Welcome to the 1990′s. The Mega Drive II is, as noted in the writeup, the most popular and common of all the Mega Drive iterations. But popular doesn’t necessarily mean best, so what in the Mega Drive II’s design is worthy or merit?

The size is a notable improvement, fitting into the living room space alot more aesthetically than the clunkier hi-fi inspired Mega Drive I. This design is certainly one of the most influential of the early 90′s, due to the changes it inspired among it’s competitor’s and it’s spiritual successors.

If you look at consoles throughout time, there are always familiarities. The Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum followed the stylings of computers of their day by coming as an all-in-one keyboard, a look not altered until the small-production Sega SG-1000. In turn the SG-1000 went through three different looks, and had a great influence in the Master System and Mega Drive’s first designs, with the 80′s sliders, unnecessarily bulky frames and angular features. In fact the Famicom, NES, SNES, Amiga CD32 and mutliple other consoles built to rival Nintendo’s dominance all followed the similar design pattern.

However the Mega Drive II was different. Gone were the angular features and the Death Star control switches, and in were smooth and simple buttons and an exterior so smooth you could massage your hands down it for days. The huge circular area surrounding the cartridge slot was made smaller and tapered at the wider ends into an oval shape, the big “16 BIT” lettering was made less obvious and the whole colouring shone with a red and matt black finish. Truly the appearance was innovative, as a similar design was incorperated into it’s add-ons, the Master System II, the Saturn, the Playstation and Dreamcast. In fact the only mainstream console of the 90′s not to follow the design structure was the N64, which chose a Power slider and dual-pillar look over the fashion of the period. The result is a console that still looks relatively good in the modern day, however it is showing the signs of it’s time.

Mechanically the console is extremely reliable. My console is a 1992 model and is still working, and very few people appear to be having faults or breakdowns with the machine despite the extreme longevity of it’s age. These aren’t collector’s condition models either, these are machines that have been bought second hand, from smoker’s houses, pets, general mucky living. None of them have done so much as dent the functionality of the machine, outside of the bane of cart-based gaming… blowing on the cart four times.

So the machine was extremely good looking (For it’s time) and it was extremely reliable, but what about it’s credibility? If your friends saw you in the early 90′s with a Mega Drive II, what would they say?

Actually, your friends would be impressed. Despite losing overall to the SNES’ end-of-life sales, the Mega Drive in Europe gave Nintendo more than a run for their money. With more “hip” PR decisions made to appeal to the younger and teenage crowd (Such as blood in Mortal Kombat, CyberRazorCut and the Sonic series), Sega’s Mega Drive series was raking in more money and gaining more credability than Nintendo’s more powerful competitor.

However it was always much more cool to find a Mega Drive II in your friend’s house. The Mega Drive I looked outdated, especially to kids and teens who viewed Star Wars as an old film (Despite it only being ten years old at the time), whereas the Mega Drive II was right up to (then) modern design taking in practicality with a dash of primary colour. This made it a fashion statement, as well as a cult icon, and effectively boosted sales and longevity of the machine into a more ferocious and hard fought battle against the very outdated looking (Aesthetically) SNES. Nintendo also had the problem of appearing too childish and old-fashioned compared to the vast selection of SEGA’s violent and stylish games which carried a more underground flavour (Streets of Rage’s music by Yuzo Koshiro was directly influenced by UnderGround Rave, Dance and Techno music of the era is an example of this. Especially in a time where Rave music was so solidly linked with drugs abuse and fun-loving albeit dangerous youth culture.).

The Mega Drive II is a success of style, substance and street-cred. At the time there was nothing more cool in the gaming world, and the only reason it’s profile dropped later in it’s life was due to the many rehashes and add-ons Sega kept rushing out for it. The oversaturation of add-on options led to the crown of “coolest console” to be passed onto the Sony Playstation in the next generation.

Written by Roareye Black 22/09/2008