the best retro console so far? • Eurogamer.net

The Sega Mega Drive – or Genesis, as it was called in North America – is rightly regarded as one of the biggest consoles of all time, with a spectacular library of brilliant titles that still resists aujourd & # 39; hui. And to celebrate the machine and its games, the new Sega Mega Drive Mini offers all the advantages: the miniaturized reproduction of the material exceeds the similar efforts of Nintendo and Sony, the library of games is bigger and brilliantly selected, while the Emulation itself is delivered by none other than M2 – recognized masters of integrating games of yesteryear into hardware today.

Sega's 16-bit masterpiece arrived in the late 80s. Even though it started slowly, it was likely to challenge the market leader, Nintendo, while the Super NES and Mega Drive were the first skirmishes of the endless console. war. At that time, companies were still fighting to bring the arcade experience to the house. The Mega Drive has produced very impressive results throughout its life, but, like Nintendo, it's actually the hit games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage that have elevated Sega to the level superior.

After falling in love with the system, I never stopped playing or collecting for him and yet, for many people, it's been decades that they have not held the iconic gamepad anymore. That's why the form factor is crucial for a mini console – you want to channel this nostalgia with a material that is both aesthetic and crucial. feels just right. In this respect, Sega has brought the mini-console to an unparalleled level of authenticity to the point that every button and panel in the system works in one way or another: it really looks like a tiny version of the original console.

The power switch, the reset button and the volume slider are moving parts (even if the volume slider does not do anything at all!) And the authenticity has been enhanced until you reach it. at the point where even the expansion port cache is removable. To go further in detail, even in the slot of the main cartridge, work flaps allow the insertion of miniaturized fax carts (not supplied). The controllers are of course USB-based, but the console ports still look like real hardware, unlike the flip design of the Super NES Classic. It even has the proper holes to connect the Sega CD / Mega CD – an unusable version is available in some markets. Many of these details may be a facade, but I see it more as Sega's commitment to getting the product right in terms of fitness factor. The company seems to want everything to be as authentic as possible.

The two supplied controllers are also solid, perfectly reproducing the look of the original three-button pads – although I think that the d-pad is a little stiff and that the plastics feel significantly different from the material of the d-pad. ;origin. Some potential buyers are disappointed that Sega did not include the six-button touchpad in the Western version of the Mini, but felt that nostalgia plays an important role in the design and that most players of the time have probably only possessed the three paved buttons. The six-button controller is included in the Japanese version and, of course, included titles such as Street Fighter 2 will benefit. Thus, to get the most out of these games, users will have to explore other options.

In the case, the Mini is powered by the mysterious ZUIKI Z 7213 system-on-chip based on Allwinner, a processor on which little information is publicly available. It's probably comparable to Nintendo's latest mini retro offerings, but it's unclear how far its capabilities are expanding. In addition to the processor, the card has 512 MB of flash memory that stores the included games. Regarding the I / O, besides the controller ports, there is also an HDMI video output – which delivers a 720p output at 60Hz – and a micro-USB port for power.

Once you have connected the Mini to your screen, you have a simple and clean menu system. The games are presented in a large grid format and by changing the language in the options menu, the covers change between different regions. There is also a nice spine view available that also highlights one of my favorite details – when you look at the Japanese Mega Drive selection, Super Fantasy Zone is presented as a smaller box – just like the real thing – while Road Rash receives a slightly thicker box design, like all original EA versions of the period. It's this level of attention to detail that separates M2 from the rest.

Speaking of the attention to detail, when you change language, it's not just the mailbox that changes: you also get different region variants for each game. In this case, the inclusion of multi-region ROMs is important because with many titles, there are significant differences between different regions. The Japanese version of Dynamite Headdy, for example, has additional story elements, different illustrations and is generally less painful. Contra: The Hard Body is also easier in its Japanese form, and of course, if you select the European version, you get the Cleaned Probitector variant. You do not have to import the different versions to get all versions of the games, they are all there already.

More importantly for European users, if you choose to play with the PAL region, the games work at 60Hz instead of 50Hz. You do not need to play slower or tremble because the 50Hz output is resampled at 60Hz. we saw on PlayStation Classic. And of course, the original PAL mailbox is completely eliminated.

As you can imagine, the settings menu offers a range of different video options. In total, three are available: a pillar box mode, a stretched 16: 9 mode and a CRT filter for both. The Mega Drive can produce different resolutions, but the two most common are 320×224 and 256×224 – the latter being identical to Super NES and other systems of that time. Most games are 320 pixels wide. In this case, the Mini runs a 3×3 scale without linear filtering. Thus, the pixels are of a remarkable sharpness and the scroll is without brilliance.

In wide mode, a 5x scale is used on the horizontal axis filling the screen, but the vertical is now slightly stretched, resulting in an uneven scale of pixels: for four pixels Mega Drive using a 3x scale, the fifth pixel uses four pixels instead. . This results in visible lines on the image when scrolling vertically, producing strange artifacts that do not seem entirely correct. However, the results are different for games of 256 pixels wide: in wide mode, a perfect 6x scale is used horizontally, while the vertical resolution has the same problem as before.

The box-pillar mode, however, poses problems on these games with scaling alternating between 4 and 5 times every few pixels, resulting in a very obvious shimmer during scrolling. So, why would you even use wide mode to start? I can think of two reasons: you can use the built-in controls on your TV to adjust the 4: 3 aspect ratio if you are on a flat screen. Or, in a strange case, you can connect the Mini to a CRT computer monitor suitable for smooth, silky scrolling. To reach 4: 3, however, you will need to use the widescreen mode combined with the monitor settings to stretch the image and fill the screen. Due to the operation of the CRTs, you do not have to introduce resizing artifacts because the image is in fact not resized. It looks great!

The Mini itself is trying to replicate a CRT experience with a custom filter, but to be honest, this effort is disappointing. This is the most disappointing feature of M2 emulation because it blurs and simply filters the image while applying weak scan lines. This is not a good implementation and I would not suggest using it. Overall, scaling is not perfect in all modes, but if you want to minimize scaling problems, most games are optimized with Pillar Box mode. by default. However, for 256-pixel-wide games, such as Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World 4, you'll want to use widescreen mode with manual TV tuning for best results.

With M2 in charge of this project, I expected a lot of emulation and the final results are for the most part excellent. Aside from the peculiarities of scaling, there is not much more to fear: each of the included games offers a precise visual emulation, so all the tricks used in games like Gunstar Heroes or Contra: The Hard Corps work as expected.

The original hardware quirks, however, are removed, such as the background color on which the visual elements were superimposed and the CRAM points sometimes appearing in the corner. It is technically less accurate but produces more enjoyable results on a flat screen. The two-player split-screen mode in Sonic 2 also works well while displaying as in most PC emulators, that is, up to 60 frames per second without interlacing. Technically, this is even less correct, but it is the right choice for the current display of progress analysis.

Overall, it's a solid representation of the visual experience, but we're starting to come up against the problem of audio. The Mega Drive audio emulation is a long time challenge and this difficulty is compounded by the variation between the different models of the original hardware allowing changes in audio reproduction. There are some inaccuracies here, especially on problematic games known as Comix Zone, while other titles like Streets of Rage 2 sound good. However, audio delay is a bigger problem – the time between when a sound should to play and when he Is to play. There is a certain lag compared to the original material of the order of 10 to 11 images. It's over 160ms and it's not good.

As an emulation-based system that probably uses a framebuffer, the Mega Drive Mini also has problems with other retro boxes: additional input delay. From what I can say, the input offset is increased by several images compared to the original material, so each title is a bit heavier than you might wish. Even when I was playing on the Mega Drive Mini on a zero-shift cathode ray tube, the input offset provided by emulation is noticeable and, obviously, in the compounds with latency of flat-screen display .

That said, I mainly play these games on original material using a cathode ray tube. The difference is considerable, but compared to most modern solutions, it is reasonable. For example, it's much faster than the recent Genesis / Mega Drive collection for consoles of the current generation. However, for my money, it has the biggest impact on the product: the inputs are just not as accurate or as responsive as the reality. You get used to it after a while, but things never feel like they should. But if you were in agreement with the NES or Super NES Classic, the results are comparable. This is not a decisive factor, but rather an element to take into account. of.

Where the Mega Drive Mini really excels, it's in its game collection. The Sega 16-bit super console contains one of the most varied and enjoyable game libraries. It is clear that Sega has devoted a lot of love and effort to creating licenses for an astonishing range of titles. Anything you want may not be there, but it's hard to argue with the brilliant titles included.

Many of the best titles in Sega's debut are present and taken into account – the first two Sonic games had to be present but things like Shinobi 3, one of the most beautiful action games ever made – adds really content. Monster World 4 is also in the package – a game that I have finally completed on original material earlier this year. This version contains the English translation created for the digital download version a few years ago as well – which is a nice addition. Of course, Streets of Rage 2 is part of the range, which remains a classic, just like Gunstar Heroes from Treasure.

More importantly, Treasure's best Mega Drive project, Dynamite Headdy, is included – an absolute gem of the game. Next are the Konami products, such as Contra and Castlevania, which are expensive, in their original form, and are two of the best action games of the system. Alisia Dragoon is another great choice – a unique action platform game from Game Arts, the studio behind Lunar and Grandia. I've also been thrilled to see Earthworm Jim's inclusion of Shiny Entertainment – I'm a big fan of it and the version of Mega Drive is excellent.

I've also been intrigued by the inclusion of three somewhat unusual games: Mega Man – The Wily Wars, Tetris and Darius. The first title in the list is an interesting conversion of the first three titles of Mega Man, worn by Minakuchi Engineering – the development house behind the Game Boy Mega Man games, which I adore, and much of Mega Man X3 . Even though it has its flaws and I'm not a big fan of music, it's an interesting release since the first three games boast a complete 16-bit makeover. This product was released in Japan and Europe on cartridge, but the United States only received it via Sega Channel, a cable-based system that allowed you to download games to a custom basket.

Then there is Tetris – a Sega Tetris conversion of the arcade made for the Japanese Mega Drive. There is only a small amount of copies, making it the most expensive game on Mega Drive. It is nice to see it preserved on the Mega Drive Mini and the fact that it is present at all points indicates a level of service of supreme fan from Sega and M2. Finally, there is Darius – there has been a lot of speculation and conjecture about the choice of the person who developed this conversion – but in any case, it is a complete conversion of Darius original, which we had never seen before on Mega Drive. The sequel received an original version on the system – but not Darius 1 – although the game was transferred to PC Engine. Anyway, it's very nice to have a brand new port available for the release of the Mini.

In summary, there is so much to love about this product, from the brilliant reconstruction of the machine itself to the excellent emulation, through a range of games just great. Audio delays, input delays and scaling quirks prevent this absolute perfection, but for purists, there's always the analog Mega Sg for absolute authenticity. However, for a product aimed at regaining the magic of a very special era in console gaming, it's simply superb. If you grew up with Sega's 16-bit machine but have not played it for a while, it's a version you can not miss – and maybe the best retro mini console yet. .