Back in the day, we gave our recommendation for the best Super Nintendo emulators on Android, but with the recent launch of Mega Drive Mini, it’s time to turn our attention to SEGA’s 16-bit games. While the company has taken the initiative to release many of its classic titles on the platform, there are tons of alternatives to play most of the catalog on our smartphones and tablets.
RetroArch
We’ll start with the best of the best. RetroArch is a multi-platform emulator that includes endless independent cores for all sorts of classic consoles. To emulate Mega Drive, there are plenty of emulators, but one of the best is Genesis Plus DX which can only be used within RetroArch/Libreto and it’s definitely the best option that we’re going to mention in this article.
At a configuration level, the emulator offers options to be used on every console, letting us adjust details like vertical synchronization, aspect correction, possible additional post-processing filters, and the refresh rate, among other settings. But what’s really important is the speed of the emulation and response speed, which are almost perfect. If you add the facts that you can record your game, it accepts almost every ROM format (even if they’re zipped), and that it also supports Mega-CD 32x, Master System, and Game Gear, then there’s really no excuse not to give this one a try. [Download]
AndroGens
If what you’re looking for is a more lightweight emulator that doesn’t include such complicated menus, then the best option would be AndroGens. Based on the code of the above-mentioned Genesis Plus DX and DroidGen (both with a GPL license), the only downside is that it shows ads in its menus; although you won’t see them while running the actual games. Beyond all that, we have a more than acceptable emulation and extremely high compatibility with practically the entire catalog. Plus, it’s nice to have an options bar at the top of the screen so you don’t have to leave the game when you want to record your game or load a different ROM. Convenience is key. [Download]
Other ways to enjoy Mega Drive on Android
As we’ve already mentioned many times on our blog, for a few months now, SEGA has been releasing titles from their classic consoles for Android within the SEGA Forever initiative. Basically, they’re no more than ROMs of the original titles packaged in their own emulators. Here’s the list of all the games released so far, where you’ll find classic gems like Golden Axe, Altered Beast, the first Sonic, and Ristar, among many others.
Do any of these emulators work with a Bluetooth controller?