The Mega Drive Mini 2 is another fun-filled Sega maniac package

I feel like I’m repeating myself with these mini-console reviews, but suffice to say Sega is the kid still happily splashing around in the pool after everyone else hesitantly dipped a toe in, swam around a little bit, and went home.

We’ve had a minature Genesis/Mega Drive, the palm-sized Game Gear Micro, and even the 1/6 scale miniature arcade machine Astro City Mini. I’ve bought them all without a second thought. After all, nothing is quite so essentially “Se-ga!” as weird hardware. We fans eat this stuff up in turn.

And that’s exactly how Sega can get away with releasing another Mega Drive Mini.1 You see, the hardware had two major models: the original model released in 1988 and a cheaper, more compact model (pictured above). This was released in 1994 as the Genesis left the spotlight and started to become a popular low-cost gaming option.

If you were a Sega fan buying one console for your own personal use, you’d seek out an original model; it sounds better and has a headphone jack. But from a console-collector point of view, the tiny MD has a certain cute-appeal, similar to the base model PC Engine. It’s a great choice for a mini toy console because unlike its older brother, it’s already kind of mini.

Aside from its cuteness— it fits neatly in the palm of my hand— the selling point of the Mini 2 is that it includes Sega CD games. But in sharp contrast to its prolific competitor (the PC Engine CD-ROM^2, home of Dracula X), the Sega CD has a relatively small, lukewarm library with precious few classics to call its own.

And for what appear to be rights reasons, some of the biggest names you’d think of— like Lunar or Snatcher— are conspicuously unavailable.

Sonic CD aside, the MD Mini 2 doesn’t really do big names: its status as a fanatic product is reflected in the 61-title game list. (There are way too many titles for me to even hope to mention them all.) The Mini 2 has a few big hits, a lot more sleeper classics, bonus games for the Sega-faithful, and even a couple of games the curators know are pretty bad.2

The system interface— and likely the hardware itself— is the same as last time.3 You can switch the game’s language by switching the menu language, and you can use the same controllers from the previous Mini with the new one.4 And yeah, there’s still a small amount of input lag.

The game list

The biggest-name title on this collection is probably Sonic The Hedgehog CD, a weird time-traveling alternate sequel to the original game that I cannot recommend enough.5 In case you haven’t played this, it’s been ported to everything imaginable, so get to it.

From that point on, the Mega Drive Mini 2 catalog dives pretty deep. As expected of a Sega release, it’s heavy on action and arcade games, but there’s also a large chunk of the game list devoted to RPGs and simulations. Play Crusader of Centy!

There’s also a selection of historically notable ports that push the Mega Drive’s limits with varying results, like Virtua Racing, Starblade, and Night Striker. It’s impressive just to see these games running in any form on a console released in 1988: Virtua Racing runs much more smoothly than SuperFX games like Starfox or Stunt Race FX6. That port of Night Striker, on the other hand, is an unintelligible mess.

I’ll tell you what my “big game” is, though. The maniac game of all maniac games, Treasure’s incomplete masterpiece Alien Soldier finally pops up on the MD Mini 2. The original “boss rush” game, overflowing with ambition. It’s got a player character who’s a thrill just to move around the screen. It’s fast and unforgiving, but never quite unfair. I fell in love with this game in the emulation days and any action gamer must play it along with the rest of the Treasure catalog.

Action fans who already know and love Alien Soldier will be quite pleased with high-quality action and shooting games like Thunder Force IV, Atomic Runner Chelnov, Ranger X, and Robo Aleste. The Mega Drive was always the place to go for this stuff, and not enough people are aware of this basic fact of life.

Extensive bonus catalog

I recall the developers saying not to expect much in bonus material this time as opposed to the original. I guess that’s what you call it when you include multiple from-scratch arcade ports, an unreleased game, a back-port of an arcade game released after the system’s death, and two different full-conversion hacks of a quiz game.

The big one for Sega fans is M2’s upgrade of Space Harrier II. This 1988 launch game is known for running rather poorly: the MD is just not up to the task. Over 20 years later the retro nuts at M2 run the game on their own overclocked MD spec— which they call the Sega Mark V— and after years, the game finally feels good to play. Not stopping there, they also went ahead and ported the original classic Space Harrier in its entirety. The results right a great wrong of history, even at the cost of some heavy sprite flicker.

Sheer maniac “because I could” grit defines the other bonus titles on this set as well. Hidecade, who did the Darius port on the original Mega Drive Mini, contributes his port of Fantasy Zone. There’s current Sonic-man Takashi Iizuka’s student game Devi and Pii. Mindware supplies the compelling, unconventional, and unreleased puzzle game Star Mobile. New ports of ancient Sega arcade titles Spatter and Super Locomotive are also included.

Even if you know the Mega Drive front to back, there’s a lot of brand-new material to enjoy here: including, if you are that Japanese-fluent Sega-knower, a full conversion of the quiz game Mega Q hacked to ask only Sega-related questions and feature Takenobu Mitsuyoshi of Daytona USA fame as the host.

Language issues

I bought the Japanese version Mega Drive Mini 2 once again, both because I prefer the Japanese MD aesthetic and because the US-exclusive picks on these consoles are usually not as novel or interesting as the Japanese ones.

However, if you’re not prepared for text-heavy Japanese games, you may really want to stick with the Genesis Mini 2. I get the impression that this time the curators really wanted to give players a long-term experience with the MD Mini 2, and that means quite a lot of RPGs. A few of those titles are in English, but there are at least ten titles, by my count, that you’re just not going to be able to play if you can’t read the Japanese language.

The exclusive games on the Genesis Mini 2 are a pretty good lineup of action and arcade games including a couple of strong shooters like Elemental Master, so it’s not a terrible tradeoff at all.

A major tragedy for this release is that the RPGs that the polarizing publisher Working Designs translated back in the day— both Game Arts’ Lunar games and Falcom’s Popful Mail— are not available in English.

Unfortunately for everyone, Working Designs reportedly wanted more money to use the English voiceover than Sega were willing to pay. These are easily the most famous and best-known RPGs on the system— Stateside casuals were saying “Lunar or no buy!”— so their loss is felt.

While it’s true that hacks will eventually render this issue null, a lot of the Mini experience is curation. I have my MISTer and my emulators loaded with every game: it’s just nice to have someone pick you a good one. If I even hack my MD Mini 2— I never did my original model— I’ll probably just add on the Gen Mini II games. The ones that aren’t Clay Fighter, anyway.

Tip: Read the manuals

The system has a “read me” in the menus telling you to go check out the manuals on their website. You should really actually do this. Some of these games, like Romance of The Three Kingdoms III and Populous, are from a generation when some games required a manual to understand what was happening on screen. In particular, do not make the classic, tragic mistake of attempting Phantasy Star II without a full guide on hand.

I’m still missing…

Though no amount of Mini releases will be able to curate every single great game— that’s kind of the point— I still felt some absences despite the Mini 2’s massive 61-game catalog.

Like everyone else, when I heard “Sega CD” I thought of certain titles that aren’t here. Yeah, the Lunars, but what about Keio: Flying Squadron? Dark Wizard? Panic? Not even Time Gal?! There are probably some limits to the Mini’s storage capacity when it comes to big CD-ROM images7, but I really just expected more CD games.

It’s very surprising that the curators overlook the English-only Sega CD release of Snatcher, especially after the Japanese-only PC Engine release was included on the PC Engine/Turbografx 16 Mini. Was Konami unwilling? There aren’t any Konami games in the selection this time around.

As far as the cartridge side of things, my kingdom for re-releases of the Trouble Shooter games. I know M2 has tried, and I know the rights are in limbo. I just love them damn Trouble Shooter girls.

Overall — for Megadrivers custom

I feel like I’ve said this before, but what the hell: I think if you’re in deep enough as a Sega fan to be considering a Mega Drive Mini 2, you either already have one or don’t need me to tell you it’s a good idea.

It’s not a MISTer, but a MISTer costs about $500 these days. And yeah, you can go to the Internet Archive and have the full rom set in five minutes. But like I said, releases like this are about the curation, and the curators of the Mega Drive Mini have been dead on. This is a fine set of games that will keep you busy for a very long time.