Like I said, I saved the best for last. These final Genesis Mini games are the ones that impressed me the most, or at least impressed me that they got put on here in the first place! Most of these games have never been on a Genesis collection before, and some have never been released at all! So let’s take a look at them!
The King of Fighters is a long running one-on-one 2-D fighting game series featuring characters from SNK’s other brawlers like Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and more! And now there is a new game with The King of Fighters ALL STAR. But surprise surprise! It’s not a fighting game, but a 2-D side scrolling beat ‘em up! You’d think that kind of game wouldn’t translate well to mobile devices, but it actually works really well and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s available free-to-play to download on mobile devices, but reviewed on iPad here.
Halloween may be over, but you can still beat up monsters with Creepy Brawlers. The main character in this game is watching a horror movie in the theater, but then gets sucked inside! Now he must box his way to defeat all sorts of opponents, like a zombie, wolfman, vampire, and more! It’s almost like a spooky sequel to Punch Out on the NES! It even looks like an 8-bit NES game. You can even get an actual cartridge of this for your NES, but you can also download it on Switch, which is the version reviewed here.
In this second batch of games found in the SEGA Genesis Mini, we’ll look at a variety of first party and third party games. Some of these have been on previous Genesis collections, but most of these haven’t. The only other thing most of the games in this section have in common is that most of them didn’t impress me much when playing them now. But don’t worry, like I said, we’ll get to the good stuff in the next blog, I promise!
This is a crossover game but the two properties featured here may not be so familiar to many Americans. Especially Doraemon. Doraemon is a cartoon blue robot cat with no ears who is especially popular in Japan. You may have even seen him and not realized it. He’s been a star of manga comic books and anime cartoons and movies for decades, and is sometimes even called “Japan’s Mickey Mouse.” Some of his comic books have been translated into English, and Disney brought some of the newest iterations of the Doraemon cartoons to the US under the Disney XD channel a few years back (good on them), but other than that, Doraemon has stayed relatively unknown in the States. Some US gamers may be more familiar with Story of Seasons, though, as it’s a farming sim series that used to go under the name of Harvest Moon. And now the two franchises are together in quite the unexpected crossover game you can download on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
There are tons of video games based on the popular LEGO building toy franchise, but not so much about the blocks for the younger set called Duplo. That is until now. In LEGO Duplo World, little gamers can learn early concepts like counting and matching, all in the colorful Duplo universe. This new app is available on mobile devices but reviewed on iPad here.
A couple of years ago, Nintendo made a big splash with their NES Mini and SNES Mini consoles. Now SEGA is joining the bandwagon with a mini version of their most popular console, the SEGA Genesis. But there have already been mini Genesis consoles with pre-loaded games on them, and Genesis collections on consoles, so what’s the big deal with this one? Well, mainly SEGA is making this one themselves, and they’re taking Nintendo’s approach to how they include which games will be on it. So what does that mean? Well you’ll just have to find out in this blog series. We’re going to take a look at the games on this mini console, but there are so many that we are going to split this up into three sections, one a week this month. For this first part, we’ll take a look at the Genesis Mini itself, and a few of the expected games on it. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the good stuff soon!
Ice Age is one of the longest running computer animated movie series, and it stars a group of prehistoric animals like saber tooth tigers and woolly mammoths. But clearly the crowd favorite has to be Scrat the saber toothed squirrel and his constant chase for his beloved acorn nut. And now Scrat gets his very own game with Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure. While chasing his acorn, Scrat stumbles across a hidden temple of the Scratazons, an ancient advanced race of saber toothed squirrels. Now in order to get his nut back, he must collect special purple crystal acorns across the land. Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is a 3-D platformer available for all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
In Japan there is a popular series of video games that has gone back since the 80s starring a character named Kunio-kun. Kunio is a hot-blooded high school student who sometimes gets into fights and trouble, but always stands up for his friends and against bullies. Kunio also likes to play sports and when he’s not beating up baddies, he’s competing in events like soccer or dodgeball. Some of Kunio’s games have made it to the US under name or graphical changes. If you’ve ever played a game like Renegade, River City Ransom, Crash N the Boyz Street Challenge, or Super Dodge Ball, then you’ve played a Kunio game! Now all the characters in the Kunio series are gearing up for a four-player free-for-all martial arts tournament with River City Melee Mach!! It’s available to download on PS4, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Thanksgiving is this month, but instead of turkey, you may want to eat goose instead after playing this game. Untitled Goose Game is a unique and original comical stealth action game where you play as a goose out to cause mischief and mayhem to humans in a small town setting. It’s available to download on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
