As a rule, I’m a diehard PlayStation girl; however, like a lot of people who grew up in the 90s, my love of gaming all started with a little black box accompanied by a little blue hedgehog. The SEGA Mega Drive was the focal point of our house, for both the adults and the children. Saturday evenings were spent playing the Mega Drive and every time friends came over, it would, of course, be out. So, a few weeks ago after craving some nostalgic feels, I jumped online and ordered a SEGA Mega Drive Retro Console, with 81 classic built-in games and it has to be one of the best things I have ever bought. Here’s why:
Firstly, it’s a fraction of the cost of the consoles that are out now, with so many playable games already inbuilt in the system. Obviously, the graphics and visuals are not even close to what we get today, but the nostalgic buzz you get from playing these games is more than worth it. My first port of call after turning it on was to go straight to the Sonic games to see which ones it had, and the answer? Well, that was all of them: all the ones that were released on the Mega Drive. The other great thing about it is that you can save your games; you could never do that with the old cartage games. It’s a huge bonus as I think I’ve played the Green Hill Zone on the original Sonic about a million times, but now I don’t have to as I’m currently saved in the Starlight Zone.
Even though one of the main reasons for buying the SEGA was to play Sonic, I would be lying to you if I said it was my favourite game on there… oh no, it gets better. Last week, my friend came to visit - socially distanced, of course, which is super easy to do with the battery-operated wireless controls - and we found ourselves hooked on one game in particular – okay, three: Mortal Kombat, 1, 2 and 3! All three additions are great to play, but Mortal Kombat 3 is where it’s at, as it has all the main characters, like Sindel, Night Wolf, Jax, and my favourite, Sheeva, as well as the full voice over. Before long, we were 8 games in and shouting ‘Finish him’, ‘Fight’ and ‘Round two’ in our best Mortal Kombat voices. It was especially fun to play as the controls that come with this console are the special 6 button controls, which I always wanted as a kid but never got; we only ever had the basic 3 button controls and, if you were like me, you will know the struggle was real when trying to get to those special moves.
To conclude, the console really is a great addition to any household, to play on your own, but also great for when friends come to visit. I can’t wait until I can have a group of people over for a proper Mortal Kombat night.
‘Sheeva wins’.