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 finally get back to our normal grind of talking about more than two games. Oh sure, Nintendo is still being incredibly stingy with their Virtual Console releases, but at least GameTap and the Xbox Live Arcade is stepping up to fill in some of the voids. Not only that, but this week`s games are all pretty good, save for some of the stuff on the XBLA and GameTap. You get some genuine classics, like Harvest Moon, Lords of Thunder and The King of Fighters `96. What more could you ask for? Find out what I think of each of these games when you read another exciting edition of This Week in Defunct Games!

Harvest Moon
What Is It?
It`s the Super NES game that spawned Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon Boy & Girl, Harvest Moon DS Cute, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, Harvest Moon: Rune Factory and that amazing Neil Young album from 1992. Okay, maybe it didn`t spawn the Neil Young album (unless the "Godfather of Grunge" is actually a time traveler), but this was the game that introduced the world to the long-running franchise of cute farming simulators. But forget for a moment that there are at least two dozen sequels and spin-offs flooding your local game store, this Super NES Harvest Moon is worth mentioning if only because of how rare it is. Released in the U.S. in 1997 (a full year after the release of the Nintendo 64), Harvest Moon was almost entirely ignored by the general masses. Worse yet, there weren`t many copies of the cartridge made. These days a sealed copy of the game can go for more than $150, assuming you still have one of these rare gems in your collection. Unfortunately you won`t be able to get $150 out of this Virtual Console release, since now everybody who owns a Nintendo Wii can buy this game for a mere $8. Sure, it`s not the same as having the real (and rare) cartridge for your Super NES, but it sure beat the heck out of paying $150 for a game that has two dozen sequels. If you`re a Harvest Moon fan that has always wanted to experience the original game but didn`t want to pay the high price for it, then this Virtual Console release should be right up your alley.

Does It Still Hold Up?
While Natsume has spent the last ten years refining the franchise, Harvest Moon has stayed the same in a lot of respects. You`re still doing the same old things you`ve always done (farm, tend to animals, chores, etc.), only this time with Super NES graphics and a slightly more limited interface. But this probably won`t shock longtime fans of the franchise, this is what the game looks like on the Game Boy Advance, and those versions seemed to sell well enough. There are definitely better versions of this game already on the market, but if you`re asking me if the Super NES game holds up (and you are) then I would have to say it does.

Is It Worth The Money?
This is a tough one for me. On one hand I think this is a really good deal, it`s a lengthy game full of depth for a mere $8. But on the other hand, there have been at least three dozen sequels and spin-offs since this game was released ten years ago. In fact, Natsume`s E3 2007 line-up was nothing but Harvest Moon games (including a crazy...