As someone who greatly enjoys retro games, I got really excited when Nintendo announced the NES Classic Edition. A handful of QUALITY classic NES games for $60 and produced by Nintendo themselves? Sign me right up! But sure enough, out there somewhere there are bound to be imitators. This when when I found out that Sega had teamed up with AtGames to produce a special version of their previously released Mega Drive Classic Console to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog's 25th Anniversary. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna compare their pros and cons to see which is the better deal and more worth your hard earned cash.
Included Content
First of all, here are the individual stats:
| NES Classic Edition | Sega Mega Drive Classic Console | |
|---|---|---|
| # of Games | 30 | 80 (40 Mega Drive games + 40 "Bonus" games) |
| # of Controllers packaged with system | 1 ($9.99USD for each additional controller) | 2 ($19.99 for each additional controller) |
| Audio/Video Output | HDMI | Composite |
| MSRP | $59.99USD | $59.99USD? (£49.99GBP) |
| Cartridge support? | No | Yes |
| Save Game support? | Yes | Unknown, but probability is high |
| Suspend Points? | Yes | No |
| Power Cord | AC Adapter (not packaged in EU version) | AC Adapter |
| Additional Notes | Controllers can work with NES Virtual Console titles | A portable version will be released along side the home version |
Analysis
As you can see, both have their highs and lows. While the NES may have less games than the Mega Drive, half of the 80 games included on the Mega Drive are low quality throwaway games (falsely listed as "Sega Arcade") that were added just to pad out the fluff. The Mega Drive does make up for this with the ability to play cartridges and it comes with two controllers instead of one, but the NES can use its controllers with the NES titles on the Wii's and Wii U's Virtual Console service. Plus if you don't want to buy a second controller, that's fine too as it can also work with the Wii Classic Controllers. The real deciding factor though is tough to determine. As I have stated many times in the past, I grew up with Nintendo games, so I'm a bit biased toward the NES Classic. Yes, it does have less games than the Mega Drive, but they are of objectively superior quality. It's just a shame that it can't be played on an old CRT TV set; retro games somehow look better on those older TV's.
Final Verdict
Even if I wasn't as Nintendo biased as I am, I'm going to have to give the upper hand to the NES Classic Edition. Considering the fact that not everyone owns a CRT TV anymore and most modern HD TV's no longer have support for composite cables, I don't think the Mega Drive Classic Console will be able to thrive in this new plug-n-play "console war" as much as I would want it to. So if you like retro games, get the NES Classic Edition when it is released on November 11th of this year; don't even bother with the Mega Drive unless you were a fan of those games in the past and still own cartridges that it can use, and/or if you own a CRT TV. But until then, I'll be seeing you.
