My friend got me the Sega Genesis Classic Game Console for my birthday last week. I thought it was a cool gift, but as soon as we tried to hook it up, that's when the problems started.
First of all, the sound output isn't even in Stereo! Back in the day, one of the big selling points of the Sega Genesis was its Stereo sound. What is the point of making a new machine to play Genesis games if the sound isn't even going to be good quality. That was the first thing that disappointed me, but it didn't end there. As I read the back of the box, I was saddened to see that only half of the games on the system were actual Sega Genesis games. The other 40 were these weird games that you would see on bootleg systems. If you have seen the latest JonTron video about Plug and Play systems, the games were pretty much like that.
When we went to plug the system in, I also noticed that the video output was composite, meaning you had to have the yellow cable, or let alone a television with composite inputs. My friend and I both have high-def TVs, so we had to borrow one from another friend to finally hook it up. Once we did, we turned it on.
You get a pretty generic looking menu with games to choose from. The first thing I immediately noticed was the controllers were AWFUL. I mean it, they were horrible. The plastic used to make them were extremely cheap, and they were wireless. Normally, wireless controllers are fine. However, you had to have your controller pointing right at the console or else it wouldn't work. It used weird infra-red lights on the top of the controller. When you went to hit a button, they usually end up sticking and it's just hard to control anything going on on the screen. There are ports on the front of the console though, if you want to hook up an original Genesis controller, which I highly recommend you do.
We decided to try out the original Sonic the Hedgehog to test out the gameplay. The game ran fine, however, the biggest turn-off was the sound. I don't know if I got a bad unit, but the sound on this machine was HORRENDOUS. Everything was lower pitched, with some sound channels at the same pitch as the original games, leaving you with this glitchy distorted version of Green Hill Zone. It wasn't just Sonic either, every game on the system had messed up sound. It was horrible and I never want to experience it again.
In the end, this system was a wasted $30. And that was on Black Friday. The regular retail price for this machine is $80! Hell, I wouldn't even pay more than a dollar for this. The system has capability to play original Genesis cartridges, which I have not tested out because I don't own any Genesis games at the moment. However, based on the experiences I had with this, I will never be playing it again. I will take a Tiger Handheld over this pile of junk.