Every week Cyril Lachel comes down from his giant castle in the hills to provide the final word on all of the classic downloadable games and retro compilations. This is the Retro Round-Up, your official guide to the best (and worst) in classic gaming for the Nintendo Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Join us as we shed some light on what games are worth your five or ten dollars, and what games you should avoid at all costs. For more information about these games (and retro gaming in general) we invite you to check out Defunct Games. This week we look at the three games uploaded to the Virtual Console. These games include the popular old school hockey game, Blades of Steel, an amazing sequel to Rolling Thunder and the final game in the Donkey Kong Country series. Is this a good way to end 2007? Find out now when you read the very last episode of the Retro Round-Up for the year. See you in 08, Retro Gamers!

Blades of Steel (Virtual Console)
What Is It?
It`s the first home console game that I ever played that featured real voice acting. While I doubt Blades of Steel was the birth of synthesized speech in gaming, it definitely wowed me when I first turned on my Nintendo Entertainment System and heard it. Of course, these days the voice is laughably bad. The announcer states "Blades of Steel" right at the start of the game, only the quality is so bad that you could easily mistake it as somebody saying, "Afraid of Eel" or "Raid and Peel." Regardless of the terrible quality of the voice (which has more to do with the NES hardware than anything else), Blades of Steel is a solid hockey game that, at the time, featured just about everything you could ask for in a sports game. Then again, the only things people asked for in 1988 was a hockey puck and fighting. Heck, most people didn`t even care about the hockey puck, they just wanted the fighting. Blades of Steel delivers, even if the game hasn`t aged as well as other classic sports games (namely Tecmo Bowl). At its core this is nothing more than a bare bones hockey game, it features a couple of single player modes, multiplayer and not much else. The good news is that the action still holds up and you`re only spending $5 for what is (unfortunately) the best hockey game on the Wii.

Does It Still Hold Up?
Like most other old school sports games, Blades of Steel is as bare bones as it gets. There`s not a whole lot of customization, the single-player mode is kind of lame and you shouldn`t expect to play as the real NHL athletes. On the other hand, Blades of Steel is still a good playing sports game that is a lot of fun with a second player. While this game won`t make you forget about more recent hockey games, it`s not a bad deal for $5.

Is It Worth The Money?
When it comes to hockey on the Virtual Console you only have a couple of options. You can buy the dreadful Ice Hockey game put out by Nintendo, or you can make the right decision and pick up Blades of Steel. Of course, those aren`t your only options. You do have the ability to play GameCube games on your Wii, so if you`re looking for something a little more current then you can pick up one of 2K or EA`s hockey games for dirt cheap. As old school sports games go, Blades of Steel is worth a look ... especially since it`s only $5.


Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong`s Double Trouble (Virtual Console)
What Is It?
It`s the third (and, thankfully, final) entry in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Nintendo and Rare would go on to develop other Donkey Kong games, but none of them were part of the "Country" franchise. Even though I was a big fan...