The Mega Drive Mini Ships With A Version Of Tetris We Were Never Meant To Play

Ah, so you can watch Night of The Seagulls going on in the background while you play? Or is that Ghost Galleon?

$80 VS. $10,000. Hmmmn, I just don't know

I’m done with buying new consoles just for a couple games I haven’t played. If M2 did a collection of all these games and threw them on a cart then we are talking. As it stands I have no interest in buying another piece of plastic that I have to rig up to my poor television with wired controllers that don’t even halfway reach my living room sofa.

That's pretty cool. Shame the visuals look a bit crap, especially the digitised backgrounds.

Still, it says 42 games in the other article title so it looks like this is just an added bonus, which is neat.

i can't wait to get my hands on one to try out these games that i've never played. other then Alter Beast and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Tetris is still best on the NES. My all time favorite way to play.

Did you see the mega tower with the mini mega cd and sega 32x. Hope there's an english version of that.

Wow! Amazing! Always a few gifts “from Santa” with M2 on the job!

Wait, I thought Pajitnov was dead. Good to see he's still around!

It's pretty great if you think that it started life as a probably mediocre console from ATGames, to be developed in house(with M2 involved) , to include some pretty great third party games and some really rare! This is how you give people incentive!

Looks like LEGO Tetris! Cool!

However, no, I probably won’t be buying this.

@NotTelevision I’m sure the controllers will be a fine length. If that’s not good enough for you, Retro-Bit sells 6-button controllers that are 10 feet long. If that’s still not good for you, I’m sure 8bitdo will come up with something wireless. I’m not sure if the M30 will be compatible with the Genesis Mini.

@Miadaskate Yeah I actually really admire what M2 does. Everything I played on Switch bearing their signature has been top notch stuff. It’s just a preference when it comes to being able to play these games on current gen hardware, with all the conveniences that come with it.

Encouraging companies by hyping up these mini consoles have moved the scales in a direction that inconveniences players. There is nothing going on in these Mega Drive games that couldn’t be emulated on current gen hardware. That’s just my take. Enjoy the Mega Drive Mini though if that’s your thing.

@impurekind In the livestream, they were playing the System 16 version instead, so maybe it'll end up being that.

@BensonUii the Japanese version has the MOST IMPORTANT GAME ON THE ENTIRE SYSTEM (MUSHA) as an exclusive.

I got a repro of this game and it was terrible, I don't get why Sega choose this over MUSHA or Rocket Knight Adventures. Nobody was asking for this as Tetris 99 on my Switch already gave me my filled of Tetris.

@retro_player_22 The Switch and the Genesis Mini are completely different though. Tetris also wasn't part of the 40. Think of it as a bonus.

3rd SEGA Mini articles in less than an hour. Is this site now "Sega Life" or am I missing the obvious Nintendo relationship? I don't recall the PS Mini getting 3 articles in 30 minutes.

That’s pretty cool, I had no idea Tetris was on Genesis.

I think this just attracted my attention... 👀

I'm sold. Way to ante up to the way Nintendo presented their titles with not one but two never-before-released games. And I'm including the Mega Man game as a third! Can't wait to plug it in. I can still hope they'll include MUSHA and Rocket Knight Adventures, right?

@impurekind M2 are known for adding in extra games, wouldn't be shocked if they had Master System games or 32x games on it, but you need to unlock on the menu

Neat as a novelty thing sure. But I will be happy sticking with Tetris 99 on my Switch. I am not a fan of the mini consoles like so many are. I don't like swapping out HDMI cables all the time.

The best Tetris is The New Tetris on N64, then Tetris DS.

@rjejr Probably because everyone and their mother soon found out how utterly crap that "Mini" effort was. Bad emulation, bad game catalog and so on. From what I've heard, it could still be hacked just as easily as the Nintendo Minis, but since the emulator is crap, that still wasn't much of an incentive to buy it regardless.

Now, this gizmo here, with the excellent M2 team behind the wheel, is going to be something else entirely. Probably going to surpass even the Nintendo Minis in quality. And seeing as they also always discussed M2's brilliant 3DS ports of classic Sega games, that's another good excuse to pay a little more attention to them.

And after all: they've also discussed plenty of other retro/faux-retro systems (and also with multiple articles), so why not this one as well?

@ThanosReXXX What other non-Nintnedo systems have had 5 articles in 2 hours?

7:55 Where to Order
8:05 Games List
8:30 Tetris
9:30 Darius
9:40 Sega Surprises

That's actually 5 articles in only 1:45

That's almost more off topic than I've been. And somebody usually says - stop being off topic, if you want to talk about whatever go to the forum page. They could have had 1 article and said - if you want to talk more about the Sega Mini, here's our forum page.

Anybody ever accuses me of being off-topic I'm linking to this.

@NotTelevision there's tons of Sega Genesis collection stuff on steam and sonic sales/humble bundle codes are probably still sold to this day.

@rjejr Yeah, the number of articles vs the time span is probably a first, but what I was getting at, is that there have been multiple other non-Nintendo systems/devices in the recent past, that have also gotten their fair share of articles on here, so in that regard, it isn't all that strange.

@ThanosReXXX "Yeah, the number of articles vs the time span is probably a first"

3 more articles in 1:50 this morning in case you missed it.

That's 8 articles in about 24 hours. For something that as far as I can tell has absolutely nothing to do with Ntinedo.

I'm looking forwarding to seeing how many articles Stadia gets tomorrow after their live stream. Or maybe live chat during the live stream. It's just as relevant.

@rjejr Well, I guess the people at Nintendo Life must be real hardcore M2 fans, so they'll grab any chance they get...

Stadia is going to suck balls, by the way. Mark my words. Google thinks that everything they put out is the new Holy Grail, but it isn't. Remember Google Glass?

Archived for now, will probably resurface once they can actually pull it off in the way it was intended, but for now, it's more or less a failure, and it cost them billions of dollars. Not that it matters, since for them, that's only a small dent in the treasury, but still...

Google knows nothing about gaming, about what drives gamers, what it takes to make a good game, and although there are some big names involved, that still isn't any guarantee whatsoever, that it is going to be something even remotely good.

In the end, it'll probably die a slow and silent death, much like Apple's efforts to venture into the console area, or like the various streaming services that came before them, such as OnLive.

Now, this Sega Genesis Mini on the other hand, is definitely going to be good. It has nostalgia, which almost always works, it has far more games than the Nintendo Minis, it has some very special exclusives, which makes it an instant collector's item, and emulation is done by M2, a team with a well-deserved reputation in regards to how classic games SHOULD be ported to modern systems.

All in all, that means that so far, there's only positive news to report, about Sega's Mini console effort. Of course, actual testing of the console itself will still have to confirm all these positive points, but for the time being, there's nothing even remotely bad about it.

Unless of course people aren't mini console or Sega fans, which means that they probably couldn't care less...

@ThanosReXXX "Unless of course people aren't mini console or Sega fans, which means that they probably couldn't care less..."

And therein lies the heart of the problem. It's not about whether the Sega Mini is good or not, it's about how it relates to Nintendo and Nintneod Life to deserve 8 articles on the front page in 24 hours. They should have posted all of their comments in the Chit chat forum thread.

@rjejr Although I do agree that it was a bit much, I don't agree that it doesn't belong on the site. This is an independent Nintendo site, not bound to or by Nintendo to produce Nintendo-exclusive news.

Otherwise they'd never be able to report on the Polymega, all the Retron consoles, the weird retro handhelds, the new Neo Geo and what not. And I'm actually glad that they do, because it saves me the search for web sites that do report on these things specifically, provided that I would have even heard of all these devices in the first place, meaning I would have probably (or more than likely) totally missed out on them.

And that Sega Mini is in pre-order, so there...

@ThanosReXXX Well as I said before, though possibly not to you, it's their site, they can cover whatever they want, and having an article on it is nice, but 5 one morning and the 3 the next, well I don't have to like that much coverage on my Nintendo coverage site.

I'm not sure hwo the site still works but long ago my "bookmark" - nto sure if they ar still called that, "link" maybe - to this site took me only to one part of the site, I think it was the Gamecube or Wii before my family had any handhelds, and I don't like being bogged down w/ news about games and systems I was never going to play. So, they could have a "tab" for non-Nintnedo related stuff, but keep it off the main page.

@ThanosReXXX MAyeb I should just bookmark the Switch page now since we're talking about it.

https://www.nintendolife.com/nintendo-switch

No wait, can't do that, the Switch page doen'st list articles for the Switch eShop, b/c people who have a Switch don't want to know what games are on the Switch I guess, and people with a Switch dont' want to know what games are on the eShop.

https://www.nintendolife.com/switch-eshop

There is a "Retro" tab. Now if they coudl just keep all thsi stuff over there and off of the "NINTENDO Life" front page, Id' eb fine w/ that.

https://www.nintendolife.com/retro

But I can't just use the Switch page if it's going to neglect all of the eShop games, that's like 99% of Switch games.

Edit - sorry for all the types in a rush.

@rjejr Haha, don't worry. I got most of it. As well as your usual glass half empty, possibly typically "New Yorkian" outlook...

I think that all of your "recommendations" for the site aren't really improvements, but more personal preferences. There's only ever a handful of people that complains about, or doesn't like the non-Nintendo related articles, and I sure as hell ain't one of them.

As far as your bookmarked link goes, I can relate to that one. Not that I'm taken to some weird page or anything, but the standard page wasn't to my liking either, so now I've bookmarked this one:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news

And I'm using two ad blockers (ABP and uBlock Origin) to remove all the commercial crap from the pages, so my version of this website is completely clean, and shows all the news that you as a Nintendo fan should want to see...

@ThanosReXXX Didn't think to use the "news" page. And I tried to use this website w/o an adblocker a few years back just to be nice and OH MY GOD MY EYES! The entire internet is so overrun by ads I don't understand how anyone can use it ever w/o an ad blocker. Every once in awhile I will on my tablet and it's nearly unusable.

@rjejr True. Even on my phone, it's already annoying as hell. Glad I don't have a tablet...

There are special browsers, though, with built-in ad blockers for Android and iOS devices, so perhaps you should look into those, if it continues to annoy you.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks. I got ad blockers on everything now, otherwise Id' be an even crankier old man.

@rjejr Old? No, man: we call that experienced...

@ThanosReXXX No, I'm old, Jimi was experienced.

@rjejr Ah... Jimi... Another one of those great artists that left this mortal plane WAY before his time... He sure made some damn good music, though.

By the way: have you seen the absolute joke that was the Google Stadia presentation? I could say I told you so, but I'll let these videos do the talking for me, since they so wholeheartedly agree with me...

@ThanosReXXX No, I didn't watch the Stadia thing. Didn't stop me from tweeting about it though.

"I haven't paid much attention today, but I don't understand why we should BUY a $129 not-a-console to stream games we have to BUY even though we are only renting the stream, instead of BUYING a console and games to play and own. Xbox1 E3 level of fail."

@rjejr Xbox 1 level? Above and beyond, my friend. Above and beyond...

And it's only three months of membership for that $129, because it's a so-called starter pack with the (fugly) controller and Chromecast Premium. And after that, you'll continue to pay 10 bucks a month to stay connected.

You could say that this is similar to Xbox Game Pass, but at least Game Pass has tons of content, is an established service, and also offers options to buy and own games. No such options there with Google Lame-ia...

@ThanosReXXX "Xbox 1 level? Above and beyond"

I don't think the Stadia live show could have possibly been above and beyond the epic fail of that Xbox 1 reveal show b/c people were actually optimistic going into that E3 and Microsoft totally destroyed any good will they had after the Xbox 360, handing this gen to Sony and the PS4, meanwhile I don't think there was really much hype for Stadia, so only so much disappointment they could hand out, though admittedly it was as bad as they could get with such low expectations.

https://kotaku.com/that-xbox-one-reveal-sure-was-a-disaster-huh-509192266

@rjejr Well, for me (and probably many others) it was above and beyond. Google thinking that they're offering us the bee's knees where the future of gaming is concerned, and basically screwing over actual gamers every step of the way.

At least Xbox actually HAD a previous reputation in the field, which still mitigated the damage to some point, allowing them to recover to the point where they are now, which is a pretty decent comeback.

Google has no reputation whatsoever in this area, so them starting off out of nowhere in as ridiculously a bad way as this, is completely laughable and a recipe for falling into oblivion.

Just give that second of those three videos that I posted earlier a watch; it sums up my own sentiments perfectly...

@ThanosReXXX "allowing them to recover to the point where they are now, which is a pretty decent comeback."

Recover?

They sold over 80m Xbox 360s, were crushing the PS3 until it made a comeback there near the end.

Now PS4 has sold over 90m, Switch has sold 35m in 2 years, X1 - as far as anyone can tell - has sold about 40m in 6 years.

That's not a recovery, that's half of last gen. It's not Wii U, but it's close. Between Sony owning the home console market and Ntinedo the handheld market with it's hybrid MS and Xbox will be lucky to get back in it next gen. If there is going to be a recovery next gen for them it will probably only happen if Sony screws it up. Which is likely.

And Google being newcomers and MS being in the game is what lets me cut Google some slack for their stupidity but MS really blew it this gen, and that's all on them, they should have known better.

@rjejr You're looking at it in the wrong way: I'm not talking recovery in sales, I'm talking recovery in reputation. And they did. No if's and's or but's about it. The X solidified them as a serious player in the console space again, but because of the botched launch of the Xbox One, the damage was extensive, so they could have never completely recovered from that anyway.

But that does make their slow but steady comeback all the more commendable. They've slowly been building up, with the X, with far superior backwards compatibility, their online service, which is still second to none, and their huge efforts in buying up studios, and getting games developed for now and for the new generation.

In his conference speech, Phil Spencer mentioned a total of a thousand games being in development right now, which is completely crazy. Of course, the majority of them will be indies, but still...

To cut Google slack for being the newcomer isn't exactly realistic, from a business point of view. It's an entry into a new market. You either nail it, or you blow it. There's no grey in this business. And it also doesn't matter if you're a big or a small brand: you're still a first-timer regardless.

So, they blew it, it's going to suck, and it won't make a single dent in any of the other parties. Sure, they'll probably continue to push it, and market the hell out of it, and that is also why I said I'll give it a year or two. Three, if I'm really nice and generous, but it's not going to be what they want it to be, and it'll slowly fade out of existence somewhere in the next couple of years.

As for Microsoft: as we all know, Sony actually had the exact same plans for their launch (DRM, always online, obligatory motion camera), but they quickly removed all that from their starter pack after they saw the backlash that Microsoft got.

So, they had the same idea, making them equally stupid, but they were at least smart enough to make last minute changes and capitalize upon their competitor's mistake, but that was all it was. It wasn't like they were doing it for the people or anything, so I'm not really inclined to make them any bigger than they are.

They basically just got lucky, because they had momentum on their side. A momentum that, over the years, has been slowly tipping in Microsoft's favor again, regardless of numbers. It's about more than that. The bigger picture is creating good will, which is what will ultimately convert into those coveted sales numbers.

People only ever look at current numbers and think that this tells the tale, but they're all wrong. That's old news. It's the race that's coming, and the foundations that have been laid so far, and that they will continue to build upon, and Microsoft is doing a far better job of that than Sony, so I expect them to only improve even further.

And Google? They don't even really matter in this entire picture...

@ThanosReXXX "a total of a thousand games being in development right now"

Switch has 1,500 games right now. I couldn't name 1,000 of them. Even if you told me the names first I never heard of them.

"And Google? They don't even really matter in this entire picture..."

Which is why I dno't understand why we're even still talking about it. It's already as dead as Ouya as far as I'm concerned. A non-starter.

So, you think Xbox Scarlet will outsell PS5 or are yous strictly talking about good will? Right now MS probably does have more good will than Sony due to Sony ditching E3 and so much censorship and not playing well with others, but I think PS5 still sells well. Scarlet will sell in the US, but the world is a big place, and I still see PS5 as the main home console, Switch as the main portable, Scarlet the console of US incels.

@rjejr Well, since you mentioned wanting to cut them some slack, it would seem that we actually weren't finished discussing it, which is why I kept bringing it up. But I've pretty much covered all I want to say about it anyway, so let's move on, then.

And no, I don't think that the next Xbox will outsell the PS5, at least not immediately, but a reversed Xbox 360/PS3 situation might definitely occur, where they come out on top in the end, or perhaps even mid-generation. The good will they're building right now, and from what I've seen and heard in the presentation, Scarlett is going to up that effort by several levels, is almost certainly going to bring back a part of the crowd that has left them in favor of Sony, or has perhaps left console gaming altogether this generation.

Much like how some people skipped the Wii U, but did come back to Nintendo, now that the Switch is here.

All of that is besides E3, by the way. The head start in good will that Microsoft has, really has nothing at all to do with Sony not being present at E3. No, it has to do with the improvements they've made in their console line, and their services, both online and backwards compatibility (and let's not forget playing nicer with crossplay than Sony), over the last couple of years, and that they are still continuing, to this day.

Meanwhile, Sony is either growing complacent, or have really just been making quite a few stupid mistakes and/or decisions in that same time frame. So, one is improving, while the other is either stagnating or actually deteriorating.

And from what we could glean from the E3 presentation, Microsoft's improvement/expansion run is going to continue seamlessly onto the new platform as well, so it would seem to me, that they're hell-bent on keeping at least that part of their strategic advantage...

Also, getting PSO 2 as an exclusive, is a MASSIVE thing, and might just be the tipping point for them to get a better foothold in the Asian market as well.

@ThanosReXXX "Much like how some people skipped the Wii U, but did come back to Nintendo, now that the Switch is here."

Or, another more logical interpretation, is that people have been skipping Nitneod home consoles since the NES, with every generation selling fewer than the one before it:

Roughly -
NES 60m
SNES 50m
N64 35m
Gamecube 25m
Wii U 13m

(w/ the Wii being the Wii Sports casual machine who only bought 1 hoem console their entire lives)

and peopel buying the Switch ar emoving on from the 3DS.

I don't know thso ehandheld numbers but it's reasonably -
Gameboy 180m combined all models
DS 120m
3DS 80m

So Switch should get 60m just from the Nintnedo handheld fanbois. Nintneod home consoles are dead.

@rjejr Well, I obviously don't know how it is over there in the States, but in large parts of Europe, both the Wii and especially the Wii U were responsible for turning people away from Nintendo, and only now that the Switch is doing so many things right, people are starting to come back to the brand. Has nothing to do with being portable or a home console or whatever.

Just that people thought that Nintendo was going into the wrong direction in general, which is kind of a valid point, even though most of us hardcore Nintendo gamers know that both the Wii and the Wii U offered plenty of real gamer's games to keep most of us relatively happy, regardless of all the waggle-ware and stuff...

And I'll archive this thread, just to be able to smack you in the face with it, seeing as you can almost never say anything as definitive as that about Nintendo, so I don't agree with the statement that Nintendo home consoles are dead.

Personally, I wouldn't even dare to wager a bet on what their next piece of hardware is going to be, other than saying that it'll probably turn the tables over once again, much like they pretty much always do. The Wii U to Switch transition makes sense as a do-over, to get it right the second time, but those bridges are burnt now, so time for something completely new...

And when the hell have you ever been more logical than me?

@ThanosReXXX After Switch is Switch DS. How else are they going to port all of those 3DS games after they run out of Wii U games to port?

Did you here in Treehouse today Luigi's Mansion 3 was a Wii U game? I think almost all of Switch's games so far were Wii U Games they held back. Like Pikmin 4, still being held back, maybe for Switch DS.

There is almost certainly a mirror universe where I'm more logical than you and I look like this.

@rjejr Yeah, from all the 146500 possible outcomes that Dr. Strange looked at, there surely must be 1 where you actually are the winner...

Right now, I'm taking a break of all yes/no discussions, seeing as I'm sensing it is slowly starting to chip away at the hype I'm now feeling, after Nintendo's absolutely solid E3 video. I want to feel gleefully happy, with a big, child-like smirk on my face. Especially after having seen so much great stuff.

@ThanosReXXX God I wish I could feel gleefully happy for a moment. Or feel anything but anger. I think I'm months sleep deprived. Or over caffeinated. Or something. Really not myself, not liking who I am. Thought the ND would help, but it really didn't. I thought it was just me but both my Nintnedo fan teenage sons were also underwhelmed. I think I've ruined them letting them play so many videogames while they were young, nothing excites them either. Oh well, at least they have Pokemon.

@rjejr What happened? What has gotten you so sleep-deprived? Doesn't really sound very conducive to your health.

In general, I never feel that there's anything wrong with a healthy dose of criticism and/or cynicism, but there's a line that I won't cross, and that is the one where I feel I should take a reality check.

I don't have any kids (or a significant other), but if I would have, then I certainly wouldn't be looking to them for a second opinion. You always need to hold the yardstick up against independent views, unrelated to your own.

If more than half the world, and almost all the Nintendo fans, even some of the more discerning ones, think that this was one of the best Nintendo Directs in quite a while, then it simply was.

Now, obviously, there's always a chance that certain games don't interest or attract certain people, in which case only a small percentage of the games shown, is left to make a positive impression, which is obviously harder, because it's then also human nature to have that view that tells us that only a certain percentage of the entire presentation was good, or heaven's forbid: slightly interesting, in which case, we'll still deem the presentation as a whole underwhelming and/or bad.

Well, I refuse to do that. I am not interested in Smash Bros at all, so that first segment of the Direct didn't excite me one bit. But almost all the other stuff that followed, did interest me, so for me, that tiny bit of uninteresting info did nothing to diminish my overall positive verdict of the Direct.

Just wait until tomorrow, and then check YouTube, and various independent media, and you'll see for yourself that Nintendo really did do a pretty good job, regardless of what we personally think about it.

P.S.

I don't think it's because of too much video games, that your kids aren't excitable anymore: if you'd know how many games I own and/or have played, then you'd probably think that I couldn't even get excited anymore, even if I had another live to spare, on top of this one...

No, I'm afraid that your own cynicism has infected them as well. Or maybe it was already destined to be. Genetics, and all that.

But at the end of the day, it's just a hobby. I would personally never allow something like that to either ruin my day, or depend on it to drag me out of whatever rut I was potentially in.

I was kinda disappointed to not see any Metroid Prime 4 news, and somewhere deep down, I was also silently hoping for something Pikmin related, but alas...

But even that STILL did nothing to diminish the overall positive feeling that this presentation has given me. I'll at least have plenty of stuff to try on the Switch, this Fall.