Another week, another Wii title centered around remote-based minigames. This time, we’re serving up Majesco’s latest offering, Furu Furu Park. Priced in the budget title range, the game contains “30” minigames (it’s really about a dozen with some slight variations) ranging from classic Taito titles like Bubble Bobble to new, Furu Furu Park creations.
Despite the low price, this game just isn’t worth it. Like many minigame collections, there’s just little fun to be had outside of a couple of the activities. All of the games revolve around either using the remote in some gimmicky fashion or turning it sideways a la a classic NES controller. Whether it’s spinning it in a circle for the tenth time or shaking it back and forth quickly, the gimmick controls get old; sometimes even before your first use of it.
If you’re like me, you’ll see games like Bubble Bobble, Sonic Blast Man and Arkanoid on the back and think you’re going to at least get three decent classics out of the purchase. Unfortunately, the classic games presented consist of a single stage of play. They obviously remain fun when they pop up, but when you have to play 26 crappy games to get another shot at a level of Bubble Bobble, it’s just not worth it.
Usually with a minigame collection things remain fun with another friend involved. That’s not the case with Furu Furu Park. In one of the oddest modes I’ve ever seen in a game, Furu Furu Park lets you play with your significant other, and by some magical formula using the minigames, determines whether or not you two are right for each other or should call ti quits. It’s really, really weird, and seems like a completely pointless thing to include.
The difficulty also doesn’t help. Games in this range from so easy your grandma can beat them, to so frustrating you’re going to “accidentally” hurl your Wii remote at your television. Most of the minigames come about via the difficulty levels, too. While the box claims it has 30 games in it, it’s really about a dozen with a few different difficulties to play on.
The most confusing and frustrating aspect of this game isn’t what’s in it, though – it’s what’s not. In the Japanese release, the game contained a story mode which was actually quite entertaining, as well as another minigame called “strip the geisha.” For the US release, Majesco decided to strip out the single player story (probably because it was “too Japanese”) and changed strip the geisha to “unwrap the mummy.” Really, unwrap the mummy in place of strip the geisha for a lower rating doesn’t bother me that much. But when you look at the fact they removed the only credible single player aspect of the game and instead focused it on playing simple minigames, and altered a game to make an E rating, it’s obvious that Majesco was sacrificing what was a decent game by marketing it towards the casual kid/parent audience.
Third party developers may not have huge success on the Wii, but as Furu Furu Park proves, it’s not necessarily Nintendo’s fault.
