No, not really.
Furu Furu Park is a collection of 30 Japanese-style mini-games. While there are Japanese movies I appreciate - such as the works of Hayao Miyazaki, this is not my typical gaming genre. Keep that in mind as you read my take on this collection.
First off, though it shows both a Wii Remote and a classic controller on the back of the box, I didn't run into anything that made me feel a classic controller would be the better controller. The classic controller isn't even referenced in the manual. If you do go on and decide to pick up this one, you should be fine with your standard Wii Remote.
Initially, you will choose whether you want solo or dual play. Since the game is rated E10+ (my daughter is not quite 8) and my husband doesn't generally play Wii games with me, I chose solo play. My understanding of dual play is that you can pick either a free play game and go head to head with a friend in split screen, or you can play Panel Attack. This has you play against your friend in split screen mode - the winner getting the panel turned to their color. The player that wins the most games wins the overall challenge. There is a tie-breaker in case of tie. The Love Challenge matches your scores against those of your friends so your compatibility can be judged by the pink spandex clad Afro Love.
Solo play has both free and ranked modes. Free mode lets me pick any of the 30 games and just play. Rank mode introduces me to Boogie the Pig - a really weird green pig-shaped creature - who asks me to choose 5 games and then rates my performance. I failed 4 of the 5 games (earning the exalted rank of water flea) and won the last one which raised me to the rabbit level.
Some elements of the games I enjoyed: Each mini-game explains exactly how to use the Wii-mote before you begin the game. All of the games are available for play right out of the box; you don't have to unlock anything. The games don't require a huge time commitment. If you like quirky Japanese games with colorful anime style graphics, you are all set. If you have secretly longed for the primitive games of yesteryear, you are really set.
Apparently, Arkanoid and Bubble Bobble are a couple of the popular games of the past, but the versions you will find here are extremely limited in comparison to the originals. You don't need to worry about save game slots as there aren't really any games to save. If you get a high score you can enter your initials, just like a regular arcade game.
On the side of things I didn't care for: Some of the games included are new and some are micro-mini versions of existing Taito games. You will find all of the games to be extremely short. Even the games that might be fun enough to be enjoyed longer are really short. I found the games to range in difficulty between extremely easy and incredibly frustrating. Some weren't hard, but the motions required game wore out my arm. It was easy enough to spin the remote to make snow-cones, but not really exciting enough that I'd want to keep coming back and playing it again.
On a personal note, I was bothered by the character style represented frequently and this is probably what bothered me the most about Furu Furu Park. A lot of the characters you'll run into are men with hugely exaggerated afros (of various colors) wearing extremely tight spandex outfits. One of the games, Hammer Throw, even has the player twirling the Wii-mote to build power and then tossing three of these afro men flying across a field. You're going for distance, but it shows them smashing into a fence if you don't aim right. Maybe I'm sensitive, but I found this really distasteful and off-putting. The Dragonfly Hunter game has you spinning your virtual finger to hypnotize dragonflies to capture them. Except if the muscular dragonfly with the afro lands, you use your virtual finger to flick him until you knock him off the perch. What the hell? As I said, I really don't know a lot about anime or Japanese culture, but I really hope this isn't an accurate reflection of either.
These things are not really good or bad - they're just odd.
The games are all divided into the categories of power, balance and technique. I really don't get what these categories have to do with the actual game play. Boogie the Pig from the rank mode confused me. I didn't think he looked much like a pig, but my daughter saw the pig resemblance right away, so that could just be me. Apparently in the original Japanese version, Unwrap the Mummy game is actually an 'undress the geisha' game. I guess I can see why they changed that for the American release.
If you are craving games that feature old-fashioned Japanese-style game graphics, you may enjoy Furu Furu Park. If you want a couple of mini-games that feature making sushi and don't want to invest in Cooking Mama, you might also like Furu Furu Park. If you want a set of mini-games that will take advantage of the graphic capabilities of the Wii, are fun and re-playable, and don't include questionable stereotypes, you just might want to keep looking.
I’m a working mom – married with one child. My daughter is 7 and she has autism. Everything else in my life moves around this core. Online gaming has been a big part of my social life over the last several years due to the difficulty of going out and about. I have to say that my daughter Alissa is awesome at computer games. She has skills with electronics that amaze me. When I get away from the computer, I like doing craft projects (knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, quilling, whatever sounds fun) and reading. I mainly read suspense these days but I have a pretty eclectic collection and a library of about 6000 books. I’ve been using a computer since grade school – I started with an Apple IIe and have upgraded considerably and many times since then. I played Dungeons and Dragons for at least a few decades. I met and married my husband through gaming. He was my DM. I stopped tabletop gaming more from lack of time than anything. It’s easier to meet and game with friends online than it is to coordinate real life schedules around my daughter’s needs.
