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 . This week may feel light, but we actually have a couple of well-known fighting games to talk about. On the Virtual Console we have Fatal Fury 2, a classic Neo Geo game that improves on the original. And then there`s Soul Calibur on the Xbox Live Arcade. While not exactly "retro" (it`s only nine years old), we`re still going to include it. Find out why we have a hard time recommending these games when you read another exciting episode of This Week in Defunct Games!

Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
What Is It?
It`s the sequel to one of SNK`s best-known fighting games. But just because it`s well-known doesn`t make it good. Fatal Fury 2 is a major improvement over SNK`s last effort, but that`s like saying that moldy bread is an improvement over sewage water. In a lot of ways Fatal Fury 2 does what it`s supposed to, it offers more playable characters, features slightly improved graphics and adds more moves (and balancing). But none of this matters because the gameplay is sluggish and unresponsive. There are a lot of appealing characters to be found in this fighter; I just wish they were involved with a better fighting game. At least now we know that SNK will start uploading sequels, one can only hope that games like Samurai Shodown II and Art of Fighting 3 are on the way.



Does It Still Hold Up?
The graphics are good, but the game is plagued by sluggish controls and a fighting engine that doesn`t feel natural. In a lot of ways this game suffers from the same problems of the original, some of which should have been resolved in the twelve months between releases. The new cast of characters is nice and this Fatal Fury is more accessible as a console game, but the whole game just feels too outdated.

Is It Worth The Money?
Fatal Fury 2 is not worth your money for two important reasons. For one thing, the game isn`t very good, so you are better off spending your nine bucks on a better fighting game. But more importantly, Fatal Fury 2 is one of the four games offered in the Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Vol. 1. For only a few dollars more you can get four Fatal Fury games, two of which are actually worth playing. The choice is yours, but I say there`s no way you should even think about spending the money on this Virtual Console game.


Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)
What Is It?
It`s one of the greatest fighting games of all time and easily the best game to launch alongside the Sega Dreamcast. Of course, the Dreamcast launched almost a decade ago and we`ve had some fantastic fighting games since then (Soul Calibur 2, Virtua Fighter 5 and Tekken 5, to name a few). But that shouldn`t keep you (and that soul that continues to burn) from checking out this week`s Xbox Live Arcade game. Good or bad, this is basically a straight port of the Dreamcast, complete with amazing characters, fantastical locations and plenty of bouncing boobs. There are just a few problems. For one thing, what happened to the Quest Mode? I hate to whine, but this mode was one of the best reasons for a single-player to play the game. Without it Soul Calibur just doesn`t feel the same. What`s more, ...