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 take a look at look at two classic sequels on the Virtual Console. Up first is Ninja Gaiden III, the ugly sheep in the long-running Tecmo franchise. And if you`ve been waiting for a great role-playing game to show up on the Virtual Console then your wait is over, because Sega has finally given us Phantasy Star II. Oh, and GameTap has a couple of crazy arcade games worth checking out. It`s a solid week all around, and you can go ahead and read all about it right now when you check out Retro Round-Up ...

Ninja Gaiden III: Ancient Ship of Doom
What Is It?
Do you remember when Ninja Gaiden was a fresh series that the gaming world couldn`t stop talking about? It was an incredibly exciting (and hard) action game that featured crazy bosses, an interesting story and some of the best cinemas of any 8-bit NES game. And do you remember how excited people were for Ninja Gaiden II? Well, this is Ninja Gaiden III, and sadly nobody was as excited about this game as they were for the first two. The problem with this game is that you`ve already seen just about everything there is to see with the first two Ninja Gaiden games, this one feels like nothing more than a lame expansion pack with a few new levels (some of which look awfully similar to levels from the first two games). What`s more, the story this time around isn`t nearly as interesting as the first two games. Not that the first two games were exactly Citizen Kane in the plot department, but the idea of having an intricate story with cinemas and unique characters was somewhat unique at the time. Unfortunately by the third game these stories were no longer unique, which is why it`s hard to sit still every time Ryu Hayabusa says "...". Still, if you enjoyed the first two games you might as well check this one out, you won`t get the same thrill from it, but it`s nice to have the trilogy while you wait for Tecmo to unleash a brand new Ninja Gaiden II on the Xbox 360.

Does It Still Hold Up?
The action is perfectly acceptable, but the problem with this game is that it feels like we`ve done all this before. This third installment adds almost nothing new to the genre, which is a real shame given the pedigree of the first two games. The good news is that the bosses are interesting and the story can be fun in a cheesy kind of way, but this game just isn`t as much fun to play as Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2.

Is It Worth The Money?
Die hard fans of the series have no doubt already picked this game up, so I doubt I`m really talking to those people with this review. But if you`re on the fence about paying $5 for this game, ask yourself if you really need another game that is exactly like the other two Ninja Gaiden games. If you already own those titles then you might want to save your money (perhaps buy Ninja Spirit instead), but if you can`t get enough of Ryu`s exploits then by all means you should check this game out.


Phantasy Star II
What Is It?
While Nintendo always had the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior (aka Dragon Quest) franchises, Sega had the equally impressive Phantasy Star II. Although only ...