Hacking the latest Neo Geo Mini makes it even better. I did a hack on my main unit, and here are my thoughts on it a few weeks after getting the first unit. These things are awesome now.

Well, my "Japanese" Neo Geo Mini came in this afternoon, and it isn't the Japanese version. It's the International Neo Geo Mini in the Japanese cabinet, the cabinet I already have, except it came with a single Kyo marquee sticker instead of G-Mantle. I am too lazy to send it back (I got a decent deal...), so I decided to hack it. I would have been fine with just restoring the Japanese firmware, but the hacked image floating around also comes with multiple pre-built emulators and games, in addition to the original 40 Japanese games. The included FBA emulator in the hack plays Neo Geo games perfectly (as expected, though the games are their VMS versions), and the CPS-1 games also run fairly well. CPS-2 has a bit of slowdown and sound lag, it didn't come with any 6 button fighters, and interestingly there's a pornographic puzzle game among the FBA from the list, but what's there is worth checking out.

What isn't worth checking out is most of the other emulators, those being GBC, GBA, NES, Genesis, and SNES. All of them have non-integer scaling, lack of battery backup (save states do work) and sound issues, ranging from NES and Genesis with "okay" sound to GBA and SNES having sound so bad it hurts to listen to. GBA doesn't have L and R mapped to anything, so most of its games are unplayable (I only could play Super Mario Advance, many games that may work end up crashing). NES seems fine, but the included game selection is piss poor, with Namco PacMan and Ninja Gaiden being by far the best. No Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, or any of the usual Famiclone games are present. GBC emulation is the definition of okay, not broken but with shimmering and sound channel issues, it's not worth bothering with its 15 Pokemon games and 10 Winnie the Pooh/Yogi Bear kid games. Genesis is the only emulator worth checking out as while it does have minor sound issues and shimmering, the game selection is solid and it plays better than anything AtGames ever put to market. Super Nintendo, however, is rough. Lack of buttons is obvious, but the game lag and sound are the worst I've seen in emulation. And I played bsnes on Intel HD Graphics! You can play more games with a USB drive, but why would you do that? In short, if you MUST play games on your Mini outside of FBA, Genesis is the only library worth your time.

As for Magician Lord on my International Mini? Love it but damn is the AES version difficult! Infinite continues are nice, but you don't respawn right where you die like in the MVS version. And reloading a memory card save puts you back to the beginning of the level! There isn't a difficulty select, but I am assuming it's on easy as you get 3 hits (6 powered up) instead of 2 (4) hits. Despite that, I find that respawning right where you die is far more valuable, so I won't be playing much AES Magician Lord until I'm better at the MVS version (which I now have on my hacked Mini). I love the game, but it is really difficult and I'm stubborn to use save states. Trying to stick to internal memory card saves only, which means I'll have to 4CC Shock Troopers/2nd Squad as I learned today neither have memory card support.