There’s good news for Sega fans stressing over potentially having to pay steep import fees to bring the recently announced Mega Drive Mini 2 Console to the US. Yesterday, the company revealed the mini console would be coming to North America too on the same day, but will be called the Sega Genesis Mini 2 here.
Sega Japan revealed the Mega Drive 2 back in early June as a follow-up to the surprisingly excellent Sega Genesis Mini/Mega Drive Mini from a few years ago. That console came with a solid lineup of 40 classic 16-bit games, making Nintendo’s miniaturized throwback consoles feel somewhat limited by comparison. The Mega Drive 2 hardware is even smaller than the original, while boosting the bundled games roster to over 50 titles, including, for the first time, several Sega CD titles like Virtua Racing and Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
The June announcement only included availability details for Japan, but Sega’s official Twitter account has thankfully confirmed that the renamed Sega Genesis Mini 2 is coming to North America on October 27th, as well.
The Sega Genesis Mini 2 will also include the upgraded six-button gamepad, but what hasn’t been confirmed for North American gamers are the console’s unique accessories. In Japan, the Mega Drive Mini 2 can be upgraded with a non-functional, purely cosmetic Sega CD add-on for $37, as well as a revival of the original console’s Sharp Cyber Stick flight stick controller, now simply called the USB Cyber Stick, for improving the gameplay of bundled titles like After Burner 2.
The Mega Drive Mini 2 will sell for about $75 when it launches in Japan on October 27th, but in North America, you can pre-order the Sega Genesis Mini 2 now through Amazon for an oddly specific $103.80. That’s a price increase of about $20 over the original Sega Genesis Mini, which isn’t that surprising given how expensive everything else is these days.