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Sega Lord X with another video on really difficult Sega Mega Drive games.

Once again, some pretty solid selections so far from everyone. Seeing as there's only a few days left, I thought that I should get on and choose some Game Boy games. Here are my picks... The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins Metroid II: Return of Samus Pokémon Red/Blue Kirby's Dream Land Look out for the N-E Top Ten NES Games coming soon to the main site.

In that case... I'll just say that it's well worth playing and that I hope you enjoy it. Easily one of the most unique shmups I've ever played.

That's a respectable collection of some excellent Sega Mega Drive titles there @Happenstance I can see more than a few in there which are favourites in my own collection, tell me... did you ever complete Gynoug? That's one of the first titles I played on my Mega SG... ...six stages in that game and I think I only got halfway through, I'm pretty sure I never finished it back in the day either, fantastic title though. When it comes to organising my own Sega Shelf I'm considering taking out all the EA titles and keeping them all together due to their different boxarts and spines. For everything else, I was going to keep all Sonic Team titles together regardless of boxes but maybe seperate some into black grid boxarts and blue sphere boxarts. Either way, a shelf full of Sega is always a good thing and they do look pretty nice in alphabetical order.

That's OK, I know how it is when you've got a lot of your Retro stuff in storage, heck I only recently got my Sega Mega CD II out from long ago. I'd say "Yes" to an eShop round, it wouldn't have to be just eShop though and wouldn't have to be restricted to £10 but I was thinking in terms of... You have Sega Megadrive Classics, Capcom Beat 'em Up bundle plus all of the Sega Ages games which have come out so far. I think a lot of forum members already have these, so you could choose one from the Sega Classics, Capcom Beat 'em Up Bundle and a Sega Ages title perhaps? Or if there are any other classic games of your choosing which are on the eShop, that'd be cool as well I'd have thought... There are tonnes of ACA Neo Geo titles, not to mention a fair few Nintendo Arcade titles under the same banner plus loads more besides. The more I think about it, the more I'm warming to the idea even more.

I'm very pleased to see Star Soldier there. Great shmup for the NES which belongs to a fantastic series. I haven't checked in with the NES games for a while, I might do so later.

I finally got around to watching that excellent video from DF Retro that you posted @Happenstance it was a really good review of what the system can do. I noted down some of the settings to try out on my Mega SG for when I finally update to the new firmware. I saw an interesting article about aging videogame consoles which has made me think about just how long some of my systems have left. It seems like not everyone was lucky enough to still get their Sega Mega CD working with their Mega SG going by that article which makes me all the more grateful that mine does. I did look after it though pretty well, even when it hasn't been in use for a long time, I kept it with a load of other consoles in a large plastic crate in my room. It will now be getting a lot more use thanks to my Mega SG and here's that picture of it I promised taken after I cleaned it up after removing my MK1 Mega Drive from it... Actually, what the heck... I'll show you some before, after and bonus pics... There it is, my original MK1 Sega Mega Drive attached to my Sega Mega CD II with the extender piece on the end. This is what greeted me when I took off the Mega Drive, an edge connector in good shape but... the amount of debris between the two machines was... significant. And after several hours of cleaning, a bit of fumbling with the edge connector and the Master System adapter inserted, this is my new Sega setup. Oh and I totally reused that now redundant extension piece to raise my Nintendo Switch dock up to a more respectable height and so that the wires fit nicely. Here's my Mega SG - Mega CD II combo with Back-Up RAM cart (purchased with a new battery installed) running the homebrew Sonic Megamix game. Now, I know the rest of my setup needs work and it is something I intend to address, my bespoke "TV Stand" for one thing... Yep, it's the innards of a plastic storage unit, with layers of empty PS3 cases to raise the speaker up, while my TV has its weight evenly distributed between two NES consoles. If you're going to make a TV stand then it might as well be on top of two sturdy machines and those NES units have stood the test of time... ...however, I know it's wrong and I will be putting this right soon as I intend to make a proper TV unit to go on top of the chest of drawers instead but I figured you might as well see it. I'll also be taking out that Retron 5, reusing the white square shelf bits to add to my Switch Shelf for when I rebuild it so I can have that vertical monitor at a more sensible height. It'll take time though as I want to do things right, but at the moment I'm just glad that I can play some classic Sega games on my newest machine. Once I make more progress though, I'll set about getting my Sega Saturn out of storage, setting up a brand new Dreamcast that I bought and much more besides. I might even get around to making my Sega Shelf presentable enough to take a picture of, you never know.

There's a new DF Retro starring Bubsy, thought I'd post it here in case @Happenstance or @Hero-of-Time are interested. Give it a watch, what could possibly go wrong? (And yes, I just purchased Bubsy 2 before watching this purely because I wanted to own it)

Yeah but... I just got an Analogue Mega SG, what would I need this for... *Sees that the emulation is being handled by M2* *notes the inclusion of both versions of Castlevania Bloodlines* *AND Yuzo Koshiro composed the menu music?!?* I'll take two!

Apparently Anthem has problems... ...first I've heard of it.

EA doing what it does best... laying off its employees and then trying to make it sound like it's not that big of a deal. It's a toss-up beteen EA and Activision to see which is the worst company out of the two at the minute, it would seem. Between them, they're making Ubisoft seem like the lesser of three evils, by quite some margin. I can remember when all three of these companies had pretty decent track records and reputations to uphold. Now though, nothing really surprises me from the big "players" in the "AAA" games industry.

I was just about to post that! As much as it pains me, I'd rather have the hideous online stuff and a matching spine than a clean cover with a non matching spine. So it seems the only solution is to photocopy the inside art, cut the good art off the copy and put it over the original. Then it'll be looking good again. Just a shame both the games aren't on the cart or that it couldn't have been a double cart release.

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Damn, so Cyber Shadow is Yacht Club Games' new title? Based on that trailer, I want to purchase it on day one but I also need that to come out physically because it surely deserves space on the shelf. Right next to the boxed copy of Shovel Knight, whenever that comes out.

*nods* Yep, I hear ya... My shelf is more organised than it was but I can't fit all of my Sega games on it... there is more than a bit of "overspill" which had to go on storage towers, mostly MD and DC games. Then, I got copies of Road Rash and Streets of Rage today, said that was "it" and then won a copy of Altered Beast for a good price as I wasn't sure if I had it boxed. So, Sega Shelf pictures at a later date but I did take some pictures of my new desk setup, which I was working on yesterday for most of the day, you'll see why when I post them. Later on though as I have a few other things to do today including sorting and reviews but I hope to get some more Sega games played later as well, see how the day goes.

No worries. I believe that's true. Buttons on the back are easy to reach. The cord is a good few feet long. All the standard features are present, I've used a normal, cheap official Xbox 360 headset with it. (it's the headset I use with everything) I'd say go with either the original model or the follow up version, both are good, I have the original. Wireless one sounds expensive, plus the wired version is better for being lag free I'd say. I try and use wired controllers only where possible and this controller is easily one of the best wired options available. I got mine with the Xbox One Elite controller at the same time through a deal through work a while ago. It was a case of, I knew the pads were pricey but with the extra money off it was worth it as I haven't had to replace either since.

Absolutely. It's the only controller I use for the PS4 now... well, for most games, I have a fightpad for arcade type games. Very easy to set up, though I will say that the controller comes with different sets of weights which go inside the handles of the controllers. If you're buying one, I'd go for new or at least if it's second hand, just check that it comes with everything as the weights definitely help. The cord is decent quality, you have to connect it to the top of the controller when you first use it and there's a cord protector which screws in over the top. (tightened by hand) Build quality is very good, sticks are sturdy, D-Pad is perfectly useable for most games, face buttons are good, shoulder buttons and triggers are better than the original. (IMO) It has a light bar in a more sensible place, plus there is a light around the right stick and the touch pad is just as responsive as the official pad.

£24.99 eh? Image & Form Games eh? SteamWorld eh? Take my money!... ...is what I say just as soon as the game comes out physically. Besides, I've still got SteamWorld Dig 2 to play.

I was more thinking of the Satisfye Pro Gaming Grip... It really does make the world of difference when playing in portable mode. But it's a minor concern in the grand scheme of things I suppose and it is likely that they'll keep the original form factor for the Pro model hopefully. That's even if any of this even happens, but it is seeming likely at this point.

Oh yeah, the technical stuff should still work the same, I was just talking more about the third-party grips that are available for use in handheld mode. If they change the form factor of the Switch with or without the joy-cons attached significantly, those won't be of any use. So I was just hoping that for the pro model, they would keep the form factor so it was exactly the same size and shape but improve the internal components.

What's the first game I played on my Mega SG? Well, I'm glad you asked... Castlevania The New Generation This is a game which I've had in my collection since 2015, it's not complete but I did manage to get it for £50 at the time, looking back now it seems to have kept its value. But I did buy it to play and last night was when I finally got around to trying it out and oh my... it's one of the best Castlevania games I had previously never played. Super Castlevania IV has long been a favourite of mine, but it's best to think of this as the Mega Drive exclusive equivelant to it because it's similar yet different. For a start, you get to choose from two different playable characters who have varied weapons, which lends an interesting twist to the gameplay. You can play as either John Morris (a distant descendant of the Belmont and Morris families) or Eric Lecarde. (whose girlfriend was turned into a vampire) I've only managed to get to the third stage so far but there have already been some interesting mechanics including breakable statues and a stage involving rising water. The bosses and mini-bosses are tough and imaginative, the gameplay is well-balanced plus the difficulty is tough but fair, just as it should be. Some of the music I'm already familiar with as I've heard it from listening to the Castlevania selection CD which came with my copy of SOTN so it was nice to hear them again. All of the visuals are very nice indeed, showcasing the unique capabilities of the Sega Mega Drive, there are some really nice sprites on display. So far I cannot recommend this title enough and I can't wait to play more of it, of course I played a few other titles on my Mega SG but this one was worth highlighting.

The only thing which is concerning me about this latest rumour is this quote... My latest on new Nintendo Switch coming as early as this summer. There would be two models, and people who've seen them said designs of new devices are "different from the original and you'd be surprised." Different probably equates to altered form factor... now for a purely portable Switch I can understand that but for the Pro model, you can say goodbye to a lot of accesories. Maybe it's a minor issue, I'm just now looking at my recently purchased Switch Grip from Satisfye and I'm wondering how much more use I'll get out of it now. Obviously the joy-cons will still be compatible but this might mean that a lot of accesories which relied on the existing form factor of the Switch may become useless. That's why I'm hoping that by some small miracle, Nintendo keep the form factor of the Pro model the same as the existing model. You can still have a slightly bigger, better screen with less bezel this way and can change the ports a little bit if needed but still keep those accesories useable. Just something I thought was worth considering anyway, ultimately Nintendo's going to do whatever Nintendo's going to do.

Well, the Epic Store seems to be doing OK... but at what long-term cost? (if any)