Sega's New Astro City Micro-Console Is Packed With 36 Arcade Gems

I'm not interested but I appreciate the HDMI-out port. Imagine a Switch Lite or the rumoured Xbox Series S as a handheld console with HDMI out port! Yes, I know that Switch has a dock but I mean the Lite or successor. 😁

I’m definitely getting one of these! I hope they do a driving game version next!

Does anyone like Altered Beast?

Its always on everything. I have like 3 versions.

@chiptoon I have it on 3DS but I haven't played it yet.

Meh meh MEH! Enough of the garbage recycled SEGA GENESIS crap! They've been shoveling this tune for a decades now.

SEGA DREAMCAST MINI or BUST!

I wish that Sega would do something dreamcast related instead of releasing the same arcade games over and over again..

This would go nice next to the Neo Geo Mini!

$120???? Ok.... Good luck with that...

Alright, this is on my radar. It will go right next to the Neo Geo Mini.

Just port these games onto the Switch!

Day one. Really hope they avoid the super scaler stuff (it would look weird in an arcade cabinet lol) and focus on other IP. Gah. Excited.

@Damo Man, I still don't get why Altered Beast is so popular. It's so dull to play.

Depending on the final line-up, the performance (it seems that image quality in Neo Geo Minis wasn't as good as it should have been) and the Western availability -which would mean possible price drops occasionally-, I might be interested.

The joystick and button's are far too close together on this like they were on the neo geo one for me they should use a slightly larger base to have a much more natural and comfortable feel and a slightly larger screen.

My question is this: How recent are we going with this? I'd almost be more excited if the limit was the Model 1, because we'd probably start seeing some really obscure stuff then. The more obscure, the better!

Innnnnnnnnteresting. I wonder how feasible it would be to hollow it out and put a raspberry pi in there.

wth on such tiny screen. i just hold my samsung s7 and i'm like it's like this mini is like half my screen. You can't enjoy a game on that very small screen. It's a good thing it has HDMI. But way too small. No sale sega

I'd really like to see Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder and the arcade version of the original on Switch.

Definitely has my interest, especially if it lets you use your Megadrive Mini controllers. I have the six button Retrobit version for playing Street Fighter so if I could use that it would be a good investment. If it's yet another set of controllers to buy then it's too big of an outlay. The mini cab is cute but just doesn't look practical, same as the Neo Geo mini.

@zzzyzxroad why only Dreamcast ? Remake of Saturn IP's would be lovely. Also full arcade ports would be nice. Sega has some nice current arcade games that i would love to play at home.

@Damo I will go to my grave (which I recently rose from) defending Altered Beast

@scully1888 Well, different strokes for different folks. I just never 'got it'.

I'm interested.

My dream was to see M2 put together an "Astro City Collection" for the Switch, and for Sega to team up with a company like Hori to remake the Virtua Stick Pro.

This may scratch the candy cabinet itch anyway, but in the meantime I guess I'll just keep slotting my neon green and pink joycon onto the flip grip and keep dreaming.

Ok, I'm going to have to make a list lol. (Can't help it.)
Monaco GP
Zaxxon
Pengo
Congo Bongo
Up 'n' Down
Tac Scan (man, I loved that game!)
Quartet
Choplifter
Shinobi
ESWAT
Bonanza Bros
Die Hard Arcade
Sonic the Fighters
Decathlete
Winter Heat
...gah honestly don't care what else lol.

Edit. Forgot Wonderboy and of course Puyo puyo and Columns will be on (because it disappoints everyone hoping for yet another release of Out Run* and Afterburner.

Edit2: Spider-man would be an AMAZING (pardon the pun) inclusion too.

*Seriously, am I the only person that would walk past OutRun playing on a stand up arcade cabinet with a stick and six buttons and think 'what the heck?'.

Yes, microswitched joystick!
I hope SNK take note and release an updated Neo Geo Mini with a microswitched joystick.

I love this announcement, and I hope Sega also makes a Master System Mini and a Saturn Mini.

No mention of AM2.

@zzzyzxroad you don't know a *****. These are arcade releases, not sega genesis

Sega, go big or go home. Sega Dreamcast mini with online capability! Phantasy Star online, let everyone play together.Get Quake 3 and unreal on there. You could easily charge £100 and get away with it if it has online. Marketing slogan can be same to Dreamcast's, "X billion people in the world, let's play together".

Interesting! The presence of Virtua Fighter makes me excited to see what the other unannounced games are. Hope there are more from that era and not just older games.

Meh, original hardware with framemeister or emu for me

@JoakimZ, improved button layout would be nice. I don’t get why they created a weird third layout from the standard four in-line or at least a grid. This unit, however is how you make a mini arcade! I’m sold!

Hmmm, right out the gate I can tell you the physical design of the thing doesn't really appeal to me. I think I'd rather have just seen a Mega Drive Mini 2, which they could even have included these games on as a bonus and I doubt anyone would really complain. Although I suppose I get why this probably makes more sense to exist in a similar form to what it does given that it's all about the arcade games, particularly the way the joystick and buttons are set up.

@BlueOcean yeah, I’m hoping for a Switch Lite with hdmi, that would be a day one for me.

This looks great! I was going to buy an (expensive) model of the Asto City Cabinet on ebay from Japan, but i'll just wait for this.

@KIRO Yes, we don't really need a dock, it's just a big piece of... plastic. The Switch Lite should have an HDMI port.

Oh for goodness sake Sega just make a new console and get it over with! On a serious note Dreamcast games on switch maybe? Pretty please?

I wonder if it’ll be possible to use the Hori Real Arcade Pro V Hayabusa on this.

Holy smoke alien storm arcade version I’m in never thought I would see the day! I need this in uk though! Please Sega xxx

@Damo Normally I'd give you guys gruff as I don't see any connection to Nintendo Life here but since you wrote the article and this is just so you I'm going to give you this one as it kinda looks like your new sneakers. 😉

They had me at Alien Syndrome. I need this NOW!

Day one! So great to see Revenge if Death Adder on there.

@chiptoon Love Altered Beast. It's one of the few games I wish SEGA would make a decent sequel to.

@scully1888
I like the game as well. It can be challenging but the issue for most players, I feel, is it was so different for the period. I have it on the Genesis cart for Switch now.

Love the Astro City cabs.

I’m really not a big fan of old games, especially if nothing’s changed. And I hate looking at a small screen to play so this is a pass for me.

@GrailUK I absolutely love Winter Heat and Athlete Kings, such fond memories of multi-player with friends back in the day! Thanks for the reminder (and great list!)

Sega should do a bartop size machine compatible with Naomi games so we can play Dreamcast games like crazy taxi and Virtua tennis I would defo buy that !

@Precinct1313 Thanks. I sincerely hope they avoid Afterburner and Outrun etc. Not because I don't rate them or am bored with them. But they don't scream arcade stick and cabinet to me. So I could have easily wanted Daytona 2 for example, but man, it would feel janky.

Man I want one. Where can I get one?

I'd buy it if they had Sonic 1 on it as I only own it 12 times on previous releases and would like to get to 13

@chiptoon yes, i love it. We need an anime aesthetic reboot.

This is really cool, i just wish it was about double the size.

I want one, they release this in the UK, hell, I'd get 2.

Dam that looks cool so much better than the neogeo mini.
Hopefully can hook it up to a tv with a good arcade stick or controller.

@Zenszulu this looks cool, but it also looks unplayable unless you are five years old

TAKE MY MONEY NOWWW!!!

@chiptoon I love it because it was apart of my childhood. It’s significant to Sega because i believe it was the very first arcade game ported to the Megadrive. It hasn’t aged well but back in the day it looked quite handsome running on a cabinet.

I hope they do a better job with CRT filter options. The Neo mini has a crappy smoothing filter that’s just pointless.

Come on, why don’t sega also release it on switch and PS4 for $59.99 or even $69.99?, for me, I already got PS4 and switch, really don’t need another console and another pair of controller when I also got three DualShock 4 and three pro controller.

@USWITCH64 ha ha so funny. I just want them to release it on switch. I really don’t understand, these tiny consoles and tiny buttons and tiny screen, they are unplayable, so for me connect to the tv is the only option, and I still need to buy a pair of controller.for god sake, just release it on switch and PS4.

@zzzyzxroad
Pretty sure these are all arcade games.
Also I doubt a dreamcast mini would be very cost effective to make.
It'd take some powerful hardware to run the emulation correctly.
Believe me, i'd like to have a Saturn Mini, but i know it won't happen for the same reasons.

Well, looks like this is going to hurt my wallet, if it ever arrives on Western shores, because I definitely NEED to have this...

As for the screen being too small for some: complete nonsense. I use the Neo Geo Mini on a regular basis, and that screen is just fine, and this one actually seems to be a bit bigger, from looking at those pictures.

And on the back, there's two USB ports, so attaching any of your own preferred controllers is probably also not going to be an issue. It's better than the Neo Geo Mini in that respect, because those controller ports were custom inputs, so I had to get two of those on top of the cost of the console itself. (Well, "had to"... you know what I mean. Just wanted to get the complete package, and it's nice being able to play two player games when connected to the TV)

@motang

Virtua Fighter is on the device. That's an AM2 joint.

@tanaka2687 I haven’t seen a release of Death Adder, anywhere.

I'm very tempted, but it does seem a bit pricey. Probably a bit too much above impulse buy. Still very appealing, though, for people like me who always wanted their own arcade.

Regarding Altered Beast, I'm more a fan of it than not. In the '80s I used to cycle to a local shop just to play it. There weren't too many side-scrolling 2D action games with graphics like that, plus it had things like collecting orbs and becoming more powerful with animal transformations. As others have said, the Mega Drive port was a good way to launch the console, and I feel the game's reputation (both arcade original and port) began to lessen as other Mega Drive games surpassed it. Maybe it hasn't aged all that well, like other coin-ops, but it definitely has its place on something representing what '80s arcades felt like.

The best thing about this machine, in my opinion, is that it has both Golden Axe coin-ops on it. As it's capable of System 32, how about including Arabian Fight? I've never even played that one but am curious about it. And it'd be great if the licence was granted for Spider-Man: The Arcade Game - one of the most enjoyable beat-'em-ups ever. Capcom managed to secure some licensed games for their arcade stick, so you never know.

@Luna-Harmony The article says it has HDMI output.

Its a shame that most of the confirmed games already have home console ports. I appreciate that the arcade versions are different, but they're not different enough to grab my interest. Will be nice to see more arcade-only games get announced.

This is cool. If this gets Sonic The Fighters and SegaSonic The Hedgehog I may have to consider it.

Looks like a lot of fun but the neo geo mini just makes me not take the games seriously so I don't expect to be grinding it out learning games on this thing. It will sit well on my shelf though and needs a lot more bold sega branding on it.

@zzzyzxroad But this isn't the Genesis, these are arcade games.
(although many of the games so far have had Genesis ports re-released, yes)

I'd guess of out the 10 games announced so far, Revenge of Death Adder is the high point of "new" content.

I also notice not a single racing game in the bunch.

A Sega mini arcade machine without a racing game is like if the Neo Geo Mini had no fighters.

I'm in, take my money

I'm in if it hits America, the Golden Axe titles alone do it for me. And it sure would cost less than the Arcade 1UP cab.
On cabs, a US release would need some art on the sides to dress it up, perhaps a collage of characters from the included titles. Wishlist title: Star Wars Trilogy ARCADE

@ROBLOGNICK It's not likely they'll put SegaSonic on the thing. That game used a trackball to control the characters, after all.

This actually makes me hopeful that we will see a Virtua Fighter release on Switch. At least they’re acknowledging it, and not rereleasing the awful Genesis/MD port of VF2.

@N00BiSH

Yeah, I know. It would need some modification which is probably too much effort. But it would be (at least one) killer game for this.

These games should had being released as part of the Sega Ages games. The fact that Sega couldn't give us these are disturbing.

@damo @scully1888 Here's a question. The mini has 6 buttons. Which SEGA games used 6 buttons in the arcade??? (never played Dark Edge, so maybe that one?)

@Damo Hmm...the plot thickens. I bet some 6 button megadrive games make it on lol. If they got an arcade release in Japan or something localised like that.

@zzzyzxroad Okay, Mr. Nopon. Death Adder is pretty sweet, though.

@chiptoon I do, but I'm also old enough to remember when it first came out. It was the first Genesis game I ever played and my mind was blown. I knew the NES could never pull off graphics like that.

Death Adder?? Lower the price and release in the States and we'll talk.

@Damo I'm glad my pack-in title was "NFL '95" rather than that mediocre game, even if it took me years to figure out how to punt or kick a field goal.

I think would rather these games came to Switch under the Ages banner

@chiptoon "Does anyone like Altered Beast?"

I loved it when it first came out. But the game hasn't aged well and it was completely eclipsed by its much better successor, Golden Ax. Now, it's mostly just interesting looking at it as a rough draft for Golden Ax. But yeah, I could live without Altered Beast in my next Sega Collection.

Sega had more success with their arcade games than they did with the Saturn or Dreamcast, so that's why they would do a mini with those vs. a mini of the Saturn or Dreamcast.

Altered Beast is fantastic, but I think you had to be there.

@tanaka2687 Wow u and I posted this at the same time! Precisely 2:24am! Great minds...

@chiptoon i use to play master system version in 90s! Never finished it but i have on my mobile so may give a go. Was really creepy that evil tree at end of first level.

@GrailUK Sadly, it appears they're focusing on approximately 1990-1995 with this.

All the great 1980's Sega games will probably largely be ignored, although I do see Fantasy Zone is at least here for one that's a few years before the area of focus.

So perhaps there's still hope.

@Atariboy Never say never

Wow Death Adder! Why can’t Sega add this game to the Sega Ages Switch lineup?? We’ve all been asking!

I would have preferred something the size of the original GBA for on-the-go play, instead of this goofy table-top mini-arcade cab.

@chiptoon I have played it on the megadrive/genesis back in the day. save for a digitized 'Rise from your grave!' it is that interesting a game.
It's one of those games that was cool back then but aged pourly because moving from left to right and defeating hordes of enemies has been done a lot better over the decades.

I love the design of Astro cabs! Gonna need to order one of these! 😄

I'm a sucker for micro consoles, but I really can't think of a single Sega game I'd want on it that isn't readily available on a console I own.

This is actually better than their “big news” a few weeks ago.

I’d get it for Alien Syndrome alone but I could never beat it by myself.

I'm not in the target demographic for this. I did not grow up with arcades - there just weren't any in my area.

But cool for those who like these.

(I'd really like more retro support for my nostalgic era however. Game Boy, GBA, N64, Gamecube, PS2)

Release this in North America. I will buy one when they release this baby!!!

@chiptoon i love altered beast. I
remember my neighbors dad had it. We played the ***** out of it..y

Gonna need to see some Yu Suzuki games on here before I bite

@rjejr Obviously there are a lot of Nintendo/Sega fans here. A lot of us grew up loving both companies.

I think I would prefer this as a compilation on cartrigde for the Switch to be honest.

If only I didn’t spend the same amount on tw micro game gears :/ oh well

@rjejr Well, since Sega consoles are defunct and the arcade era is kind of over, one of the remaining fanbases had to kind of take the Sega refugees in. PS ain't it. XBox is technically the successor of Sega in multiple ways (MS worked on the last Sega consoles, and Sega helped with the first XBox and contributed a lot of library that should have gone to Dreamcast). .....but the Sega fanbase is basically the Old Ones........so that means Nintendo.

@ritouf You'd be surprised how good it could work. If this mini-cab is anything like the Neo Geo Mini or even better in quality, then you'll be able to play on it just fine. I have the Neo Geo Mini, and I'd say it's quite comfortable to use, even for someone with medium to large-sized hands like mine. Yes it is small, but I didn't experience any discomfort, and initially, I played on it almost every day.

As for these kinds of things being stable or not: on the Neo Geo Mini, the underside is fitted with relatively large rubber pads/anti-slip surfaces, so you'd have to be REALLY rough with it to displace it while playing. I'm assuming the same will be true for this Sega mini desktop arcade.

Put Moonwalker on it and I'm there. Was that a Sega game?

I want this thing!

Mini this mini that. I prefer original hardware. What happened to SEGA putting Saturn & Dreamcast on the Switch anyways? Please SEGA stop rehashing Master System and Mega Drive games! Get your IP's out on all systems! Saturn, Dreamcast, forgotten Arcade classics have been long forgotten by the company! The best thing that came out on the SEGA AGES line was M2 coded Virtua Racing 1080P 60HZ! The rest was same all same all : (

@Slowdive Aarrgghhh! That is annoying to hear (but thanks for your reply). I have the ROM of the console version I think, but have only ever played the arcade version. Just how different is it?

If only we could get a compilation of these games for consoles.

@Magician I'm hoping M2 carry on with the SEGA AGES stuff. They were great and totally how to do retro. Maybe they were busy helping with this mini.

@N00BiSH But they might put Sonic the Fighters on there! That game was notorious for not coloring Amy's torso white to show she was wearing panties under the skirt. Yeah, I had to go that far, and one pic I saw had Espio throw her with his tongue, and she was flung out of her skirt!

https://www.deviantart.com/blehmaster7/art/Tongue-Throw-821491825

Sega has such a rich arcade history of games that have never seen the light of day outside of the arcade. I really hope the other 26 games dig into some of those.

@KIRO but then the whole purpose of the switch lite would be pointless??

@BulkSlash That'd be a hard sell for me unless they included race wheel support

Can already emulate titles like Scud Race and all their others, upscaled to 1440p and works with my wheel with force feedback support.. No chance in hell I'm gonna use a controller to play those games

Really wish they would had just reveal all the games like what Nintendo, SNK, and Konami did with the NES, SNES Mini, Turbo Grafx-16, and NeoGeo Mini, doing what Sony did by slowly revealing games batch by batch will either lead to disappointment or excitement or both.

Fact it has Virtua Fighter on there must mean it's a more powerful SBC compared to what they used in Mega Drive Mini

Really glad the joystick will be micro switch, SNK should take note

@Damo "I don't think we'll ever see an official re-release of Moonwalker, ever – which is a shame, and another reason for supporting the work of people who preserve these forgotten gems which will never be available elsewhere, legally or otherwise."

Exactly right, a lot of classics might get repackaged often from the likes of Nintendo and Sega but there's a lot of IPs that would get lost in history if not for peoples efforts to preserve such masterpeices!

@chiptoon Altered Beast is a fun game to fart around in, at leas the original arcade version is. Later iterations just didn't capture it's charm.

@Slowdive Wow, you just made me feel old for knowing and playing Alien 3 when I was a wee one. hahaha....

Looks cool but not 160 plus tax cool

Always feels odd seeing people who love Nintendo complaining about prices, Nintendo are historically known for being expensive xD

Astro City! Raow raow RAW!!

@GrailUK I'm hopeful Quartet would be on there because that whistle sound sample used in the new trailer was lifted straight from the game's intro.

@MindOfAJ "forgotten Arcade classics have been long forgotten by the company!"

Um, this IS the mini that'll (hopefully) address some of those games if Virtua Fighter 1, Revenge of Death Adder and Dark Edge are anything to go by.

@gcunit Can imagine just as we saw with the value of the console versions, I assume the cost to license Michael Jackson's name (as well as the music used within the game) probably went up significantly when he died.

@masterLEON Oh, that's a great catch man!

@NEStalgia But I thought only kids play on Nintendo consoles? 😉

@Antraxx777 There are a lot of Sony fans here too but I didn't see much coverage of the PS Mini.

Probably a lot of Kpop fans too but nobody ever talks about them.

It's "Nintendo Life". If you're going to name your website that people are going to have expectations. I keep encouraging them to change the name to Nintendo Life & That, even made them a logo and everything, but they haven't taken me up on it. 😂

@Apportal_SMM2 To be clear: I love the Switch Lite form factor, it’s by far the superior hand held when compared to the OG Switch. The ideal for me would be a Switch Lite WITH and HDMI so it can be played on the TV too!

@rjejr
They did cover the PS Mini multiple times:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/09/sony_responds_to_nintendos_success_with_its_very_own_playstation_classic_mini_console
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/12/feature_snes_classic_edition_vs_playstation_classic_-_which_one_should_you_choose

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/12/video_snes_classic_runs_psone_games_better_than_the_playstation_classic

Plus Sega's always has been one if the Big N's biggest third party supporters for multiple console generations. I know of quite a few people who think Sonic is a Nintendo character!

@rjejr Kids and rooftop party hipsters. Did you forget the rooftop party hipsters already? What would Karen think?

@KIRO but that’s exactly my point: the reason the lite is lower price is because it can’t be played on the tv. It is specifically a handheld. And although having a HDMI outlet would be cool, I doubt Nintendo would go against what the console’s for.

@Apportal_SMM2 I see your point now. So the lite is there to be cheaper and fill that end of the market. My hope is efficiencies of scale and/or lowering component prices will one day lead to my desired ultimate device!

@chiptoon Altered beast is a quick game and fun with a friend, but it has no real substance and is easy as hell.

I so hope this makes it to the west

I have preordered one from amazon jp. Hope this works, first time using a proxy company as Amazon japan don’t deliver to my address.

@Apportal_SMM2 Cool.

@zzzyzxroad It's pretty cool but I hope they have newer games like Crazy Taxi and Eighteen Wheeler as well

should have been an xbox or ps4 disc release instead.....

https://buyee.jp/ does international shipping and is linked directly from Sega of Japan's product page for this. Wound up being about $150 (Japan to US) with PayPal as a nice option