretty excellent and definitely feels like a mixture of Gunstar Heroes and Rocket Knight.

[Protocol Penguin]

14 hours ago, Keyboard Koala said:

I'd forgotten just how lovely those Disney games were (and still are) on the MD. A shame there's no Quackshot to complete Yamamoto's MD trilogy.

 

I used to think that Mickey Mouse was a Sega character because of those games.  

Played Quackshot for the first time last year, and it’s definitely a good’un.

[Keyboard Koala]

11 hours ago, Popo said:

Or indeed Aladdin. 

 

Controversial opinion I reckon, but I think Shiny's efforts (cq. Aladdin, Lion King etc.) were more a case of style over substance when compared to Sega's excellent efforts. 

[Vemsie]

3 hours ago, MW_Jimmy said:

I've gravitated towards Contra/Probetector which I've never played before for some reason. It's pretty excellent and definitely feels like a mixture of Gunstar Heroes and Rocket Knight.

 

Probably my favourite game of the lot.

[Dudley]

Contra and Shinobi were certainly 2 of the very much standouts of my playthrough.  Contra narrowly lost out to Castle of Illusion as my pick for Part 1 and Shinobi won part 3.

 

I think Contra very much benefits from the slightly lower difficulty of the Japanese version though.

[LaveDisco]

With the console wars long over, and looking at the SNES classic and Mega Drive mini next to each other, whilst the SNES is so pure and joyful and just a wonder,  and as an adult I've fully embraced nintendo, I still can't help shake the feeling that the megadrive looks cool and powerful.

 

That little 11 year old kid in me has still got an oar in the race it seems.

[Down by Law]

Spent all day with this yesterday, mainly on games I haven't played or only very briefly.

Went through Castle of Illusion (only played the 8 bit version before) - very impressed. Nice to hear those familiar tunes with a bit more power. I really like both versions. Very charming. Some of the sound effects are straight out of the MD Ghostbusters game. The 5th level, in the castle, is pretty sinister for a 'kids' game isn't it !

Contra is just silly hard isn't it? The second level is just madness. It's enjoyable though. Made a save state of the JPN version this morning so I can learn the game better.

Gunstar, Streets of Rage 2, Comix Zone, Sonic 1 & 2 and Shinobi 3 are absolute classics so I only had a quick go, finished them so many times I've lost count. They are all still brilliant.

Monster World IV is absolutely joyous. So cheery. Really looking forward to getting further into it.

Super Fantasy Zone is excellent. The bosses are challenging and the music's so good. Again, played the Master System version to death and only briefly played this, but it's brilliant.

Toejam and Earl - Never played it. Great intro. Great music. I don't really 'get it' at the moment, but I love the presentation. It's so early 90's, so Nickelodeon, it's really awesome, dude.

Eternal Champions is a lot better than people give it credit. Going from the SF2 port to that (purely graphics) is quite incredible. The music on the Vietnam and Kickboxing arena is awesome too. I had the CD version back in the day (still got it!) and always liked the game.

Ghouls N Ghosts - again, only played the 8 bit version. Really good port. The Master System version runs with constant frame drops so nice to play a relatively smooth version of this!

Alisia Dragoon - first time playing this. Pretty good. Cool artstyle. The lightning effect is pretty well done.

 

There's so many good games on here and it's all presented very nicely. Complements Nintendo's efforts very well. There was never really any doubt but I'm really happy with it.

 

[drmick]

Revenge of Shinobi- is it considered better than Shinobi 3?

[ontwofronts]

Not had much chance to play with it but impressed by what I have seen

 

cant believe it’s not been hacked to bits already!

[Protocol Penguin]

2 hours ago, Keyboard Koala said:

 

Controversial opinion I reckon, but Shiny's efforts (cq. Aladdin, Lion King etc.) were more a case of style over substance when compared to Sega's excellent efforts. IMO of course.

Totally agree, TBH. And I prefer Super NES Aladdin over the Mega Drive one, as it has that Japanese platform game design which makes up for the plainer, less cinematic graphics.