Sega Genesis Mini - Genesis

Nice job all around by Sega. This is a well-designed and well thought out little device with a lot of fun packed inside. I see a few ludicrous reviews on here, where people forgot to take their pills or whatever and resort to saying this device "SUCKS" or is "GARBAGE". Nothing could be further from the truth, and some people need to grow up.It was actually my cousin who was one of those "Sega kids", but I still got to play the Genesis some back in the day and have fond memories of Sonic, Road Rash and several other great games. Hardware-wise the original Genesis was somewhat more generic in internal design than the SNES and had some real limitations if you know what to look for. But it was still a fertile platform for fun and classic game play. In bringing this classic mini console to market Sega has seemingly followed Nintendo's lead in hardware design, having nearly identical internal specs and including power over micro USB, which will presumably be a vector for hacking this thing. That's a good thing! Then Sega upped the ante and doubled the number of included games compared to Nintendo mini consoles, including alternate international versions of the ROMs that you can access just by changing the language settings. However this probably means there is less internal storage available for any future hacking of the device, but perhaps they will get USB support working.Overall the game selection is pretty good with a small handful of weaker entries and a few glaring omissions. For example, although they were able to include two Disney-licensed Mickey Mouse games, the second-highest selling Genesis game of all time, Disney's Aladdin, is nowhere to be found. One would think it would have even made a great initial tie in with Disney promoting their recent re-hash of the film. Who knows, perhaps Sega tried. But still you won't lack for fun and entertaining game play here.The two included 3-button controllers seem nice and solid, very much like the originals. But I haven't used them. As a one-up on Nintendo this console did at least implement a way to get to the system menu using the controller by doing a long-press on the Start button. But an even better experience is with the officially licensed Retro-bit 6-button Sega game controllers. These give you the full 6 buttons you need for a couple of games, plus the Mode button on these gives you instantaneous access to the system/save menu from within games. Also the Retro-bit controllers have like a 12-14' long cable I think, so that is an improvement over the just okay 6' length of the included 3-button controllers. Well worth the modest additional cost.The user interface is simple but attractive, and has a funky new Sega-style synthesized music track. This will loop a few times and then the console will start going through demo mode of all 42 games. It's almost fun to just leave it on and watch it cycle through demos. The save state feature is basically equivalent to that provided by the Nintendo mini consoles, offering 4 save slots per game, but the implementation is not quite as polished. I believe you have to start the game before you can access the save states, rather than jumping directly into a saved state. Also the Nintendo consoles will add a little "time played" indicator to each save state, to give you even some idea besides the mini screenshot of where the save state is within the game, you know when you return to it weeks or months later. And I don't really see a way to manage save states, delete them, etc. Maybe I just missed it.Finally the emulation is done by M2, who are behind the emulation in virtual console and other ports of these classic games. Only one or two unofficial emulators come close to the same quality, so it's not really going to get any better than that. I find reports of lag curious. I can't detect any at all. Any form of emulation, including the Nintendo mini consoles, will have some minuscule amount however. At worst your TV may need some adjustment, but usually even that is not necessary. The games look, play, feel and sound right.Anyway, great job and congrats to Sega! This is a great item. As a bonafide Nintendo kid I'm happy to own this, and I hope Sega sells millions of them.

So, what is there to say about the Genesis Mini that hasn't already been said by countless others? It's one of the best (if not the best) mini console released to date, and it made its mark as Sega's long-desired "re-entry" into the hardware market.For Sega's first piece of hardware in over 20 years, they sure still know how to do it well. The system itself looks amazing and accurate down to the last detail, and it's built really well. The controllers are awesome too, and have one of the best D-pads I've ever felt. One interesting aspect is that this is the very first time I've seen the 3-button Genesis controller re-released in any form, and since they're USB-driven that also means you can hook up the controllers to a regular PC or modern game console, and they'll work. The system has HDMI for connecting to a modern TV, and outputs at 720p resolution.As far as the software goes, the game selection is expansive and high-quality, the menu system is awesome and has plenty of goodies, and the background music is killer. You get a bunch of Sonic classics (except for Sonic 3 & Knuckles, notably). The system is also region-swappable, so you can see all the Japanese and European versions of all 42 games. There's a savestate feature built-in that saves up to 4 slots per game.On top of the above, the Genesis Mini has an active hacking scene so you can add your own games and peripherals to the system.Overall, the system is amazing-- however, as of late it seems like it's more difficult to find new stock of the Genesis Mini. I'm not sure if the console is just selling out often or if Sega decided to quietly cease production of the system, but for whatever reason lately I've only been able to find it in the used/reseller market.I honestly don't think Sega's going to do anymore gaming hardware after this, so if you were a die-hard fan of Sega as a hardware company this console is for you.