Return of the Mega Drive

Do you hanker for Sonic the Hedgehog and his battles with Dr Eggman, or underwater adventure with Ecco the Dolphin?

Sega Mega Drive Mini

Do you hanker for Sonic the Hedgehog and his battles with Dr Eggman, or underwater adventures with Ecco the Dolphin? If you do, you’re probably a child of the early 1990s and a devotee of 16-bit gaming.

It also means you are in luck, with these games and more now back as part of Sega’s new Mega Drive Mini, a modern, shrunk-down version of the Mega Drive released in Australia around 1990.

The advent of the Mega Drive Mini is another example of the nostalgia around old-style gaming sweeping the world. Sonic the Hedgehog was especially important to Sega, with almost 90 million copies sold by 2011. It is now the title of a comedy adventure film due out next year.

The gaming line-up suggests the Mega Drive Mini will keep you entertained for weeks. Other titles include Castlevania: The New Generation, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, Monster World IV, Light Crusader, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

In all, you get 42 games, which is a steal given the console package costs only $139.95 (recommended).

Getting the old games to work on more modern equipment isn’t a piece of cake coding wise. Sega says Japanese game developer M2 has been handling this porting process. The Mini is based on the original model 1 Mega Drive and is about 55 per cent of the original size. However, some of the tech inside is new.

The package includes the console, two replica three-button USB Mega Drive controllers, one USB to Micro-B power cable and one HDMI cable for displaying game play on your TV.