Mini classic consoles have been around for years, though they didn’t really hit their stride until the NES Classic and SNES Classic that were near impossible to find at release and for the months following. This momentum was slowed with the debacle that was the Sony PlayStation Classic due to a disappointing list of games and poor performance, but it’s looking like Sega is trying to get things back on track with their latest game reveal for the previously announced Sega Genesis Mini.
There have been numerous Sega Genesis flashback consoles released over the years, which you’ve probably seen in your local Walgreens and the like, but now Sega is really working to give us a respectable one with the Sega Genesis Mini.
Announced last month, the Sega Genesis Mini is set to come with 40 games and the initial reveal gave us 10 of those. We were waiting to hear more and Sega has certainly delivered with this latest batch that include some fantastic surprises as revealed on their Facebook page.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Earthworm Jim
- Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
- World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
- Contra: Hard Corps
- Landstalker
- Streets of Rage 2
- Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
- Super Fantasy Zone
- Thunder Force III
Not only are we getting stellar expected Sega games like Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Streets of Rage 2, but Sega has gone the extra mile by adding some standout surprises. Disney had a number of fantastic games on the platform, so it’s great to see Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion. It would have been great to see Aladdin as well, though that license is likely costlier and would have had to deal with a third party rather than being developed by Sega like the Mickey games were.
The major acquisitions for the mini console here are definitely Contra: Hard Corps and Earthworm Jim, as they are both third party releases from Konami and Interplay Entertainment respectively. Earthworm Jim in particular is a surprising inclusion because it’s not really known who has the rights to the series right now after Interplay Entertainment was said to be selling off its IPs a few years ago. This was one of the standout third party games on the system though, even being better than its SNES counterpart, so having it included is great. Maybe this can mean we’ll see re-releases on other platforms in the future as well.
The Sega Genesis Mini is set to release on September 19th and will retail for $79.99. As of right now, the system is still up for pre-order at most retailers, so you can still lock down your system ahead of release.
