The Sega Mega Drive Mini is back, in the form of the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2. And this time, it’s bringing a handful of Mega CD titles.
Nintendo seem to have lost interest in the mini retro console market, which is why the now out-of-production SNES Mini and NES Mini are going for silly prices on eBay and Amazon. But, fortunately for Mega Drive fans and retro-gaming afficionados in general, Sega is far from done with the market and has announced the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2.
Sega has announced that the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 will launch this October. The original Sega Mega Drive Mini was based on the original Mega Drive (or Genesis if you grew up in the USA) so, correspondingly, the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 is modelled after the more compact Mega Drive 2.
It’ll feature fifty titles, including several Sega CD titles. No, you won’t have to insert physical CDs – the picture at the top of this article shows the non-functional “tower” add-on – they’ll be built into the Mini. If you grew up with the Mega CD that might sound like magic but most non-FMV Mega CD titles are surprisingly small. Sonic the Hedgehog CD, for example, contains a measly 30MB of data.
While Sega has yet to reveal the full line up, it’s “confirmed” the following titles will be included:
- Silpheed (Mega CD)
- Shining Force CD (Mega CD)
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Mega CD)
- Virtual Racing (Mega Drive)
- Bonanza Bros (Mega Drive)
- Thunder Force IV (Mega Drive)
- Mansion of Hidden Souls (Mega CD)
- Popful Mail (Mega CD)
- Magical Taruruto (Mega Drive)
- Fantasy Zone (Mega Drive)
Why the quote marks around “confirmed”? Because, while it seems likely the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 will get a western release, it’s possible that the line-up may differ slightly when it hits the west. It’s also worth noting that, while the promotional materials show a six button wired controller, the western release of the Sega Mega Drive Mini came with a three button controller.
The mini-console is set to launch in Japan this October 27th priced at ¥9980, which is just over £60. You can bet there’ll be some people snapping it up on import; us, we’re content to wait for the console itself, though we’re seriously considering pre-ordering this awesome little cosmetic add-on.
In the meantime check out our review of the original Sega Mega Drive Mini for an idea of what to expect from this new version.
