Legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro cut his teeth over at Nihon Falcom, but his most famous work is arguably in the 16-bit era, particularly with SEGA.
From his first freelance work with the company on The Revenge of Shinobi to the iconic Streets of Rage, Koshiro cemented his status as one of the best. And SEGA clearly recognised that when it released the Genesis / Mega Drive Mini a few years ago, asking the composer to come and compose a medley for the micro-console’s main menu. We’d be lying if we told you we didn’t spend hours on that menu, because that song is a cracker.
So it makes sense that SEGA has once again asked Koshiro to provide the music for its newest mini-console. Announced last week, the Mega Drive Mini 2 launches in Japan this September and will come with 50 Genesis and Mega CD games including Sonic CD, Thunder Force IV, and Shining in the Dark, among others. But the key part is that, well, we might spend ages just idling on that menu screen all over again.
Here’s the composer confirming the news on Twitter along with a rough translation of his thoughts:
Following the Mega Drive Mini 2 and the first Mini announced the other day, I was also in charge of menu music here. According to Sega Okunari @okunari, I don't think it will be released for a while because "when I listen to it, the recorded titles will be lost", but please wait until the release. It's packed with homage for 6 minutes!
The reason the medley hasn’t been released yet is that it's usually a tribute to many of the games on the system, so there are likely to be some hints as to some as-yet-unannounced games. We’ll have to wait and see, but we’re delighted to see Koshiro returning to this follow-up mini-console.
Of course, many of us would’ve loved to have seen a mini Saturn or Dreamcast – this writer in particular – but SEGA confirmed that it’s worried about “extreme costs” developing these two machines. Maybe one day! And perhaps Koshiro can turn up to do a medley with Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Guardian Heroes music?
Let us know what games you want to see on the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 in the comments!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 16
Hoping for a release in Europe, definitely want one!
@AlanaHagues *Shining in the Darkness
Come on, Sega! Announce a North American release! This will be an automatic Day One!
The menu music on the Mega Drive Mini is indeed fabulous. Yuzo Koshiro is an absolute legend and is largely responsible for many of the best game soundtracks of all time.
Or alternatively Sega could release their back catalogue on every console so more people get to play them rather than the same people that probably still buy every variation of a Megadrive Sega puts out because Sega relies on their success from 30 years ago way too much.
I loved how much effort, love and respect clearly went into the first Megadrive Mini. I thought it would be hard to beat the quality of the excellent NES and SNES classics, but it topped even them with all the extra completely over the top un-needed but very welcome additions to the presentation and games selection - of course including brand new music by Koshiro. Even with what little we know about that second unit they are doing the same kinds of things agin, bringing him back, getting M2 to make a brand new exclusive version of Fantasy Zone, making a to scale Mega-CD mk2 unit and Virtua Racing cart... this is absolutely a "must buy" for me, but I'm really praying there is a Western release with English language versions of the Mega CD classics, and preferably both American and European variants in the packaging and colours/labels as there was with the first. It will sell like hot cakes, they'd be mad not to. This isn't a niche Japanese novelty like the Game Gear Minis or Astro City (which was awesome but we rarely saw Candy Cabs in Europe).
Awesome, now let’s get an overseas release.
Awesome! Come on UK version too!!
Also, just a note, it's out in October in Japan, not September.
Awesome news. I agree with everyone else a western release would be great, although I'll probably buy it regardless, unless the remainder of the revealed library is really disappointing.
Do as the Turbografx mini did and give us both Japanese and English libraries on the same machine.
Not that I like to see corporations do it, but if Sega is really concerned about the cost of making a Saturn or Dreamcast Mini they should crowdfund them. The response to the Shenmue III Kickstarter proved there was an appetite for that era of Sega and people were willing to shell out for it - disregarding the actual quality of Shenmue III.
I'd back either a Saturn or Dreamcast Mini. There are dozens of titles I'd like to revisit on both that are just impractical to try and play now. I'm okay paying a small premium to do so. I think there could be a market for both at the $80 - $100 range - especially if they released more games later.
id say this veers more toward toy nostalgia instead of retro-gamer. like, it's a bit too old for me to actually enjoy. like this beckons to my youth at the day-care center, not really the arcade quarter slot era. and i don't care to revisit the day-care era. crazy taxi, however, is eternal awesomeness.
Does it mean it will also include the Mega Drive Mini menu music?
@Banjo- Hopefully
@falkyn these games are too old to be retro, because you personally would rather play crazy taxi? nonsense.
i love crazy taxi as much as you do, but what does that have to do with this? these are great retro games. the fact that you were younger when you played them has nothing to do with their legitimate status as retro games vs "toys."
i was younger when i played genesis vs when i played crazy taxi too 😄 i think thats how it works haha.
@-wc- i just would've opted for a saturn or a dreamcast remake instead of what they opted for. their reason was that it was the "less expensive" option. i would've bypassed this product reissue entirely. i don't think it's antiquity-status to be given the attention nor the buck.
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