The Genesis Mini 2 performs better than the original, with a pretty stable 3 frames of lag from button press to movement on screen. Audio delay is about 5 frames over the original, so it can sometimes feel a bit delayed. For $130 delivered with 60 games and an awesome box & shell, I’d call this a fair deal for people who want to experience the games and a lot of fun for people who want a mini version of their original. The full lag testing can be found above (3 hours of stream to conclude the two opening sentences of this post ;/) and there’s a bunch more info below:
Purchase a Genesis Mini 2: https://amzn.to/3cBtraP
Original Genesis Mini Tests: https://www.retrorgb.com/genesis-mini-lag-testing.html
I think the most important thing learned from my testing is that the latency seems very stable. When running the same tests with the original Genesis Mini, the lag was all over the place: From 3-7 frames. This means you can never really time your moves properly, as they might not land the same way twice. To say it a different way, I’d rather game on this Mini 2 with a solid 3 frames, than a device that’s 2-4 frames variable.
The audio delay didn’t bother me too much, as it was only two frames (5 total, 2 more than the overall latency of the Mini 2). I imagine my opinion might change if I sank into games where part of your reaction time included music and sound effects, but overall it wasn’t terrible. The audio emulation itself wasn’t terrible, but my guess is it’s inaccurate to the original. Swapping between model 1 and 2 audio modes was fun (although an in-game option for that would be better) and certain games definitely felt more natural with one mode or the other.
A quick note: Jailbreaking this console and installing the 240p Test Suite would have allowed more accurate lag tests and MD Fourier audio testing. While that jailbreak isn’t available yet, I’m not sure I’d want to do it anyway. Even if it could be improved by some tweaks, the moment you have to start following guides to tweak and load roms, you’d might as well get a MiSTer and spend your time and money there. Just my opinion…
My only actually complaint with the console is controller compatibility: It doesn’t seem to work with any controllers that aren’t Sega-licensed. It worked with the 3-button controller from the Mini 1, as well as Retro-Bit Genesis controllers and I’ve heard it worked with the Astro City controllers as well. Such a weird limitation.
As before with the Genesis Mini 1, I loved everything else about it: The box was just like the original and would look great on a shelf. The console itself was proportionately correct and looked awesome. And the 6-button controller it came with seemed very accurate to the original.
If you’d like a more in-depth review of the console with a preview of each game, I strongly recommend checking out Game Sack’s video below. MVG had more of a basic overview, but I always appreciate his perspective…especially with his programming and emulation background.
