SEGA Mega Drive Handheld Comments by Kristan Reed

Odd publishing time!

Still, do like the novelty value of this but only two 8/10 games is bit pish :/

As I said on the blog post, I figured you'd prefer late Sunday to mid-afternoon Monday or whenever I wake up/remember :-)

so is this 50or 60hz?

Ooooh, stuff to read.

/puts off going to bed.

Dude, the reviews for the games are well harsh. Altered Beast and Golden Axe are classics. I'm glad I was to poor to buy GamesMaster if those reviews where typical of the time. I might never have played them if that was the case.

30 quid though sounds like a good price point though

ahh the memories. Good price and nice selection of some old classics. Had most of them in my collection. And whats wrong with Sonic Pinball? May pick this up.

Question not answered (unless I missed it) - does it do save states, or is it just in-game saves if available?

...picodrive...gp2x... *mumble*

No concluding paragraph after the page of review quotes? You broke my heart.

30 quid? emulators? 01:37am?

Ecco 6/10? The game was brutally hard at points (the maze with the moving screen - only did it once without cheating) but other than that it was a fantastic game and one of the mega drive's best offerings.

Hey - retro is back - and I'm hung over....

Do an article on the MegaDrive, with a cult classics feature ala the PS2 one that was recently posted.

Make sure that Dynamite Headdy and Gunstar Heroes make the cut!

cheers!

/Zzzzzzz

I would have been genuinely interested in this device if it had SoR2.

Would have preferred Sonic 3 over S&K too. I do love S&K, but you can at least save progress in Sonic 3, handy given a device like this would be used in short bursts on the bus or whatever. S3&K would have been even better.

Racketboy > EG in terms of retro coverage. And am I the only one who realises the futility of re-reviewing old games? EG's criteria are so fuzzy some of those reviews come out as harsh. Oh and screw the numeral rating system that has turned into a religion here.

@Shakey_Jake33
Do you think more than 5 minutes of actual effort went into selecting those game?

What a wasted oppurtunity

I realise they could only use first party titles to keep the cost down (or at least I asume so), but maybe there was a way to get 3rd partys on and keep that price point (profit share?) Titles that would have sold it me such as:

SoR
SoR2
Robocop v Terminator (was pretty good)
Desert / Jungle / Urban Strike
Sonic 2
Flashback (ffs please port to the DS)

WELL HARSH, review wise, what've you's been smoking they got the same scores as for the VC even though they're like 1/4 the price!

Didn't the Nomad have no battery at all, forcing you to use the Game Gear battery adapter or plug it into the mains?

I think there were rechargeable batterys available for the nomad but they were still rubbish.

Is there even any point in reviewing games from 20 odd years ago? What kind of criteria do they go through? Most are classics that wouldn't match up to the technological advancements today. And when bundles like this come out, people buy them for the nostalgia value, they don't need a review to determine that. All a retro-type article really needs to do is comment on how well the emulated software, whatever it may be, plays the games to their original strength, nothing more.

@thesombrerokid
"WELL HARSH, review wise, what've you's been smoking they got the same scores as for the VC even though they're like 1/4 the price!"

Just having a lower price doesn't improve quality. Imagine I offered you a steaming turd for £/€100, you'd say no (well, probably not just no ;) ). Now, if I was to drop my price to a fiver would you leap at it? No, it's still a turd. If you want, you can mentally add a point to each one for the lower cost.

@Pulsar_t
"And am I the only one who realises the futility of re-reviewing old games?"

It's not futile at all; these games are being released on new systems whose gamers might not know them. How else are they supposed to know which retro titles are the classics and which are (for example) poor Mario rip-offs?

I remember a lot of great games but, in my experience, playing some them now just ruins that memory (except Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts on SNES, that's still awesome. And Impossible Mission on the C64. And IK+. And...).

What a great little device, too bad the games they chose are a little duff.

Considering that no shops actually have any of these, including Argos which appears to be permanently out of stock. Reviews, good or otherwise, seem pointless since other than buying direct from Sega retronet it's impossible to own one.

To those complaining about game selection...I'd imagine they were restricted in their choice by Sega. You know, Sega are still making money from all those compilations and VC releases, so they're not exactly going to give up all their AAA titles to a poxy 3rd party handheld. There are just a few headline games and the rest are filler so they can boast about having 20 games. Be thankful there are a few hidden gems in there they probably had to sneak past Sega...

"...picodrive...gp2x... *mumble*"

Yes indeed. That's the only reason I'm not tempted by this in the slightest. I can have a near-perfect handheld MD with as many games as I like on a 2Gb SD card (which is pretty much all of them). Legality might be an issue, but...meh.

Some awesome games there - but I still think you're better off with an actual console (which should cost you no more than a tenner) - the better games can easily be picked up for between £1 to £3, and then you can fork out a little extra for Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage 2, too. :p

Then get it modded for all your import-friendly 60Hz full-screen goodness.

Crap games really.

Most of these games are on the Sega Megadrive Collection which I have on the PSP so to buy this would be a waste of my money now if Streets Of Rage was on it.....

Why did Alex Kidd get such a low score? I thought that was considered a classic.

This seems like such a great idea! I'd love to buy this. But... if only it weren't for the terrible lineup of games. I have no interest in most of them. I already have the Mega Drive Collection on the PSP, which includes most of these games, along with much much better first-party games like Ristar, Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Comix Zone, and the Phantasy Star games if you're into that sort of thing. Plus, you can save in the PSP games at any time with emulation save states... something I presume this gadget doesn't do?

But still... it looks nice... I want. Bah.

too harsh on a couple of games there (eswat espcially as later levels change the gameplay up nicely, and who cares if bean machine s a reskin - its still a great game worthy of anybodys time) but theres no escaping the fact the majority of the games on there are duffers.

missed opportunity

It's an excellent little machine to occupy children, doubly so since it can connect to a telly.

Well, I went out and got one of these from Argos today (they sell a white version, would have liked the black version really. I may do a proper review some time, but for now, what I have to say is mostly bad impressions:

- The screen is well-lit, but it's not sharp at all. You can't see every pixel clearly, it's like a fuzzy effect, a bit like a CRT television. It makes text very hard to read.
- The D-pad is lame on mine. Pressing right is very unresponsive and I have to press very hard. Considering most of the games are left-to-right scrollers, I almost consider my unit to be broken. Can't be bothered taking it back though.
- Sound is okay, but needs turning up to maximum, and there is a buzz with headphones.
- Build quality is very cheap. It's as light as air without batteries. More of a toy than a handheld console.
- No battery indicator. The manual is funny, it says: "You will start noticing the game player begins to behave abnormally. Please replace the batteries when this happens."
- The manual gives quick game instructions, but there are none within in the games. Quick-start screens would have been nice.
- It goes without saying, save states are out of the question. Most of these games are the old-fashioned kind where you play them from scratch every time you turn them on.

I haven't tried hooking it up to a TV yet. I'll do that tonight.

My score: 3/10 for build quality, 4/10 for the game collection.

just imagine if another of these came out with the following titles on it
Streets of rage 2, Alien3, Street fighter2 , Micro machines, NBA jam, Sensible soccer, Sonic 2, Zombies ate my neighbous, terminator, jungle strike, mega bomberman, road rash, Paperboy, toejam and earl2, flash back, world of illusion, mortal kombat 2, Lemmings, Theme park, Ea hockey ( just for the fights), Gunstar heros, 2Crude dudes, cannon fodder, fatal fury, ghostbusters, ghouls n ghosts, Pga 96, rolling thunder, thunderforce2, atomic runner, beavis and butthead, chase hq, chuck rock, earhworm jim2, gynoug, side pocket, toki, shining force 2, stider, splateerhouse 2, sunset riders, ... and so on