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. After a few weeks of worthwhile classic games, Nintendo has decided to upload a couple of games that are hardly worth talking about. On the Virtual Console side we have Kirby 64 and Psychosis, neither of which is worth your hard earned money. Sadly this week`s GameTap releases aren`t much better. Find out where we come down on these games when you read this week`s exciting installment of Retro Round-Up!

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
What Is It?
Unlike Super Mario 64, Conker`s Bad Fur Day and countless other Nintendo 64 platformers, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is not a 3D game. Oh sure, the characters and backgrounds are all displayed using polygonal designs, but you control this game no differently than you would the old Kirby game on the NES. In fact, the game is so familiar that even the basic gameplay remains the same. In this 2D outing you solve puzzles and beat levels by sucking your enemies up and using their unique powers. In practice this gameplay mechanic is a lot of fun, but it`s no more fun here in 64-bits than it was on older Nintendo consoles. What`s more, the overall adventure is entirely too short, leaving some Kirby fans a little perplexed as to why they had to spend $10 on such a short and shallow experience. That`s not to say that you can`t have some fun with this Kirby game, but there`s a reason why this Kirby game isn`t regarded in the same light as Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. This is a fun game that is over far too quickly.

Does It Still Hold Up?
Like a lot of old school 2D games, Kirby 64 tends to feel a bit short. The controls are good and the graphics (which are presented as 3D, even if they are done from a 2D point of view) also work in the game`s favor. But the game is marred by the fact that it`s over far too quickly, you`ll be able to blaze through this game in only a few hours, which isn`t a very good return on your investment. If that`s all you want out of your games then you may enjoy this title, for the most part there isn`t anything broken or outdated about this ten year old title.

Is It Worth the Money?
That ten dollars could definitely be going towards a better Nintendo 64 game (or two really good Nintendo Entertainment System games). Kirby`s sucking gameplay mechanic fails to get boring, but there`s really no reason to play this half-assed action game when you can pick up that Nintendo DS Kirby title instead. If you`ve never played this adventure than it may be worth a look, but be warned that the actual game will only take a few hours to beat.


Psychosis
What Is It?
Of course I remember Psychosis; they were the company that originally gave us wipEout, Shadow of the Beast and Colony Wars. Oh wait, that`s Psygnosis. Oh, I remember, Psychosis is the three hundredth TurboGrafx-16 shooter I`ve had to talk about since starting this weekly feature. Developed by Naxat, this TurboGrafx shooter is best known as the completely average 2D shooter that could have been a pinball game. In this game you fly around the screen shooting enemies in front of you. And when you`re not doing that you are collecting new power-up...