Mega Drive Mini 2

[heyadol]

61 games! Genesis Mini 2 full lineup has been announced, I updated the list from an earlier post. In the final announcement broadcast, after finishing the MD Mini 2 stuff they made the final announcement for Genesis Mini 2 and nothing else so I don't think there is any other international version.

Kind of bs that they split Ecco and Ecco 2, that wasted a space that could have been used for something more interesting. No Konami support this time around, I guess they wanted to keep Snatcher as an exclusive to the PC Engine and their associated minis.

Anyway, it is a pretty decent lineup, and even though Space Harrier 2 was on the MD Mini/Genesis Mini, I have to admit I am really excited for Space Harrier 2 getting a proper update. Space Harrier and Space Harrier 2 are introduced as Sega Mark V, which appears to be a Genesis upgraded with full sprite scaling and analog control support. I wonder why After Burner 2 and OutRun didn't get the Sega Mark V treatment? Okunari-san has mentioned multiple times over the last few weeks that Sega does not do "near-arcade" versions like (Konami did for PCE Mini/TG-16 Mini) and never will, but Sega Mark V seems to bridge the gap.

There are a few great titles that will be missed from the Japanese edition, and I am sure we all have favorites that didn't make the cut here (made worse by filler titles like Sewer Shark and The Ooze). I am excited to play this when Amazon delivers in October or November. What is on your mind? Curious if anything on the list made your day or an omission is enough to change your mind about ordering.

Here is the Japanese version of the Genesis Mini 2 promotion:

『SEGA Genesis Mini2ã€�プãƒ*モーションæ˜*åƒ� - YouTube

[Akibiyori]

Clayfighter…but neither Lunar title or Popful Mail. Disappointing but there’s enough on here that I don’t already have that it still might be worth getting.

[heyadol]

So we have the final announcement available in the initial post and the list has been updated to reflect every title, along with support for analog, mouse, and USB hub. I was really hoping for Snatcher and Keio Flying Squadron, but I still think it is a really strong lineup without them.

Puyo Puyo Sun was a lot of fun on Saturn, so it is pretty cool that M2 made a port (demake?) here, it is too bad they kept the scratchy voice style from previous Puyo games. Memory was an issue that came up a few times during the latest 4gamer interview with Yosuke Okunari (Sega) and Naoki Horii (M2), they bumped it from 512MB in the previous release to 8GB for MD Mini 2, I guess it wasn't enough space to improve those voice samples. The box art and manual illustrations are from Matsuoka-san, a member of the original team at Compile that made Puyo Puyo 3. It appears the rules have been changed a little, and it is exclusively a 2-player game (single player story mode is not included). A pair of Puyo eSports players demonstrated the game, looks intense. Horii-san also mentioned in the article that 32X emulation isn't happening, at least not affordably. It may be possible on Nintendo Switch, but it may be just as time consuming as porting the games to run natively.

The concept with Space Harrier II (and bonus bonus title Space Harrier) was to create the Mega Drive customers may have envisioned when they saw it in magazines back in the day. It is set up as a MD emulator with extra functions. Hideki Kamiya of Platinum games was invited on stage to demo Space Harrier II, he looked surprised when both games were selectable. Again, I think it is a shame they didn't have time to add After Burner 2, OutRun/OutRunners, and Super Hang-On through the upgraded virtual hardware, but Space Harrier is awesome so it is still a huge win (for me, anyway).

Devi & Pii (which is maybe a play on Devil & Cupid) is an unreleased game from Takashi Izuka, a member of Sonic Team. I'm kind of surprised that Party Quiz Sega Q didn't get translated, seems to be better fan service than Super Locomotive but I suppose it would have taken a long time.

A final bit of perhaps sad news. During the aforementioned interview, Okunari-san said the Genesis Mini 2 was made for Europe and the United States. Maybe that is to end speculation of another international model.

There was no way to please everyone, but the lineups on MD Mini 2 and Genesis Mini 2 look great and I cannot wait to play. I suppose that is enough rambling from me after all of these posts, so I will leave you with the MD Mini 2 final promotional trailer:

『メガドライブミニ２ã€�å…¨å�ŽéŒ²ã‚¿ã‚¤ãƒˆãƒ«ç´¹ä»‹æ˜*åƒ� - YouTube

[navydavey]

I'm happy Earthworm Jim 2 made the Genesis list, I do wish Earthworm Jim Special Edition was included too though (as It's my favourite version of the first game), would have been nice for Popful Mail & Kieo Flying Squadron to make the Genesis list instead of one of the other shooters.

I just want a UK announcement now, I read somewhere that there was potentially going to be a wider release early next year but that was probably just wishful thinking for those who are currently set to miss out.

Also a UK release would hopefully include the European/Japanese soundtrack for Sonic CD as I'm not a fan of the USA soundtrack at all.

[dyne]

Twitter was saying if you got locked in at a higher price that you need to cancel and reorder. For some reason the way this is handled through Amazon Japan it will not price adjust down to the lower price.

Also some speculation going on as to why Lunar and EB didn't make the cut outside Japan. Word is Vic Ireland asked for more money and got stonewalled but there's reports that he gave up the publishing rights to Gamearts years back so nobody really knows at this point.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by navydavey

I'm happy Earthworm Jim 2 made the Genesis list, I do wish Earthworm Jim Special Edition was included too though (as It's my favourite version of the first game), would have been nice for Popful Mail & Kieo Flying Squadron to make the Genesis list instead of one of the other shooters.

I just want a UK announcement now, I read somewhere that there was potentially going to be a wider release early next year but that was probably just wishful thinking for those who are currently set to miss out.

Also a UK release would hopefully include the European/Japanese soundtrack for Sonic CD as I'm not a fan of the USA soundtrack at all.

Changing the interface language changes the region, so that would be one way to get the Japanese soundtrack. It would be nice if you can just launch the regional variant directly from the collection, so far the only game that is confirmed to have that option is Dennin Alesta/Robo Aleste.

Originally Posted by dyne

Twitter was saying if you got locked in at a higher price that you need to cancel and reorder. For some reason the way this is handled through Amazon Japan it will not price adjust down to the lower price.

Also some speculation going on as to why Lunar and EB didn't make the cut outside Japan. Word is Vic Ireland asked for more money and got stonewalled but there's reports that he gave up the publishing rights to Gamearts years back so nobody really knows at this point.

It's about $4 cheaper than when I did my preorder, I'll just leave it alone.

I remember when WD closed down, Victor Ireland made a big deal about Lunar and that there would be no Lunar 3 w/o him. A few different companies have released editions of Lunar over the years so maybe he was not able to retain the rights. One thing I did notice is when SoMoGa released Lunar for iPhone, it was the WD translation and voice overs, but an update replaced the opening theme and changed some of the voices. That has been about 10 years though...as you said, nobody really knows.

[dyne]

As a follow up, John Harrison (author of the upcoming Legends of 16-bit Game Development) confirmed (according to an interview with Ireland) that Game Arts has most of the rights. The only ones they don't have is the performance rights to the English audio so for it to be rereleased in English they would have to rerecord or license that audio.

Here's the Gaijenworks interview from a while back.

http://operationrainfall.com/2016/03...ts-part-three/

VI: I’m not going to say ‘no’, I think it would be cool to do, but the thing is that with the way that the rights are with Lunar, we sold most of the rights back to Game Arts. So Game Arts has almost all the rights to Lunar, except for the performance rights to the audio. So really they have most and if the Lunar license was to happen, we would just be licensing that little piece so it could come out. And it would probably come out under their name. So they would do the marketing for it. So I think it’s unlikely. But I’m not going to say ‘no’, it would be cool to do.

So they probably came to Vic with a low offer since it was just the audio, he said no and there you go.

[heyadol]

Wow, that is too bad. Whatever the roadblock to cooperation was, it must have have happened a few times on the international release because we seem to have more "filler" titles. Every game announced for Japan, no matter how obscure, there were fans out there who were excited about it. Genesis Mini 2 has some games that don't seem to be on anyone's radar, at least not on any positive lists.

All things considered, we really only ended up with 3-4 garbage games to replace games that had no localization. Of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 had an English localization and it still got dropped in favor of who knows what. In the case of the worst offenders, I would have been fine to have untranslated games in the mix (like TG-16). Show of hands: Who here would replace Sewer Shark with an untranslated Starblade? Ya, I thought so...

I don't mean to sound negative, I am excited to play another quality mini console. M2 has such an attention to detail and there is enough to keep me playing.

[dyne]

I’m more than happy with it, disappointments aside. Really hoping having Sewer Shark on it means Screaming Villains can remaster it for modern consoles and possibly work something out to get GZT off the PS4 and onto other systems as well.

[LexInHD]

For those wondering about why this game or that game was not included in the final list, it generally comes down to the amount of $$$$$ that SEGA is willing to spend for licensing and what companies want for their titles. SEGA apparently only offers an outright licensing and distribution payment and won't agree to paying anything beyond that, so companies that think there's continuous money to be made aren't letting their software go on the hardware.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

For those wondering about why this game or that game was not included in the final list, it generally comes down to the amount of $$$$$ that SEGA is willing to spend for licensing and what companies want for their titles. SEGA apparently only offers an outright licensing and distribution payment and won't agree to paying anything beyond that, so companies that think there's continuous money to be made aren't letting their software go on the hardware.

I seem to remember Okunari-san saying something similar a while back, that’s the reason there won’t be a downloadable MD Mini collection. The licenses are negotiated with the understanding that it will only be available for a limited time, that affects how much companies can demand and how much Sega is willing to pay. I’m not very proficient at Japanese, but if I can find the reference I’ll share it.

[navydavey]

At least Sega have officially announced that there will be a UK/European version now with pre-orders coming up in September, it will release in October like the other versions so that's great news.

I love the Mega CD so this was never going to cover all the games I would have wanted included but it's a lovely looking package all things considered.

It is a shame that the international version has dropped more Mega CD titles in favour of Mega Drive substitutions though, would have been nice to have the same amount of CD titles as the Japanese edition but I'm all over this when it comes out.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by navydavey

At least Sega have officially announced that there will be a UK/European version now with pre-orders coming up in September, it will release in October like the other versions so that's great news.

I saw a post from Sega about this, but it also included the same trailer as the Genesis Mini 2. Is it just the GM2 lineup rebranded as a MDM2?

I also saw a tweet from Okunari-san confirming there is no Asian version this time, which was the third variation the last go round.

*update*
Okunari confirmed that the EU edition MD Mini 2 has the same lineup as the Genesis Mini 2. Have to admit I was curious about lineup changes on the additional international version, but I guess it is settled.

[emailking]

Will it have any baseball games? There was a baseball game on the Genesis I loved but I have no idea what it was called I played it at a friend's house.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by emailking

Will it have any baseball games? There was a baseball game on the Genesis I loved but I have no idea what it was called I played it at a friend's house.

No sports games here, but I remember having fun w/ Tommy Lasorda Baseball and Sports Talk Baseball. Anyone remember Baseball Stars Professional on Neo Geo? That was a good time.

The JP version includes a sumo wrestling game (Ah Harimanada) and soccer (Captain Tsubasa), both are based on licensed properties.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by heyadol

No sports games here, but I remember having fun w/ Tommy Lasorda Baseball and Sports Talk Baseball. Anyone remember Baseball Stars Professional on Neo Geo? That was a good time.

The JP version includes a sumo wrestling game (Ah Harimanada) and soccer (Captain Tsubasa), both are based on licensed properties.

It was Sports Talk Baseball. Thank you!

[heyadol]

EU domestic pre-orders are live.

https://sega.jp/mdmini2/en/

[emailking]

From the video on that page, a lot of those games look pretty cool! Don't think I've played any of them except Sonic. I never had this, just could play at a friend's house.

[AeroK]

Got a shipment notification from Amazon.

[Russhole]

Originally Posted by AeroK

Got a shipment notification from Amazon.

Right on. I was charged yesterday but no shipping notice yet. Can’t wait.