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 8
Just like with the previous lists of ‘10 games to add to your hacked Sega Mini’, PART 8 does not attempt to claim that these are the best retro titles ever. Instead, these are games that, to me, still feel appealing to actually spend time playing all these years/decades later, especially given all the more modern ways one can distract themselves in the modern world. And since I recently went back to the hack to add a USB stick + consoles like the PS1 & N64 and even handheld devices like Game Boy Color/Advance to my Sega Mini, there’s a whole new library of possible titles to choose from that weren’t available back when I was making the first 6 lists.
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 - Resident Evil 3 (PLAYSTATION 1)
I haven’t tried Resident Evil 2 yet, but the gameplay in Resident Evil 3 definitely starts off a lot more lively than Resident Evil 1, so when it comes to diving into this ‘survival horror’ video game series, I ended up starting off with the third. Maybe I’m missing some storyline context doing it this way, but I think I get the gist — shoot the zombies, right? R.E.3 definitely has some creepy vibes & jump scares as you wonder around alleyways, slowly opening doors, never knowing when the next batch of undead is going to come stumbling towards you. Really good graphics and the kind of gameplay that will have you wondering what you’re supposed to do next and where did the last hour go? In other words, good stuff.
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#2 - Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
(PLAYSTATION 1)
Oddworld is an odd game that is kind of like an action puzzler in the vein of The Lost Vikings (which I added to LIST 4), but it is also not really like that game at all. You’re basically trying to escape from a meat packing factory where your people are not only working there as slaves, but you just found out that you’re all going to become the next type of meat that gets packed. So, not only are you trying to get out, but you’re also trying to rescue as many other workers as you can (but saying “hello” and asking them to “follow me”). It’s got some great graphics and patient gameplay, and is an overall fun & engaging experience.
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#3 - Super Mario Land 2 (GAME BOY)
Since I never had a Game Boy growing up (my retro handheld experience was on a Game Gear, although I have not found myself to be nostalgic for Chuck Rock), I was pleased to see that there was an old Super Mario game on the GB that was new to me. Is it as good as Super Mario World on the SNES or Super Mario 3 on the NES? No. But does it still have all the elements of a Super Mario game that makes them enjoyable + does it scale up graphically fine enough to play on the big screen thru a Sega Mini setup? Yep. And that’s good enough for me.
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#4 -
Wendy Every Witch Way (Game Boy Color)
Sometimes you just want to pick up an old skool platformer that you can jump in and out of without needing to spend a bunch of time re-remembering how to play or where you need to go / what to do, and Wendy Every Witch Way is one of those games. Throw in the added gameplay twist that you can change the rules of gravity to either have you walking on the floor or on the roof, and this is nice little game with pleasant enough 8-bit era graphics (and maybe not quite so pleasant 8-bit era music).
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#5 - Tomb Raider 2
(Playstation 1)
I had a PS1 for the last stretch of my high school years, but I never got around to playing any of the Tomb Raider games back then. Since it was such a big franchise in the pop culture, I was of course familiar with the games existence & general concept, I even saw a trailer or two for the movies, but when I actually got around to trying the series out all these years later, the gameplay was a lot different than what I was expecting. Less ‘run around shooting things’ and a lot more ‘looking around for things to climb on and jump to’. But, once you get used to the controls, it starts becoming a bit addictive trying to figure out how to make your way thru a level (even if the graphics sometimes make it a bit hard to see those damn spiders that keep biting me or where the edge of the next cliff is). All 4 Tomb Raiders on the PS1 seem about the same level of playability, but, for whatever reason, part 2 seems to have caught my desire to play the most, so that’s the one I’m adding to my Top Shelf recommendations list.
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#6 - Klonoa
(PLAYSTATION 1)
Sometimes Klonoa the character can seem a bit too ‘Hello Kitty cutesy’ for its own good (especially during the cut scenes), but the actual gameplay and 2.5-d level design is really quite pleasant and makes you want to keep going + the difficulty curve as you progress increases at a nice pace. So, even though I was initially skeptical and put off a little bit — once you start playing Klonoa it’s a pretty good evolvement in the platformer genre.
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#7 - Balloon Kid
(GAME BOY)
In Balloon Kid You play as a kid that holds onto balloons and tries to collect other balloons while trying to avoid things that will pop your balloons. Handles a bit like those old Joust games on the Atari and is another one of those simple, but kind of addictive games that you can just jump in and out of whenever your looking for something to play for a short while. And sometimes that’s all you’re looking for.
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#8 - Wario Ware Inc.
(GAME BOY ADVANCE)
Wario Ware is a pretty weird game where you just play a bunch of mini-games one after the other. Each mini-game only lasts for a few seconds, so it really tests your reaction time as well as your ability to quickly figure out what the hell you’re even supposed to do (or, more likely, you’re ability to quickly remember what you’re supposed to do on the next try). It’s fun and addictive and graphically translates pretty well from the small handheld screen to the bigger tv screen. Definitely gives you a gaming experience that is a lot different than almost everything else you can play from the retro era.
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#9 - Atlantis: The Lost Empire
(PLAYSTATION 1)
There’s actually quite a few good Disney games on the PS1, but it feels like Atlantis does the best job of making you feel like you’re playing in the movie (or maybe it just feels that way because I have never actually seen the Atlantis movie, so I’m just assuming that they’ve done a great job of it). Overall, it’s a nice looking game with good sound/voices + the gameplay makes you want to keep playing a little bit longer so you can advance the story… because some of us here haven’t seen the movie, so this is the only way we can find out what happens next (no spoilers!).
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#10 - Silent Hill
(PLAYSTATION 1)
In the same ‘survival horror’ genre as Resident Evil, but Silent Hill takes the ‘horror’ element a little bit higher with the creepy fog everywhere and a missing little daughter that creepily keeps walking into the spooky fog while you chase after her. And when you’re walking down the back alley in the dark with a lighter to barely see in front of you while there is blood all over the ground… that genuinely gave me the same kind of chills I get when watching someone walk around a dark basement in a horror film. I find the controls on these ‘survival horror’ games can sometimes be a bit cumbersome and sometimes you spend a lot of time walking around trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go / what you’re supposed to next (unlike on a platformer, where you know you just have to keep going to the right), but I can see why these games were such a bit hit back in the day, as they still suck you into the story all these years later.
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Ok, that’s it for this edition 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 my updated guide on how to your Sega Mini with Hakchi, which includes info on incorporating a USB stick for storage and adding PS1 games & more).
If you want more than the 10 recommendations above, you can check out my other lists of 10 games…
…and then you can let me know whether you think my overall collection of ‘games to add to your hacked Sega Mini’ is totally rubbish or kinda decent, or which games you cannot believe I have not included yet (my plan is to stop making these lists after I get to 95 recommended games in my HI54 TOP SHELF folder on my Sega Mini home screen, so there’s still a few slots open / undecided).
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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!