SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Portable Game Player (Sonic 25th Anniversary Edition) review - "The best way to play Mega Drive games now?"

The SEGA Mega Drive Portable does what it says on the tin, offering you a way to easily play a bunch of Mega Drive games on the go.

You can also hook it up to your TV to play the old fashioned way, if you happen to have an AV cable lying around.

At £49.99, it offers a pretty compelling package for retro gaming fans. But is it any good? Let's find out.

You can't really fault the design of the Mega Drive Portable. It's roughly the same size lengthwise as an iPhone 6s Plus, but about widthwise it's a quarter of the phone.

It's over twice as chunky, but will fit in any jean pocket no problem. We had no issues carrying it around with us everywhere.

There's a nice white matte plastic finish on the enclosure, with a grey top and bottom that matches the colour of the buttons. It doesn't look as premium as your phone, 3DS, or Vita, but you won't be ashamed to whip it out in public either.

The matte finish provides a nice grip. Generally, the device feels well put together - it's not flimsy. It probably wouldn't survive a full force throw into a concrete wall, but it's not designed for that. It'll happily take regular drops and scrapes in its stride.

The buttons are pretty standard fare, but are all nice and clicky. The dpad is a decent halfway-house between a true pad and an analogue stick, so will please most users.

Generally, the device is comfortable to hold, well put together, and you won't have to perform any thumb gymnastics when pushing any buttons.

Performance

The Mega Drive Portable runs games without a hitch - which is to be expected, given the age of them. A calculator could probably run them.

However, the screen isn't perfect. It's a decent size at 3.2", but the brightness feels a little off. It gave me headaches to play for long periods, so I had to limit my playing sessions.

Despite that, the colours are nice, bold, and vibrant. Without this issue, I'd have been pretty impressed with the screen.

Battery life is solid. I charged it initially - which took about an hour - and have used it infrequently over the past month without the need to recharge again.

While the box promises 80 games, bear in mind that only about 30 of them are Mega Drive games. The SD card slot makes that a non-issue though, as you can flood it with free roms.

If you're looking to play Mega Drive games on the go, this is the best way to do it. It's a simple and affordable package that has plenty of games to play from the get go, and the SD card allows you to add a bunch more.

It's not perfect though. The screen's a bit naff, and the build quality's not up to scratch with your 3DS or Vita.

But then this is a fraction of the cost. And what you get for that is pretty remarkable.

You can grab it yourself over at FunStockRetro.