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 6
Just like with the previous lists of ‘10 games to add to your hacked Sega Mini’, PART 6 does not attempt to claim that these are the best retro titles available. Instead, these are the games that, to me, still feel the most appealing to actually spend time playing in 2020, especially given all the other ways one can distract themselves in the modern world. But, unlike the previous 5 lists that dealt exclusively with GENESIS/NES/SNES games, this time around I’ll be selecting titles from the Turbo Grafx-16 and Sega Master System, as I recently went back to the hack to add a few more console options to my Sega Mini.
So, with that in mind, here’s another 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 these covid quarantine days in a similar retro video game rabbit hole & have similar elder millennial tastes as me:
#1 - BOXYBOY (TURBO GRAFX-16)
Boxyboy is probably not the kind of game that I would have liked as 90s teen, but as an old millennial in 2020, puzzle games just seem to grab my interest a lot more. There was a similar game on the Genesis that I tried called ‘Shove It!’, but even though both games just involve pushing boxes onto little dots, Boxyboy does a noticeably better job in both the looks and gameplay and sound (also, being able to reverse your box pushing if you make a mistake goes a long way from keeping this game from just becoming annoying/frustrating). Now, I haven’t made it past the first 20 levels, and apparently the puzzles start getting quite big & complex to the point of looking overwhelming, but so far I can’t help but find this game quite enjoyable and addicting. It’s like video game Sudoku.
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#2 - Aladdin (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM)
Aladdin on the Sega Genesis was one of the first games I recommended adding to your hacked Sega Mini, but this Master System version is not getting a nod because it’s just an 8-bit version of the great 16-bit game, the gameplay here is actually quite a lot different, so you can basically consider it a completely different experience. And the experience is a fairly fun running and jumping game that still looks pretty good for the downgrade in graphic capabilities. And considering that the SNES version of Aladdin was also quite good + quite different than the other consoles, you really gotta hand to Aladdin for managing to be great in the 3 different gaming iterations (must be the hammer pants).
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#3 -
Batman (TURBO GRAFX-16)
I think what I like the most about this version of Batman, is it is nothing like any other other Batman games you’ll find on the old video game consoles. And by that I mean, this isn’t one of those ‘beat em up’ platformers where you go left-to-right pushing the same buttons over and over again beating up bad guy after bad guy. This is more like an overhead puzzle game, where you walk around maze-like levels collecting items and throwing your batarang and Joker minions to temporarily stun them so you can then kick them off screen for a little while. At first it almost seems too easy, but the challenge increases just enough to keep you interested to see where things go + every level starts off with Seinfeld-like bass lines.
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#4 -
MicroMachines (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM)
For an 8-bit console, the Master System can really look quite nice on some games, and Micro Machines seems to be one of those titles that fits perfectly for the lower graphic capabilities (I guess when your machines are micro, they’re easier to render in 8-bit technology). As far as driving games go, I’m not a huge fan of the ‘looking down on the track’ view, as the steering can be quite counter-intuitive at times + you can’t really get a sense of what’s coming up until it’s too late, but overall this one is pretty fun to play once you get used to how things control, plus each track looks nice. Although, the way Micro Machines handles 2-player mode isn’t great (instead of split screen, you both need to be on the same screen at the same time, which doesn’t work great), so much better played as 1-person (which suits my old no-friend-having-ass just fine).
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#5 -
Bonk’s Revenge (TURBO GRAFX-16)
You can’t really talk about the Turbo Grafx-16 (also called the PC Engine outside of North America) without at least mentioning one Bonk game (there were 3 in total, 4 if you can’t Air Zonk). You need to mention Bonk not only because he is was the consoles Mario/Sonic version mascot, but also because the games are all pretty fun to play and very nice & colourful to look at (as for gameplay, they’re your basic platformer sytle game — but instead of jumping on baddies you ‘bonk’ them with your head + Bonk does power-ups a bit funner than Mario). I think Bonk’s Revenge seems like the most polished of the 3 Bonk titles, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them (and the file sizes are small enough that you can probably fit them all on your hacked Sega Mini if interested in going for the full-bonk experience).
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#6 -
Lemmings (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM)
When testing out games for the Genesis and Super Nintendo, I was never won over by the Lemmings titles I tired, but for whatever reason, when testing out Sega Master System games I was finally able to see the appeal of trying to get all my Lemmings to the exit. Maybe because this version of the Master System made me walk through some early stages to learn the gameplay, whereas I found myself wondering what I was supposed to or what each little lemming picture was supposed to represent when trying this game on the other consoles (I mean, it’s still hard to tell what each lemming picture does, and I’m sure having the actual instruction book would come in handy, but you don’t get manuals with downloaded roms, so learning by gameplay is sometimes a needed touch). All in all, it’s another fun little puzzle game to add to your collection.
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#7 -
Cratermaze (TURBO GRAFX-16)
Cratermaze is one of those games that can almost feel too easy at times—you just walk around maze-like levels collecting treasures and digging holes for bad guys to fall into before they touch you—but there’s also something soothing and addicting in just walking around maze-like levels collecting treasures. Like most games, I’m sure it will continue to get harder the further along you go, but sometimes it’s also just nice to pick up and play a game where you can get through a few levels without dying a bunch of times. Which is probably why you won’t find any spaceship shooter games on my list, even though the Turbo Grafx-16 was considered a great console for those kind of games. Everybody likes what they like, no judging here.
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#8 -
Maze Hunter 3-D (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM)
Ok, I am starting to notice a trend that I seem to like games where you walk around maze-like levels. I don’t know, maybe it’s the huge amount of left-to-right platformer games that existed in the 8-bit and 16-bit era that just makes these games stand out as a bit more fun to bum around in. Unfortunately, I don’t have the Sega Scope 3-D glasses that apparently can be used on this game to take the visuals to a whole other level, but I find that it’s a pretty enjoyable game to play in plain old 2-D as well. As with some of the others, it starts off pretty easy, but it’ll start offering enough of a challenge to keep you interested in trying to hunt yourself completely out of all the mazes.
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#9 -
Chew Man Fu (TURBO GRAFX-16)
Suprise! It’s another puzzle game. In this one you control a little girl who needs to move coloured balls around—surprise!—maze-like levels and place each ball on the matching coloured tile. To make things more difficult, there are bad guys all around and if they touch you they kill you. Luckily you can kick your balls at them and make them disappear for awhile. This one is extra cute and colourful and fun to play by yourself, or, if you should be so lucky, with a friend where you can work together kicking balls at evil hedgehogs and monkeys and etc. A very charming little game.
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#10 -
Alien Syndrom (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM)
On Alien Syndrome you walk around—wait for it— maze-like levels, shooting aliens and rescuing hostages until there are no hostages left to rescue and you can make your way to the exit. You don’t want to spend too much time trying to shoot all the aliens as they eventually just reappear, so just walk around trying to find people to save without getting hit and keep an eye out for symbols on the wall that can give you different guns and whatnot. Kinda slow paced at times, but also kinda calming to just slowly walk around saving hostages and shooting aliens.
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Ok, that’s it for this Sega Master System + Turbo Grafx-16/PC Engine edition 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 (and if you missed it / are interested, here’s how to add SMS and Turbo Grafx-16 games to your Sega Mini).
If you want more than the 10 recommendations above, you can check out the other lists of 10 games (featuring GENESIS/NES/SNES games)…
…and then you can let me know whether you think my overall list of 20 Sega, 20 Super Nintendo + 10 Nintendo + 5 Sega Master System + 5 Turbo Grafx-16 games is totally rubbish or kinda decent.
Also, I can fit way more than 60 games on my hacked Sega Mini—I currently have about 300 titles on there, including the 40 that game pre-installed—so I’m also interested in hearing about any titles that you think I may have missed/might enjoy adding as well.
Although, I’ve started messing about with adding Game Boy Advance games and those file sizes are quite a lot bigger, so I might need to look into getting a bigger boat (ie. incorporating a USB stick into my Sega Mini hack - either that or I just need to be ok with having closer to 150-200 total games instead of my current 300). But I’ve also got a Pocketgo coming in the mail next week, so maybe I’ll just take my retro-gaming phase over to the handheld world.
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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!
