Just like the Playstation Classic before it, the Genesis Mini is just so gosh-darned tiny and cute you'll want to hug it. The big difference is that you'll still feel that way about Sega's system after you start using it.
Admittedly, I do have some gripes. The included three button controllers feel like you're gripping a monster truck bumper after thirty years of increasingly ergonomic joypads, and alternatives are limited to controllers made by Retro-Bit. I've got at least a dozen USB pads lying around the house, but sure, what's one more to add to the pile? Input seems a little touchy in the menu screen, and there may be a slight delay between actions and sound effects in some titles. It's honestly hard to tell without a slow-motion camera replay, unlike AtGames' Genesis where the imperfections were more glaringly obvious.
With all that said, the Genesis Mini is still pretty nifty. The case design is extremely faithful to the original in spite of its size, and the forty included games accurately reflect the Genesis library as a whole and are done justice by the system's strong emulation. The sound is so crisp that you start to notice subtleties in the soundtracks that were obscured on a real Genesis, and the graphics in each game shine when not held back by the original system's crummy composite output. However, most of the games aren't enhanced beyond what HDMI output can provide. For instance, Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition was recently given an improved color palette and cleaner sound samples by hackers, but what you're getting here is what you got in 1993, with all the rough edges intact.
There are a few exceptions. Mega Man: The Wily Wars, the decidedly lackluster Genesis port of the first three Mega Man games, runs a little faster and feels a little tighter than it had before. Not enough to make it preferable to the NES games, but it's a more pleasant experience than it must have been on the Sega Channel. The Genesis prototype of Tetris that was scrapped after a legal battle with Nintendo was also retooled, but perhaps not enough, with barebones gameplay and grungy digitized graphics that make it feel like a leftover from the Mega Drive's bungled Japanese launch. Finally there's Darius, which was written from scratch by a fan of the series and actually does feel like a bonus, rather than a booby prize. I was always a fan of its sequel, Sagaia, but this may actually be better. At four times the size of the Genesis version of Sagaia, it's at least a more complete arcade conversion.
The Genesis Mini is a solid micro console that Sega should have released a lot sooner. There are tons of these products in 2019, including several which can play the entire Genesis library with ten minutes of hacking. It doesn't help that the Genesis Mini was preceded by ten years of AtGames consoles which played many of the same games, albeit poorly. I imagine you'd have to be a rabid fan of the Genesis to fully appreciate its palm-sized counterpart, but with a generous selection of games, emulation provided by the always capable M2, and a slick if slightly cumbersome interface, they should be quite happy with the Genesis Mini. I know I'm satisfied with it... or will be, once that six button controller finally arrives in the mail.
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