Sega Genesis Mini

Just as I did with the Super Nintendo Classic two years ago, I also bought into the hype of the Sega Genesis Mini that was released this year. It features basically the same number of options with double the amount of games. 42 games are included as opposed to the 21 available for the Super NES Classic. The main downside is having to shell out for additional six-button controllers since, in North America, only the three-button version ships with the console. Because of this the $80 price tag is actually higher with the need to add on $20-40 more. The inclusion of Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition makes the lack of a packed in six-button controller very puzzling.

Speaking of SFIISCE, once I had dropped the extra $40, Usagi704 and I played many matches in the game. The emulation is slightly off and not noticeable in other games, but for a fighting game it can be a problem. This isn’t to say the work that M2 did here is bad. It most certainly is excellent, but it does overall seem a very small bit below their usual high quality work.

I’ll be also getting M2’s next big release next year as I will also be getting the TurboGrafx-16 Mini when it releases on March 19, 2020.

New Releases 2011: Week of Sept. 25

This looks like the week of rereleases, but at least they’re all good. You could easily spend a bundle of money on just these reissues of Phantasy Star on PSP, Code Veronica X, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and Splinter Cell.

My pick is one of the final DS games worth getting: Solatorobo. It has a connection to a 1999 PS1 game called Tail Concerto by the same developer.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (PS3)
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (PS3)
Civilization V – Game of the Year Edition (PC)
Driver: San Francisco (PC)
Phantasy Star Defender’s Pack (PSP)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PS3, X360)
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD (PS3, X360)
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (DS)
The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD (PS3)
X-Men: Destiny (PS3, X360, WII, DS)

New Releases 2009: Nov. 1-14

Out of all of the games listed below it’s undeniable which one will outsell them all. That’s obviously Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Even with that said, there’s been quite a bit of talk about Dragon Age: Origins during the last few weeks leading up to its release.

My interests lie with Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier and Need for Speed: Nitro on the DS.

Where do your interests lie?

NEW GAMES FOR THE WEEK OF 11/1
Band Hero (X360, PS2, PS3, WII, DS)
Dragon Age: Origins (X360, PS3, PC)
Dragon Age: Origins – The Stone Prisoner (XBL)
Dragon Age: Origins – Warden’s Keep (XBL)
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (PS2, PSP)
Lego Rock Band (DS, PS3, WII, X360)
Need for Speed: Nitro (WII, DS)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (X360, PS3)
Rabbids Go Home (DS, WII)
Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (DS, PSP)
Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition (PC, PS3, X360)

NEW GAMES FOR THE WEEK OF 11/8
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3, X360, PC)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Mobilized (DS)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex (WII)
Dragon Ball: Raging Blast (X360, PS3)
Excitebike: World Rally (WW)
Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection (X360)
Final Fantasy XI: Vana’diel Collection 2010 (PC)
Harvest Moon DS: Sunshine Islands (DS)
Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (WII)
Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble (PSP)
NBA 2K10 (WII)
Phantasy Star Zero (DS)
Pop’n Music (WII)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (PSP, PS2, WII)
Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage (WII)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack (DS)

New Releases 2009: March 1-14

As you can see below there’s quite the selection for the first part of March. Personally I don’t want many, but the interesting ones are SNK related: The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match and Samurai Shodown Anthology. They’re also going to be cheap so that’s a bonus, I guess.

NEW GAMES FOR THE WEEK OF 3/1
Empire: Total War (PC)
Halo Wars (X360)
MLB 09: The Show (PSP, PS2, PS3)
Major League Baseball 2K9 (PS3, X360, PS2, WII, PC)
Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
Sonic and the Black Knight (WII)
The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match (PS2, X360)
Tom Clancy’s HAWX (X360, PS3)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (PS2)

NEW GAMES FOR THE WEEK OF 3/8
Crysis: Maximum Edition (PC)
EVE Online Special Edition (PC)
Madworld (WII)
Mana Khemia: Student Alliance (PSP)
MySims Party (DS, WII)
Resident Evil 5 (X360, PS3)
Samurai Shodown Anthology (PSP, WII)
Tom Clancy’s HAWX (PC)
Trivial Pursuit (PS2, WII, X360, PS3)

Here’s a few misc. items of interest that I posted on my Twitter account recently.

* Giant Bomb’s front page now looks like it came from the Xbox. Is it safe to call it the “New Giant Bomb Experience?”
* Consider yourself likely shocked by X-Play’s rating of the new 50 Cent game.
* Funniest video I’ve seen in a long time: Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work.
* More things that I love: “How to Play a Scrubby Ken” Flowchart.
* Retroware TV High Score Challenge: Legendary Wings (NES). My best score was 275,000.
* Yakuza 3 sells more than double the amount that Street Fighter IV did in 2 weeks in Japan on DAY ONE!
* Get $300 from American Express to close your account. Holy shit! Where do I sign up to cancel?

ScrewAttack’s Top 20 Genesis Games

ScrewAttack revealed their list of the best Genesis games last month with numbers 20-11. Today they finally released 10-1. The greatest thing about it is that I own 8 of their top 10. So check out the 2 videos below and gaze at the list at the bottom that has the ones that I own in bold.

Top 20 Genesis Games (20-11)
Top 20 Genesis Games (10-1)

20. X-Men 2: Clone Wars
19. TMNT: Hyperstone Heist
18. Mutant League Football
17. Shining Force
16. Altered Beast
15. Kid Chameleon
14. Comix Zone
13. Out Of This World
12. Earthworm Jim 2
11. Mortal Kombat
10. Golden Axe
9. Vectorman
8. Castlevania: Bloodlines
7. Rocket Knight Adventures
6. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
5. Phantasy Star II
4. Gunstar Heroes
3. Streets of Rage 2
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
1. Strider

Now Playing: December ’06

“Now Playing” is back at ya with last month’s carry over of Mortal Kombat II via the SNES and Final Fight One for the GBA.

Games that I’ve finished were: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Ridge Racer V, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor.

Astro Boy was a surprisingly simple yet somewhat difficult game that was extremely fun to play. I still like going back to it. The same can be said for Ridge Racer V even though it’s super short. That’s to be expected since the game’s on a CD and not a DVD. CoD’s Big Red One is unlike any of the other games from that series. It’s story sticks with one group of guys instead of shifting off to a different group right before you get to know the characters. It’s also a bonus that a couple of the cast members from the Band of Brothers mini-series did the voice work.

A game that I’m close to finishing is Gears of War. I’m near the end of the train segment with the big baddie that was the first to take out one of the Delta squad members earlier in the game.

Other games that I put my hands on this month were: Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 3 (PS2), Sonic Advance 3, Assault Heroes, Sega Genesis Collection (PS2), Capcom Classics Mini Mix, and Street Fighter II Turbo.

The Sega Genesis Collection had all new games, at least to me. I never had a Genesis during the 16-bit era so whether I knew of the games included or not, I had never played any of them before. I liked the two Sonic the Hedgehog games way more than I thought that I would. What helps with that is that you can save your game anywhere and at anytime. It’s just like “save states” in PC emulation. It’s an awesome feature that I’m super happy that was added thanks to Digital Eclipse! Shinobi III, Comix Zone, and five early Sega arcade games (ie: the original Altered Beast) are there to sweeten the pot. RPG fans will be really pleased that no less than four games from that genre are on this PS2 disc. The lesser known Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star II, III, and IV. Other multi-game series’ included in the package are Ecco the Dolphin (3), Golden Axe (3), Shinobi (2), and Vectorman (2).

All in all it was a great month of gaming!