-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
10 new Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini games announced (Contra Hard Corps, Castle/World of Illusion, Earthworm Jim)
- Thread starter Deleted member 34949
- Start date
Rad summary. The only other thing I'm assuming shows up is Mega Man.
Considering how much the PS Classic (based on one of the most loved systems ever, the absolute best selling 5th gen console, with good performing open source emulators available around) flopped, no one in their sane mind would sadly ever think about actually releasing a Saturn Mini.
The only way to make something like that possibly profitable is to wait for technology to be cheap enough to make Sega able to sell it and make money from the Japanese market alone, and that's why they talked about waiting 10 years or something.
It's an absolute shame, the Saturn might be the best aged 32/64 bit console from that era by today standards considering how many amazing, beautiful 2d games it has, also most people missed all of its classics and masterpieces.
Probably even a Dreamcast Mini would be more likely, at this point.
The only way to make something like that possibly profitable is to wait for technology to be cheap enough to make Sega able to sell it and make money from the Japanese market alone, and that's why they talked about waiting 10 years or something.
It's an absolute shame, the Saturn might be the best aged 32/64 bit console from that era by today standards considering how many amazing, beautiful 2d games it has, also most people missed all of its classics and masterpieces.
Probably even a Dreamcast Mini would be more likely, at this point.
Last edited:
PS1 mini could have been a monster, Sony just needed to try harder with the game lineup. Crash, Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk were all practically required. Anything over that godawful Rainbow Six port.
Even then though, it probably would have done fine if they didn't botch the emulation so badly, and inexplicably include PAL versions of the games (and only some of them!). Word of mouth was terrible before it even launched.
If Sega managed to get out a Saturn mini I wouldn't be surprised if it greatly outsold the PS1 mini, despite what happened in the 90s with the original consoles.
I imagine Sony making the PS mini
" HA HA HA HA, with GTA alone we'll sell 20 millions consoles this year".
Teenagers: "Oh GTA ! Nice...what ? This is fugly !"
Gamers: "Are you kidding,Sony ? The PS mini needs 20 adfitional classics".
Well, i don't think there's a comprehensive, universal objective reason about why the PS Mini flopped. Maybe it's because Sony half-assed everything about it except for its looks, maybe it's because people don't want to play rough looking 32 bit era 3d games, maybe it's because they failed to market it to casual Walmart customers while they completely ignored their hardcore fanbase, maybe it's because their fanbase actually don't care for anything but the very lastest games.
But even though there's some kind of very timid SS rediscovery happening online lately, no one in the freaking Western world knows about what a Saturn even is outside of our tiny retrogame fanatic bubbles, it would be like the most niche product ever and they could only market it to the most hardcore fans around, and that's like an extremely, extremely tiny subset of people.
We'll never, ever going to get anything retro-based from Sega but the same Mega Drive stuff and their most popular arcade games all over again.
I guess there might be some kind of remote possibility about Master System, simply based on its success in Europe and South America.
Also something Dreamcast related might be possible some day, since it's kinda of a famous brand in the US.
But Saturn? Come on. We gotta be real.
it's not inferior, it's just different. Matter of preference. Turtles in Time I believe has more levels.
Keep in mind that the Saturn was huge in Japan, it handily outsold the N64 there (though of course lagged considerably behind the PS1). It'd probably cater to that market more than anything else.
I know, that's why i said that they can only try to sell it as a somewhat mass market appealing product in Japan alone, and that's really not enough based on how much would it cost to produce today.
Anyway i think the N64 eventually surpassed the Saturn in Japan over time, since Sega killed it very early.
Yup. It would be a waste of money in 2019 but in 10 years, if we have Japanese + new Asian market + expanding J-RPG fans in the west + Sega Fans that didn't buy the console at the time. Sega has the potential to outsell the origjnal Saturn. But they must do a fine job like the Megadrive mini to have a chance...
Alienhated
Saturn and N64 sold more or less the same. Except, the Sega community was more teenagers and young adults.
I'm having a hard time pinning down exact sales figures but vgsales wiki claims Saturn sold 6 million consoles in Japan by the end of 1996 and up to 10 million overall:
https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Sega_Saturn
Whereas the N64 only sold 5.5 million LTD in Japan.
Hyperstone Heist is kind of a drag to play. From what I remember it has half as many levels as Turtles in Time but takes about the same length of time to complete. I think it's unquestionably worse than the SNES game.
/shrug They announced Sonic 2 in the first batch in Japan but the second batch for US/EU. Not impossible.
Let's hope so - more Yuzo Koshiro is always a good thing :)
I like the way you think!
Here's my last 20 games hopefuls:
The Revenge Of Shinobi
Strider
Ghouls n' Ghosts
Phantasy Star II
Streets Of Rage
Alien Storm
The Adventures Of Batman & Robin
Alien Soldier
Golden Axe
Outrun
Super Thunder Blade
Ecco II: The Tides Of Time
Thunderforce IV
E-Swat
Aladdin
Technocop
Joe Montana Football II Sports Talk Football
Dynamite Duke
Rocket Knight Adventures
Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle
That's the problem. I thought the same at the time. Real inferiors are Sunset riders, Super Street Fighter.
But as a pixel art lover, I played both recently. All the good memories I had for the Snes version switched to deception:
- Fugly zooms ( huge advantage for 90's kids)
- Extra dull levels (prehistoric ones are bland > as a teenager i loved them)
Megadrive version is shorter indeed but it was proven on gaf that the snes version has mediocre graphics.
The screenshot used is the sewer. The stones are yellow, pink, purple (wtf ?) on Snes but brown,/Grey, much more detailed on the Genesis.
Same remark for Street fighter 2'. As a kid we noticed more colors on the snes but with an adult eye, you can notice there are more NPC in the background of Guile's stage on the megadrive... (check it on google image)
The more important aspect of TMNT megadrive is the music, FAR MORE dynamic, and it's not a weird cmparison since there are cross tracks:
As you can see, there is not doubt about the soundtrack quality on the genesis.
It's pretty damn disapointing on Snes (I didn't find that comparison myself, but i was immediately shocked by this version)
They are different games, indeed but both have serious flaws.
The real problem of megadrive is the lack of RPG in japan compared to the super famicom. For the western audience, it's a different story since most of Super famicom hits didn't reach europe.
Last edited:
Yeah it feels unlikely to me too, but a nerd can wish. Out of all the consoles I've never played the Saturn is by far the one I'm most curious about. I've always loved its off kilter library, unique graphical abilities / limitations and the art directions that forced, and even the name, industrial design, and logo of the console. It just seems like something I'd really love to try out. But the Genesis is right up there too, though I did get a few sporadic chances to play it at friends' houses as a kid. I never got to play more than a few hours, but I remember thinking Ecco was peak 90s dolphin aesthetic and Vectorman was fun.
It's weird for me to want Ecco 1&2 on the Sega Genesis Mini when the Sega CD versions are vastly superior - mainly just due to the soundtrack.
Last edited:
NERD's emulation was basically perfect with the SNES mini. NES mini still had some issues with pixel scale/crawl and audio but those were ironed out for their NES emu when they adapted it to Switch, which is now the best commercial NES emulation on any HD platform imo.
M2 often used to be gold standard here but Nintendo/NERD, Hamster/Gotch and D4 Enterprise all also do basically best in class emulation at this point with their retro stuff. What really sets M2 apart from the pack is they go above and beyond with options, features and extras (more/better imaging options, region select, machine varaint audio selection, going back into code and adding stuff, boosters, outside of emulation mapping, new localizations, etc, etc).
Having refreshed myself, I am not seeing it. I am as big a Mega Drive fan as anyone but these were all very disappointing ports with dull colours using the Mega Drive's low resolution mode.
Luckily with an Everdrive we can fix some of this and Street Fighter 2 looks and sounds especially good with the rom hacks to fix the voices and the colours but out of the box these weren't as good as the SNES versions.
I wonder if M2 will add extras to the Sega Genesis Mini - things like the original instruction manuals, box art that you can flip around and look at the back of the box, a history section for each game, etc.?
OP
OP
Hyperstone Heist has the better music and controls, but Turtles in Time plays a bit better due to the throw mechanics.
Technodrome in Turtles in Time SNES is far and away the best stage between both games, though.
Technodrome in Turtles in Time SNES is far and away the best stage between both games, though.
Supplemental materials are nice but I'm more interested in options in the games themselves. I'm sure there'll be a nice scaline filter and save states but I'm hoping for less common things like boosters, rewind and M2 style hardware options like choosing between Model 1 vs 2 audio. Also some per title options M2's done before like adding the spindash to Sonic 1 or the Saturn mode to TF3.
I agree. TMNT was overhyped on every system. I just noticed the better graphics on megadrive were never mentioned.
This is what I meant. Nothing more. Of course, the later is the genesis version, not that inferior, huh ? Like I said both have their own flaws, indeed.
Turtles in Time has more levels and bosses and different level theming due to the time travel narrative but Hyperstone has much longer levels with multiple acts that change the level theme within the level itself. I know I'm not alone in preferring Hyperstone Heist's music, but the thing that makes it stand out is its differences mechanically. In Turtles in Time, you double-tap to run/dash and that is instead assigned to a button in Hyperstone. This may not seem significant, but it changes how the game plays drastically. It's much easier to crowd control/dash-combo than in Turtles in Time as a result. Hyperstone also has better hit-detection too. I'd say Turtles in Time is better spectacle and a more appealing package overall to most people, but Hyperstone DOES play better.
It would be all kind of awesome If Genesis mini has some "Blast Processing" option to improve games beyond what Genesis can do. I know I'm dreaming but it is not M2 If we are not
I agree. TMNT was overhyped on every system. I just noticed the better graphics on megadrive were never mentioned.
This is what I meant. Nothing more. Of course, the later is the genesis version, not that inferior, huh ? Like I said both have their own flaws, indeed.
IMO the colours of the stock game aren't that great but Pyron's colour hack improves things significantly.
It's not that unheard of. Actually that's what M2 did for their 3D Classics line, their MD emulator (dubbed "GigaDrive") and SMS emulator (dubbed "ReMaster System") had upgraded virtual spec and memory over the original hardware to account for the added 3D layering.
Yeah NERD is great and the SNES Classic was essentially perfect. Love it. I use a different emulator on my NES Classic but like you said, NES Online on Switch has great emulation from them.
I'm aware of Gigadrive but I wonder If M2 will have a different approach to Genesis Mini than their work in the Sega Ages line of games because authenticity with the platform? I dont know. I just hope M2 give us the M2 treatment with Genesis Mini as well 😅
What are the odds that we'll be able to select different regional versions of each game on the NA version?
OP
OP
I feel like they're going to stick with authenticity for the Mini and save the bonus content for Sega Ages.
Region Swapping is probably the extent of what they'll do in those regards.
Region Swapping is probably the extent of what they'll do in those regards.
The only thing I can see them doing is things like... making selection of six-button mode in Shinobi III less esoteric?
Your shuriken, melee and block are mapped to their own individual buttons.
Probably for per title stuff but I'd still like more overarching options like rewind and selecting between Model 1/2 audio.
Don't be putting Hamster on a pedestal next to those folks. Arcade Archives are NOT quality.
No screen interpolation/smoothing/filtering of any kind means low-res games are uglier than they should be, even on high-resolution displays where interpolation would have been possible. Donkey Kong on Switch should look way better than it does; it's got extra pixels sticking out everywhere, even on the fonts. On XB1, I've had Metal Slug crash several times, and problems with Achievements/Leaderboards randomly not working at all (also, no thought went into the actual design of the Achievements). Even if the emulation itself is okay, the presentation and quality control are just not there. Clearly, their priority is to spit as many Arcade Archives out as possible, without regard to quality control. I won't be giving them any more of my money.
M2, on the other hand, go the extra mile in every single way possible. They want to present classic games in the absolute best way possible, to provide the highest-quality experience possible, to give you the most bang for your buck, and it shows in everything they do. Sega 3D Classics on 3DS were some of their finest work ever. The entire Vintage Collection line on 360/PS3 was solid gold. M2 ShotTriggers are pricey, but absolutely worth it if you're a fan of the games themselves. And when I heard they were working on this? I was overjoyed. I'll buy it on day one.
Has it explicitly been confirmed for the western versions?
I mean...I'd be shocked if it isn't in all versions, but I thought it had only been directly talked about in reference to the JP Mega Drive Mini?
Out of all the games announced I am only slightly disappointed that Toejam & Earl is taking a spot (Just do not care for it at all.) And why Space Harrier 2 instead of the superior original? Everything else is spot on, so many incredible games I can't wait to play again with M2's incredible emulation.
Melee initiates on close range while shuriken is long range. Block is done by holding attack.
The original Space Harrier isn't a Genesis/Mega Drive game.