Sega 32X Games

The Sega 32X is an add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. Codenamed "Project Mars", the Sega 32X was designed to expand the power of the Sega Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the 32-bit era until the release of the Sega Saturn. Independent of the Sega Genesis, the Sega 32X uses its own ROM cartridges and has its own library of games. The add-on was distributed under the name Super 32X in Japan, Sega Genesis 32X in North America, Mega Drive 32X in the PAL region, and Mega 32X in Brazil.

Unveiled by Sega at June 1994's Consumer Electronics Show, the Sega 32X was presented as a low-cost option for consumers looking to play 32-bit games. Developed in response to the Atari Jaguar and concerns that the Sega Saturn would not make it to market by the end of 1994, the product was conceived as an entirely new console. At the suggestion of Sega of America executive Joe Miller and his team, the console was converted into an add-on to the existing Sega Genesis and made more powerful. The final design contained two 32-bit central processing units and a 3D graphics processor. To bring the new add-on to market by its scheduled release date of November 1994, the development of the new system and its games was rushed. The console failed to attract third-party video game developers and consumers because of the announcement of the Sega Saturn's simultaneous release in Japan. Sega's efforts to rush the Sega 32X to market cut into available time for game development, resulting in a weak library of forty titles that could not fully use the add-on's hardware, including Sega Genesis ports. Sega produced 800,000 units of the Sega 32X and managed to sell an estimated 665,000 by the end of 1994, selling the rest at steep discounts until it was discontinued in 1996 as Sega turned its focus to the Sega Saturn.

The Sega 32X is considered a commercial failure. Reception after the add-on's unveiling and the launch was positive, highlighting the low price of the system and power expansion to the Sega Genesis. Later reviews, both contemporary and retrospective, for the Sega 32X have been mostly negative because of its shallow game library, poor market timing and the resulting market fragmentation for the Sega Genesis.