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 Nintendo surprised us all by only uploading two games, as opposed to their usual three. The good news is that we get The King of Fighters `94, the best Neo Geo fighter on the Virtual Console. Unfortunately we also have to talk about StarTropics and Tron.
The King of Fighters `94 (SNK)
What Is It?
After several months of waiting, there is finally a Neo Geo fighting game worth owning on the Virtual Console. While The King of Fighters `94 is definitely the best 2D fighter made by SNK on the Nintendo Wii, that`s only because so far they`ve taken games from the bottom of the barrel (including such stinkers as <a href="http://www.defunctgames.com/shows.php?id=twidg-31" target="blank_"><b>Art of Fighting</b></a>, <a href="http://www.defunctgames.com/shows.php?id=twidg-31" target="blank_"><b>World Heroes</b></a> and <a href="http://www.defunctgames.com/shows.php?id=twidg-31" target="blank_"><b>Fatal Fury</b></a>). But The King of Fighters is different; it`s actually a competent fighting game that is worth owning. There`s just one problem, this probably won`t be the only game in the franchise SNK will release on the Virtual Console. You see, The King of Fighters `94 is actually the first game in a series that continues to see annual updates. Simply put, there`s a 100% chance that the Virtual Console is going to see some of the newer (and much improved) entries in the sequel, which will make this fighter obsolete. Of course, nobody knows when this will happen. SNK could wait a full year before giving us another King of Fighters game on the Virtual Console, or The King of Fighters `95 could come next month. We just don`t know. It comes down to you choosing whether you want to wait for a better version of this series or finally pick up a good Neo Geo fighter on the Virtual Console. It`s a tough chose, one that you will ultimately need to make for yourself.
Does It Still Hold Up?
Not only is The King of Fighters `94 a good playing fighting game, it also offers a few innovative (for the time) gameplay mechanics that are still being seen in today`s games. For one thing, this game combines some of SNK`s best known characters, including fighters from Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury and even Ikari Warriors (which isn`t a fighting game, but just bear with me here). It also allowed you to assemble a team of fighters to fight with, which is pretty novel. Of course, later games would actually allow you to pick and choose what characters you wanted, but this game still gives you the ability to choose a team of fighters. All of this holds up well, the only problem is that the decade worth of sequels have improved on all of these innovative concepts.
Is It Worth The Money?
I hate to do this to you, but you`re on your own when it comes to The King of Fighters `94. On one hand this is the first Neo Geo fighting game worth owning on the Nintendo Wii. After a disappointing debut in 2007, SNK is welcoming the New Year with a great game. But The King of Fighters `95, `96, 97 and other sequels are expected to follow. Nobody knows when these game will hit the Virtual Console, but you have to figur...
