10 (MORE) Retro Games To Add To Your Hacked Sega Mini (If You're Also An Old Millennial With Similar Gaming Tastes As Me) | PART 3
Just like with PART 1 and PART 2, this 3rd collection of 10 (more) games to add to your hacked Sega Mini does not attempt to claim that these are the best games you can get on the NES/SEGA/SNES systems. Instead, these are the games that still feel the most appealing (to me) to actually spend time playing in 2020 (ps - If you’re wondering what a Sega Mini is and how you can hack it to add any NES/Sega/SNES game you want, I wrote a blog post about how I hacked mine).
Because, after the initial nostalgia wears off, some highly regarded retro games the teen version of yourself might have been obsessed with back in the 90s just don’t quite hold the attention of the adult version of yourself in the same way (for me, the button-smashing beat ‘em ups / shoot ‘em ups just aren’t as fun as they used to be). Especially with so many other easily accessed distractions and/or more pressing responsibilities.
So, with that in mind, here’s my third list of 10 games that I think are definitely worth adding to your hacked Sega Mini… if you happen to also be spending some of this quarantine in a similar retro video game rabbit hole:
#1 - Madden 97 (SEGA)
I definitely used to like the Madden series of games A LOT back in the 90s as a youth who actually paid attention to football. As an adult, football became one of those sports that I don’t really care for much—in fact, after living in England for many years, I started becoming one of those annoying North American people who sometimes call it ‘American Football’. But, having played this series so much as a kid, it’s one of those titles that doesn’t take too long for me to jump straight back in and remember how to play + since this was the era of football where I actually followed the sport, I actually know most of the players — which is not something I could say if playing Madden 2020. Also, just like I did with ‘NBA Live/Coach K’, I’m going to cheat and add College Football USA ‘97 with Madden 97, as it’s basically the same game except with college teams.
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#2 - Super Metroid (SNES)
This is one of those games that starts of very dark and foreboding and you don’t totally know what you’re doing or what you’re looking for or when the baddies are going to come out (although, having tested out Metroid on the NES, it does seem like they’re doing a callback to the original)— which is actually a very good technique for getting a person hooked & wanting to play more. A lot of games just come straight out the gates with enemy after enemy, and it can all be a little bit overwhelming and repetitive and “I don’t want to play at this pace the whole game” (I’m looking at you Adventures of Batman & Robin), but Super Metroid lures you in with the anticipation of having to eventually start shooting things. Well played.
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#3 - Frogger (SEGA)
Sometimes you just want to play a game that is as basic as you are. And with Frogger, you just try to move your frogs across the road and over the pond without getting run over or falling in the water (even though real frogs can go in the water without dying, just saying). It’s simple and addictive and nostalgic + there’s also a part of me that feels connected to one of the great Froggers of history, George Costanza, whenever I play—and that’s a unique feeling that most video games just can’t give you.
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#4 - Tetris Attack (SNES)
I’m not sure why this game includes the word ‘Tetris’ in its title, besides trying to cash in on the word ‘Tetris’ (so I guess I do know why). Tetris Attack has nothing in common with the original Tetris. I mean, besides the gameplay happening inside a vertical rectangle, there’s no similarities. But that doesn’t mean that Tetris Attack isn’t a fun and addictive puzzle game. You swap colours/shapes around to make matches of 3 or more to make colours/shapes disappear as more colours/shapes keep coming up from the bottom. Simple concept + smooth controls = fun game. Also a good 2-player game.
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#5 - Tetris (NES)
Speaking of the word ‘Tetris’, I wasn’t planning on adding the original Nintendo Tetris to my Sega Mini, as the Mini came with an unreleased Sega version of Tetris pre-installed, but, surprisingly, the Sega version of falling blocks is noticeably not as good as the 1980s original. Somehow the music is better & the blocks look/move/rotate smoother on the old NES version, making the whole thing a much more enjoyable play. And that’s the thing about Tetris, when done right it’s a perfect game to pick up and play for however much time you’re looking to kill.
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#6 - Troddlers (SNES)
This puzzle game could easily have been called Solomon’s Lemmings as it seems to basically be Solomon’s Key (which I recommended in PART 2) and Lemmings (which I’ve tried playing but could never really get into). Basically, you make blocks appear/disappear in order to create a path for your little l̶e̶m̶m̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ troddlers to make their way through to the exit before the time runs out. Simple concept to get the hang of, which makes for an addicting challenge as the puzzles get incrementally more challenging.
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#7 - Skeleton Krew (SEGA)
First off, this game looks really good graphically. Second off, you just go around shooting aliens with infinite bullets. Sometimes I wish there were a few less baddies on the screen at one time, as I much prefer walking around slowly and methodically when playing a shooter, but once you get a handle on the controls/aiming, it’s a pretty fun isometric shooter. And, again, it looks really nice + you can also go 2-player.
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#8 - Gunman’s Proof (SNES)
I only found out about this game the other week, as it was never properly released on SNES in North America (and I’ve been getting most of my roms from a site that mostly has only North American releases), but after posting about PART 1 on Instagram, an internet friend recommended Gunman’s Proof in the comments and I eventually tracked it down on another rom site and… it’s a pretty fun little action RPG with some Earthbound similar humour/story/animation. Definitely will be coming back for more now that I’ve figured out how to exit the village.
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#9 - Triple Play 96 (SEGA)
Just like with Madden, baseball is another sport that I paid way more attention to as a youth in the 90s than I do as an adult in 2020, and Triple Play 96 was a game that I remember playing a lot back in the day—so jumping back in has been fairly quick + this is also the era of baseball where I actually know most of the players on the team, which I DEFINITELY could not do with a modern baseball game. A good nostalgic play that goes well with a lazy Sunday afternoon.
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#10 - The Lone Ranger (NES)
I guess this game would be considered an action RPG, as you go around these small old west towns shooting bad guys and collecting the money they drop in order to buy yourself more bullets so that you can shoot more bad guys. And in order to cross a bridge to get your horse you have to get a letter from a sheriff in another town who says you need to go kill some outlaws in the mountains before he’ll give you the letter. You know, action RPG sort of stuff. It’s a nice looking game with fairly decent controls for the 8-bit era, and I find the story element has been enough to keep me wanting to play a little bit longer — which is all you really can ask from a retro game, right?
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Ok, that’s it for another list of 10 games that I would recommend making sure you add to your hacked Sega Mini if you’re an old millennial with similar gaming tastes as me (ie. these are the lists that I wish I stumbled upon when I was trying to figure out which games to add to my mini).
If you want more than 10 recommendations, you can check out PART 1 and PART 2, and then I will be back with a couple more ‘lists of 10’ sometime next week (I’m thinking of doing 5 parts, so by the end of my list making I’ll have 50 recommended retro video games in total — 20 Sega, 20 Super Nintendo, and 10 Nintendo).
But, until then, feel free to holler at me with whichever NES/SEGA/SNES games you think I should definitely have added to my hacked Sega Mini collection—I’ve got list 4 loosely mapped out, but there are still some decisions to be made when it comes down to list number 5 + one of my favourite parts is the first few minutes of testing out a new title to decide whether its a game that’s worth spending any more time with / making room for in my hacked Mini library.
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* For legal reasons, I suppose I should add that this post is entirely a work of fiction and I would never actually hack my Sega Mini with games I did not acquire in whatever the proper legal manner is for acquiring old 90s games in 2020 — in fact I would never even hack my Sega Mini, period, because hacking is bad, kids. "Follow the rules and always do things the way you were told to do them" — that's my motto. SEGA! (also NES! and SNES!)
