- Hey, guys, Metal Jesus here. Now, since 2016 in the
release of the NES Classic all the way up to today with the release of the TurboGrafx-16 Mini,
there have been a lot of these mini consoles released
over the last couple years, and, as you can see here,
I have most of them. So, in this video I thought
I would walk through the things I like and
dislike about each of them, and then I'm gonna rank them. Let's take a look! (energetic metal music) I'm gonna start with the mini
console that I like the least, and that's gonna be no
surprise to many of you, it is the Sony PlayStation Classic. When this was originally
teased I was pretty excited, because I do like the
original PlayStation, but, as we got closer to the launch of it, it became painfully obvious that Sony was kinda just phoning this one in. And the problem was obvious because, while they're calling this the Classic, it was a really weird mix of games. They had some really good
ones, like "Final Fantasy VII" and, of course, "Metal Gear Solid", but where are all the other classics? You know, like the "Tomb Raider"s, the "Wipeout"s, the "Crash Bandicoot"s. On top of that, they decided to include several PAL versions of games in here that ran at a lower frame
rate, it was so weird! In this video, I'm not
gonna get really deep into the modding scene
that has since taken over and been really popular
with these mini consoles, but just know that after this was released a bunch of people released
mods and solutions that you could easily put
your own games on here. However, for this video and
the ranking that I'm doing, I'm really pretty much just going off of the stock retail versions,
although there is gonna be one notable exception here pretty soon. Overall, this is my least
favorite mini console. Now, I do think it looks pretty cool and it was awesome that Sony
included two controllers, so that's pretty great,
and some of the games they did include on here are pretty great and still fun to play today, but it needs to be said that this, again, is the PlayStation 1, these
are early polygons games, they look pretty rough on
your big HD television. It would've been cool if
Sony would have included some smoothing options,
some ways of kind of artificially making some of
these look a little better. Not a huge thing. but
it would've been nice. Next up is the SNK NEOGEO mini, and if you remember back
when this first came out, I was pretty hard on it. I was, I was disappointed. So to start, let's talk about
some of the positives here. I do really like how this looks. Out of all the ones I'm
gonna show you today, this is the only one that actually has a built-in screen, which is pretty cool. However, for some reason
they didn't include the ability for you to
use your own batteries and truly make it portable. Well, I guess it's portable,
but you know what I mean, you're still gonna be stuck to having it plugged into the wall. It would've been cool if it allowed you to at least, you know, have your own rechargeable batteries
or something like that. And SNK released five different versions of this mini console, so if
you're a big fan of NEOGEO, there's a lot of cool
things to collect here. Just be aware, though, each one of those has a slightly different
collection of games that are included on it and you see from this Wikipedia article
here that, uh, yeah, it can get pretty crazy
if you want them all. And then two other things I
didn't really care about this is that while the games look great if you're playing on that built-in screen, if you output the HDMI to your television, well, it's blurry, it looks, it looks bad and it's very disappointing. And then original NEOGEOs are known for their clicky thumbsticks, that's one of the things I really love about all of their previous systems, and, for some reason, they decided to not do this with the mini console. Um, that's where that clicky
thumbsticks are hard to make meme comes from. It's not a deal breaker
because these games still play fine on it, but
it's just disappointing. And as far as the game collection goes, I do like the mix of classic
NEOGEO fighting games, shooting games, and run and guns in here. So there's a lot to choose
from, there's a lot to like. (gunshots thundering)
(adventurous music) Moving on to the Commodore 64 Mini, or technically it's the C64 Mini. Now, I was very surprised to see this, because this is a classic computer, but gamers like me that
grew up in 80s, well, it was really also kind of like a console, because all I ever did
is play games on this. And so it was really cool to see a, you know, brand-new mini version of it. And seeing that it is a C64, well, of course it comes with
64 games built into it, and that's where, at least initially, this kinda got a little disappointing, at least when it launched, and, honestly, that's one of the reasons why it's a little bit lower on this list, because they couldn't really license all of the classic games that
came out on the Commodore 64. Honestly, it's nowhere
near the amount of classics that most gamers like
me probably would have chosen to put on here. Now, what's interesting
is that the developers recognized this shortcoming and
released a free BIOS upgrade that allows you to put
your own games on it. That's pretty unique and very different than the other consoles that
are included on this list, because you don't have to hack it. However, there's two things
that keep this mini console from greatness and being
higher on this list. The first one being is
that it's a computer and therefore it should have a keyboard and many of these games
assume that you would have a working keyboard
and because it's a mini and because of its size,
they didn't include a working physical keyboard,
which is kinda awkward in some games that wants
you to hit the space bar to start the game or maybe
one of the function keys. So what they ended up
doing to get around this is that on the controller
there's a button you can push to bring up a virtual
keyboard that then allows you to go in and do what you need to do. And it works, it's just
that it's really awkward. And, speaking of the controller,
when these first launched, the controller that
was included in the box was prone to breaking, it was
not the most sturdy controller that you could attach to this
and that was a real bummer. A lotta people complained about that, you can tell it's just not sturdy. But I will say, having the ability to load your own games onto
this without having to hack it is pretty awesome and
they look and run great. And what's cool is that they've
taken a lot of that feedback and now since this has come out, they've released a new product where it's a larger,
full-sized Commodore 64 with a working keyboard. So I'm not gonna talk about that much here because, obviously, we're
covering the mini consoles, but it's something I'm gonna
talk about in the future. (air whooshing) Here is the NES Classic
Mini, which is the system that really elevated how
popular these things would go. When these first came out, they were almost impossible to buy. They were being scalped
all over the place, people were freaking out
just trying to get one. And what this did really well
is just include 30 classic NES games that people still
love and wanna play today. And this is where, you
know, Nintendo has really the advantage over some
of the other systems because these are stone-cold classics and Nintendo is the first-party
developer for a lotta these and so they are able to, you
know, pack on 30 games here that people were just dying to play. And, in truth, there's not really that much to complain about the NES Mini. I mean, all of these
games run and play great. I think, really, the only
complaint at the time, and it's completely valid,
is that the controller cord is just painfully short, I don't know what Nintendo was thinking
when they released this, but, yeah, it's way too short. But all of these games are still really fun to play even today and so that's why it's
as high on the list. (air whooshing) Next up on my list is
the SEGA Genesis Mini, which includes 42 games
and, like Nintendo, the Genesis benefits from
a really strong collection of awesome first-party
and third-party titles. And what you want from these consoles is a small, compact, and
ready-to-go list of awesome games and, again, I feel like
that this just nailed it, it just knocked it outta the park. But what makes us even
better is that they released the Tower of Power, which I find to just be awesome and hilarious at the same time. So you have the CD
attachment that would go on the bottom of it, you have the 32X, you have the adapter for the cartridge. I mean, it's just hilarious! I'm trying to imagine the sales meeting where they're like, "Yeah,
you know, we're gonna do this, "but we're gonna go all
out, we're gonna release "all the peripherals,
the attachments for it." And, you know, it's funny
'cause they don't work, they're just there for show, but they're there for the uber fans who want the ultimate, you
know, SEGA mini console. Probably the only thing
that most people would say is not great about this is
that the North American version of the console only has the three buttons, which is accurate to how
it originally released, but is disappointing to some,
you know, especially fans who want the six-button controller, which some games take advantage of. However, I believe SEGA did sell an official six-button
controller for use in this, so I just don't happen to have one. But getting back to the games here, they're all really great. As a matter of fact, a couple months ago we had a housewarming party
and one of the televisions I just had this set up and running and people would come
up, grab a controller, and play a couple rounds
of their favorite games and it got used all
night, people loved it. (air whooshing) Next up is the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, which was a console that
not a lotta people remember. It wasn't super popular in North America, although I had a roommate
in the 90s who had one, and I always thought
that they are very cool. And so you can pick up
the TurboGrafx-16 Mini that you see here, or you
can also get the PC Engine, that's what it's called in
Japan, and you see it here, much different form factor. And this has a big selection of 58 games, although I believe it is
counting some of those double, depending on whether you're playing the TurboGrafx-16 version
or the PC Engine version. But what's cool is that
that selection of games does include the original TurboGrafx-16, obviously the PC Engine, the CD-ROM games as well as the SuperGrafx,
so a lot to choose from here. And that's why on the main
menu down on the corner you can swap between either showing TurboGrafx-16 games or PC Engine. And the TurboGrafx-16 is mostly known for having a lot of shooters,
which is not a problem for me, I love playing me some shooters, but there is other variety here too, so don't think you're
just gonna get shooters. And one of the things that I love is that they kept those turbo
switches on the controller, which are very handy for
shooters because you don't have to just constantly
hammer that fire button, you can use the turbo
buttons to do it for you. And it's worth knowing that there are some hidden games included on this, which I thought was really cool. So for instance, if you
select the game "Salamander" on the PC Engine side and
then with the controller hit the select button twice,
you'll hear a bell sound and that unlocks "Force Gear". If you hit the select button three times, that will unlock "TwinBee",
and then if you hold down the select button and press
one to start the game, you'll get an updated
version of "Salamander". Pretty cool little bonus there, and I'm not even sure if
that's all of the hidden games. They added some other
nice little touches too. For instance, notice that
when you select a game it shows that inserting the
HuCard into the console, if it's a CD-ROM game, they've included the sound of a CD-ROM drive spinning up, (CD whirring) and they even give you the option to play the game on a TurboExpress, that was the portable device. That's pretty hilarious. But, really, it's all about the games and that's why this mini
console is so high on this list, because there are just so many
great games included on here, many of them that I've been
playing for the first time. It's definitely an awesome mini console, I'm really digging it. (game beeping)
(adventurous music) (air whooshing) And, finally, my favorite
mini console to date has to be the Super NES Classic Edition. I guess I just feel like Nintendo really knocked it outta
the park with this one. They took what they learned
from the NES Classic and they applied it here. So this comes with 21 games and that includes a special release. So, basically, "Star Fox" was a game that was originally canceled but they decided to release
it in this exclusively, which was a really cool selling point. And, thankfully, this does come with longer controller
cables but, honestly, I don't even use them because
so many third-party companies made wireless solutions,
like you see here. So 8BitDo makes these
fantastic wireless controllers that work with it great! But, really, this is my
favorite mini console for one simple reason and
that, of course, is the games. The Super Nintendo just
had so many great games released for it and most
of them are included here. You've got "Contra III",
"Donkey Kong Country", "EarthBound", "F-Zero",
"Final Fantasy VI/III", You've got "Kirby", "Zelda",
"Mega Man X", "Secret of Mana", "Super Castlevania IV",
"Super Metroid", et cetera, et cetera, it just goes on and on and on. I mean, these are all games that people still want to buy, own,
collect, and play today, and, again, having them all
in this one small package, it's, it's perfect, it's, it's awesome. So, those are my mini consoles ranked. I would love to know down the comments what your rankings are,
which ones you love, do you have all of these as well? What consoles would you like
to see made in the future? I know, me personally, I would love to see a Commodore Amiga Mini
as well as a MS-DOS Mini, I think that would be pretty
amazing for them to do. Who knows? Love to know what you guys
think down that comments below. As always, I wanna thank
you for watching my channel, thank you for subscribing, and take care.
