Sega Megadrive Handheld - Lcd Console

 

 

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I think roughly 70% of my waking hours while not at school were spent in the company of my Mega Drive during the early 90s, so this handheld device is one of the more exciting discoveries of the year! I managed to get one from a high street retailer a few weeks ago and thought I'd share my thoughts here.

GAME SELECTION
While it certainly isn't the most ideal selection (Streets of Rage, Sonic 3 and Eternal Champions would have made it perfect), for the price it has an excellent choice of games. Sonic and Knuckles is obviously the highlight and remains as brilliant now as it was when it arrived 14 years ago and the other notable gems are Kid Chameleon, Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Columns 3 (although the original would have been better) and Golden Axe. Mine includes Sonic Spinball instead of Ristar but both games are excellent. There are a couple of forgettable titles here, but the majority are worth your time.

HARDWARE AND DESIGN
The handheld is plastic and very light, size wise it's a little wider than a Mega Drive cartridge - perfect for taking out with you everywhere you go and actually does fit in your pocket! Mine is white and is quite lovely but the black model displayed here looks even better. The screen is bright due to the backlight, so playing it outdoors, inside and even in the dark are all perfectly viable options. Sometimes text can be hard to read due to the resolution, but that rarely poses a problem.

CONTROLS
The buttons are exactly as you would expect on a Mega Drive... d-pad, A, B, C and Start plus a menu button to select a different game. My only criticism in regards to the controls is with the d-pad... while it feels comfortable enough, diagonals don't work well which leaves Ecco and Ecco Jr practically unplayable. If you're considering it based on the inclusion of these two games, I'd rethink!

GAMEPLAY
The games are direct ports of the Mega Drive originals, thankfully cheats and all. I only say this because there is no save game function so when you're playing on a half hour bus ride and you beat 2 or 3 levels, you want to be able to come back to where you left off. A quick search on the internet will provide you with level select cheats for a few of the games, but sadly not Kid Chameleon and with over 90 levels it can be difficult to finish in one sitting. EDIT: previously here I criticised the battery life but I have since bought some expensive rechargeable Duracell batteries and it now lasts 4-5 hours, which is great. The handheld comes supplied with an A/V cable and scart to connect it to your TV, which is a nice bonus but something I don't really use. The menu screen is simple to navigate and does everything in needs to. NOTE: when the battery starts to run down, the device will adopt a mind of it's own. When it scrolls through the menu and the sprites do things you didn't ask them to, don't worry, it isn't broken!

SUMMARY
The Mega Drive Portable is a wonderful thing that would be well worth buying at twice the price. It has a few flaws but makes up for it in hours of enjoyment and is a perfect way to relive your 90s Sega memories.

I purchased this for my daughter who's a keen gamer.
It has some of the most famous Mega drive games ever including my favourite-Golden Axe
The Screen though about 3 inches is bright and detailed and the controls are well laid out.
But I must say that the construction is flimsy and it devours batteries-so quality rechargables are essential.
As a product it is great and is ideal for a Xmas stocking filler or birthday treat as it's relatively cheap and doesn't need more game cartrages.

I thought i'd share my thoughts on this with you all afte ri bought it from HMV a couple of weeks ago.

Basically if you cant afford a PSP and you yearn to play some of your favourite classic retro Mega Drive games on the go, then this is a must buy, 20 games on one handheld for £30, that is great value. With the one i bought, i found the battery life to be quite excellent, i've used just ordinary AGFA batteries and i've still managed to get a good 15-20 hours out of it which is great, if it can do that with ordinary batteries, imagine how long it would last if you were using batteries like Duracell Ultra's or Energizer Ultimate Lithiums.

However i do have 2 niggles with it, firstly (i dont know if it is a fault with mine) but the d-pad is a tad unresponsive, you have to press the d-pad with some considerable force to get a response, secondly it can be difficult to read some of the text on the LCD screen. But once you get used to playing it, you'll likely forget these "faults" after a while.

Basically for those people that dont have over £100-£150 to fork out on a portable game console and games, this is a perfect budget alternative.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not Great
This is a great piece of kit, and has plenty of games that will keep you busy for hours.

but for it's low price, it certainly has it's drawbacks. Read more

Published 5 months ago by A. King

5.0 out of 5 stars Great value for money
I bought this game on Christmas for my 5 years old son and I tell you it is a great game ... he enjoys it a lot and to be honest I end up playing with him and it is fun for... Read more

Published on 12 Jan 2010 by Mr. M. Majzoub

5.0 out of 5 stars A great buy for £30.
Honestly this is a great little portable gaming system, it has a good screen on it and the battery life seems to be huge (I can't put an exact figure on it since the first... Read more

Published on 11 July 2009 by Mr. M. Jepson

4.0 out of 5 stars A balanced dose of retro gaming
The first console I got was defective; it didn't work at all. So, the quality of the product may apparently vary. Read more

Published on 8 Jun 2009 by Antti Kanes

4.0 out of 5 stars mega drive hand held
These games were excellent value for money, i purchased two as gifts & would highly reccomend them.

Published on 30 May 2009 by Ms. L. Lm Barlow

4.0 out of 5 stars good but not great
A cool wee toy for the money , but a nintendo it aint - overall very retro - good fun - neat pressie at the price!

Published on 13 Feb 2009 by Gill Mc

5.0 out of 5 stars Great value. Great game.
I bought this as a present for my husband for Christmas and he loved it! It's so easy to use - just pop some batteries in and you're ready to go. Read more

Published on 5 Feb 2009 by Butterfly

5.0 out of 5 stars fab
my 21 yr old asked for this games console and is mega happy with it..all the old games and the console is really easy to use and much fun

Published on 4 Feb 2009 by S. Harris

3.0 out of 5 stars Good games but short battery life
Although this console has a great range of games, the first one we got sent was faulty and the second one has just rinsed the batteries in under 2 weeks. Read more

Published on 2 Feb 2009 by Amy Hibbs

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Old School
20 Brilliant old school games on 1 handheld console which is really cheap, being able to play a classic like Golden Axe whenever i want is awsum, relly gutted Double Dragon aint... Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2008 by Mr. Kelvin P. Smith

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