Though regurgitating old games in a single "retro" compilation is one way to bilk a few bucks out of nostalgic gamers, Majesco goes another route with Furu Furu Park, which sees several old Taito games (Arkanoid, Bobble Bubble, etc.) revamped to play as parts of a new mini-game collection which includes said retro stuff plus some brand new itty bitty interactive, all of which hopes to be your next "party game" for two -- and just two; a four-player option might have made more sense...

Then again, the mere two-player experience is a shamble at best, the difficulty is frightfully inconsistent, sometimes cute and whimsical, as with the airborne bicycling of Bird Man, other times mean spirited and harsh, as with Super Karate. And sometimes the theme or objective verges on bad taste -- tossing men with huge afros (big hair is a recurring theme, oddly) in an Olympic-like hammer throw event is just weird -- funny, but in the nervous-chuckle sort of way.

It doesn't help that the objective of each mini-game is never properly explained, nor are the controls for each game decently conveyed -- but are so sluggish or wonky that it probably wouldn't matter if they were.

So though Furu Furu Park's low-low price tag and cutesy, multi-bubble box art might make it all look simple and endearing enough to allow for "all ages" play, parents or grandparents goofing around with the kiddies, Norman Rockwellian Wii-play, it's not. Nor is it compelling or competent enough for the 10-and-older crowd. It's all hodge-podge and unpolished, a solid idea that wasn't fleshed out, as if it never even made it past the pitch to the drawing board, let alone tested with anything resembling a QA department; just an idea, then this perplexing end result. Too bad.