The Mega Drive Mini is released in Europe on 4 October. Sega Mega Drive Mini price and release date But even if this is just a one off it’s still a perfect homage to the golden age of one of gaming’s most beloved companies.

It’s so good, in fact, that we can only hope it’s a sign that Sega is finally starting to take its glorious history seriously again. You get two included in the package, which is great, or you can buy the Street Fighter-inspired six-button ones separately.ĭespite a few loose threads the Mega Drive Mini is a must-have for every Sega fan and one of the very best retro consoles so far. It’s just over half the size of the original, so fits in the palm of your hand, but still uses two full-size three-button controllers. If you’ve seen any other retro mini console (there’s also the disappointing PlayStation Classic, the very promising PC Engine Mini, and various attempts to bring back the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64) then the Mega Drive Mini will be a very familiar concept. Instead of the usual half-assed effort, that has characterised almost every recent attempt to capitalise on Sega’s glory days, this is the House of Sonic at their very best. There have been numerous licensed versions of the Mega Drive before, including portable variants, but this is the first one to be made by Sega themselves, with software emulation by the masters at developer M2. The Mega Drive Mini is Sega’s answer to the Classic Mini NES and SNES, Nintendo’s extremely successful plug ‘n’ play retro consoles.

And so the Mega Drive stands as their greatest achievement and this mini version, finally, is the tribute it has long deserved. Sega themselves were never able to take advantage of that fact though, first stumbling into abject failure with the Saturn and then only briefly redeeming themselves with the commercially unsuccessful Dreamcast.

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