Sega Genesis Mini 2's Full Game Lineup Revealed

After revealing just 23 named titles back in July, Friday morning Sega announced the full lineup of 60 games that will be included on the limited supply of US Sega Genesis Mini 2 units starting on October 27. From a report: Beyond the usual retro suspects, though, that list includes a couple of games that have never been released in any form, as well as several fresh arcade ports and Genesis titles sporting brand-new features for their plug-and-play re-release. Those unreleased retro games include Devi & Pii, a title designed by Sonic 3 developer Takashi Iizuka. The "paddle-style game" looks like something of a cross between Arkanoid and Twinkle Star Sprites, with one or two players shifting back and forth to juggle angels and avoid bouncing devils. The Genesis Mini 2 will also see the worldwide premier of Star Mobile, a game completed in 1992 by little-known journeyman developer Mindware but never actually released. The puzzle-heavy gameplay involves stacking stars on a carefully balanced mobile in a way that reminds us of the tabletop game Topple.

Besides those two never-before-seen titles, the Genesis Mini 2 features a few Sega arcade games that are being "ported" to Genesis-level hardware for the first time. These include:
Fantasy Zone: The cute-and-cuddly side-scrolling shooter gets ported to the Genesis by the same team that ported Darius on the first Genesis Mini, with a brand-new Easy Mode that wasn't in the arcades.
Space Harrier and Space Harrier II: While the sequel was already technically native to the Genesis, these new ports use "modern technology" to provide a much smoother sprite scaling function than was previously possible on 16-bit hardware (it's unclear if these new ROMs could run on a standard Genesis).
Spatter: A little-known 1984 maze game featuring a clown on a bouncing tricycle.
Super Locomotive: A 1982 train game focused on switching tracks to avoid collisions.
VS Puyo Puyo Sun: A competitive two-player-exclusive "demake" of the third game in the popular color-matching puzzle series, with "new rules not found in the original version."

Decent Selection

[JBMcB]

Phantasy Star II is great, but why not throw in III and IV while you're at it?
Same with Streets of Rage III, the weakest entry in the lineup, but might as well include all three for completionists (yeah I think the first two were on the original but c'mon)
Viewpoint is a *weird* isometric shooter with mechs, nice to see it included.
Revenge of Shinobi is a great title - I wonder if it's the original with unlicensed appearances by Batman and Spiderman.

Midnight Resistance and Golden Axe II are solid, and Herzog

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[rsilvergun]

Midnight Resistance has a soundtrack that has to be heard to believe. Along with Gauntlet IV, Streets of Rage I&II, Batman (the original 1989 game) and of all things Verytex it's part of a handful of game OSTs you'll hear and think "how the hell did the Genesis/Mega Drive do this?".

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[AmiMoJo]

The Mega Drive more than any other console had a huge gulf between the best and worst sound in games. A lot of games sounded awful, but a few like Midnight Resistance were fantastic.

I have an arcade board of that game and the Mega Drive soundtrack is better.

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[rsilvergun]

Go look up the Master system sometime. A lot of schemes were downright painful to listen to and then you get stuff like Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Wonder Boy III and Space Harrier

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[jonwil]

One area where the Genesis did well in terms of music is arcade ports. Street Fighter II for example sounds a lot better (and more faithful to the arcade original) on the Genesis than it does on the SNES.

This is mostly due to the fact that the Genesis used a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesis chip that was similar in general idea to the Yamaha YM2151 FM synthesis chip that was common on so many arcade boards at the time which made it easy to get something that sounded like the arcade.

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[AmiMoJo]

To be honest I was never a big Mega Drive fan. The sound in the PC Engine port of SF2 is much better, and also the palette on the Mega Drive seems to be kinda bad somehow. I'm not sure exactly what it is, in theory it's similar to the PC Engine, but in practice it looks a lot worse. SF2 is a good game to compare systems with.

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[skam240]

Same with Streets of Rage III, the weakest entry in the lineup, but might as well include all three for completionists (yeah I think the first two were on the original but c'mon)

Granted it's been decades since I've played any of the Genesis ones (been playing the recently made 4 a bit lately though) but I don't remember 3 being the weakest in the Streets of Rage line up. As I remember it they were all near identical games, each later one just added an extra character or two and maybe an extra move mechanic. I could be wrong though. Like I said, it's been decades.

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[Noobsa44]

The second game had an amazing soundtrack and was a really solid package with interesting characters. They also did some wild things both in theme and graphically. The bar/arcade was pretty cool with nice lighting effects. In other areas the rain/smoke effects were impressive for the time.

The third game was perhaps a smidge better looking, but it lacked sound quality and the entire game felt less inspired, with some of the fighters being less enjoyable to play as. The only cool idea I recall from 3 was

What about Sega Genesis Mini 1

[real_nickname]

I like these mini consoles but they should propose DLC for the previous version (you can probably hack it but that's not the same for end user). There is this thing about limited resources on earth and they are selling disposable-like console. The worst was the mini-gamegear: one game, one console... Probably an unpopular opinion.

Phantasy Star II is such a blast from the past

[No Tears In The End]

I was a Freshman in college.
My RA and a couple of us took turns playing that game for a whole weekend and we eventually beat it. I was blown away by the number of different possible endings. We only ever saw one of them. Maybe now, I can go back and see the others.

NTITE