Game:

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

Duration: 12:01

1,904 views

83

I gotta say the Hyperkin Mega Retron HD turned out to be a great little Mega Drive/Genesis clone for the price. The build quality is excellent, the included 6-button controller feels good and compatibility for a Genesis on a Chip seems to be up there with the best of them.

I tested it with Virtua Racing's DSP chip, my Everdrive flash cart and my Power Base FM and it worked with everything! Granted the FM music on the Power Base FM didn't work but it did play Master System games with the base PSG sound. This leads me to believe most other Power Base style converters should work fine as long as they fit into the cartridge slot.

The video from the HDMI port may be a little on the soft side (even for 720p) but that's okay. The signal is clean, color is good and the inclusion of a 16:9/4:3 ratio switch is a nice touch. I like the fact it's powered by a micro USB port rather than a barrel plug giving you more options (I use my 2.5A RPi power adapter to power ALL of my mini consoles) and while the sound isn't perfect it's better than most of these style clones and is close enough in most games that many might not even notice any difference. I'm used to playing on an HDG model 1 so while it doesn't match up to that it could be argued the sound quality is actually better than many late model 1 and model 2 systems! I found in some games the music was a little quiet (compared to the sound effects) but overall it sounds fine in most games. I think Sonic was slightly off tune (if only ever so slightly) but Sonic 2 was bang on as was Streets of Rage 2, Revenge of Shinobi and Earthworm Jim. Again, for a Genesis on a Chip style clone the music is up there with the best of them.

Oh and yes I know they added metal inside to add weight and if you think that's a bad thing I'd ask why? The plastic is thick and very strong. You can squeeze this thing and there's no flex in the plastic at all. I'd argue it's built stronger than any genuine Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console ever was! That doesn't mean it's better, I'm just saying as far as the plastic goes it's built very well. The spring loaded dust flaps feel super sturdy, the power switch and reset button feel solid and the large rubber feet really plant this thing down. Even without the extra weight it's hard to deny the build quality is good so using metal to add a little extra weight can't really be all that bad can it? Sure, it could be seen as deceptive but weight aside the build quality is good.

Honestly the fact is this is one of the best, if not THE best Genesis on a Chip style clones ever made. Obviously it's not perfect compared to some of the more expensive FPGA options out there today. But considering some of those are nearly 5x the price I'd still say that for $50 CAD (~$37 USD) this is great value for someone who just wants to play their own cartridges on a system with HDMI and with no potential software emulation lag, boot up times or loading ROM's into RAM (like the Retron 5) it really is a simple and effective way to do so.

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