Nostalgia frequently clouds my judgment whenever I’m talking about old games. I love them, I collect them, I generally hold them in higher regard than most new games that are released. But, even I’ll admit, sometimes I’m wrong. Some games just don’t hold up against the test of time, and going back and playing them is just a test of my patience.

One of the most consistent game publishers back in the day was Taito. Just hearing the name should bring back memories of dragons, legends, renegades and elevators for some older gamers. They brought to life some of the greatest games and characters ever to be seen. While their name may still appear on new games, they may never reach the height of popularity that they enjoyed in the 1980s. And since Taito was acquired by Square Enix in 2005 they are no longer their own company.

One of the titles that their name has appeared on recently was a mini-game collection, released in the States by Majesco, called “Furu Furu Park.” This particular collection of mini-games cultivates some of the most well known Taito properties and repurposes them into a mini-game collection for the Wii. I was curious to see how the re-imagined versions of some of my favorite games of all time worked as “party games.” So I played both the “Furu Furu Park” versions of these games, as well as the originals and put them to the test to see if nostalgia would win out against “innovation.”

The three titles I put three to the test:

“Bubble Bobble” - Wii Mini-Game Version Vs NES Version

For those unfamiliar with this classic action puzzle game, you play as a small dinosaur that shoots bubbles from his mouth to capture enemies. Once the enemies are trapped you need to jump on the bubbles to pop them, turning the enemies into various fruits. When all of the enemies are defeated, you move on to the next board. “Bubble Bobble” has some of the most fun and creative levels ever seen in video games, and it is easily one of the greatest games of all time.

Upon selecting “Bubble Bobble” in “Furu Furu Park” the player plays a board reminiciant of one from the original, but with updated graphics, for both the original characters and enemies. “Furu Furu Park” has you to turn the controller and play “NES Style.” However, the level only offers a slice of the game, encouraging you to get as many points as possible by killing the enemies in just 99 seconds. While this does add some fun to a two-player competitive game, it really doesn’t do justice to such an amazing game. In fact, it eliminates so many of the key components of the game (enemies, power-ups, random letter balloons, that evil skeleton whale thing) , it should have a different name.

I then went to compare this experience to the original “Bubble Bobble.” The difference was somewhere in the realm of apples and oranges. A title that Gamasutra recently named one of the most “mysterious” games of all time really held up in terms of gameplay and ingenuity. While the graphics were charming in an 8-bit sort of way, recent iterations and updates to the series for the DS and PSP have looked much better. Nevertheless, with level after level of puzzles and challenges, different enemies, power-ups — the list goes on and on –, it really just blew the “Furu Furu Park” version out of the water.

Winner: “Bubble Bobble” (NES)

“Arkanoid ” - Wii Mini-Game Version Vs. NES Version

It has gone by so many different names over the years: “Breakout,” “Super Breakout,” “Brick Breaker,” “Alleyway.” They’re all essentially the same game, yet somehow “Arkanoid” manages to be the best version. Maybe it’s the added appeal of the falling power-ups for your Vaus (paddle), or maybe it’s nothing, but “Arkanoid” always felt like the king of the block breaking games, and it’s in “Furu Furu Park.”

The “Furu Furu Park” version of “Arkanoid” is exactly what you would expect. There’s a ball, and a Vaus, and a whole bunch of blocks to break. Your goal is to either get the most points (single player) or clear the board first (two player). The controls have been redesigned to simulate the original dial controller that was used on the arcade machine. You hold the Wii remote between your index finger and thumb and turn it left or right depending on which direction you want the Vaus to go. This little tweak really adds a level of challenge to the game, and does make it a whole lot of fun.

When compared to the NES version of “Arkanoid,”  the “Furu Furu Park” “Arkanoid” proves to be too easy. While the Wii controls add a level of difficulty not found in the old school version, the fact that the power-ups are abundant and overly helpful takes it down a notch. This round goes to the original.

Winner: “Arkanoid” (NES)

“Cameltry” - Wii Mini-Game Version Vs. PSP Museum Version

Ok, for this one I cheated a little. I wasn’t able to go out and find a “Cameltry” arcade cabinet, so I had to play the arcade port on my PSP via “Taito Legends Power-Up.” The basic concept in “Cameltry” is to get your ball from one end of the course to the other before time runs out. Simple enough. The catch is that you are rotating the course around the ball, similar to how “Time Pilot” or the bonus stages of the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” are played. The controls on the PSP emulate the arcade controls

In “Furu Furu Park,” “Camelrty,” (renamed “Camelmaze”) much like Arkanoid, is  very faithfully recreated, losing very little of the feel of the original. You hold the Wii controller perpendicular to the ground, “lever”-style. You turn it left of right like a door knob depending on which way you want the board to rotate. The gameplay is fluid and very fast paced, as you run through the same obstacles as you would come across in the first one, trying to get to the goal before the time runs out.

Compared to the original, the “Furu Furu Park” version is actually more fun to play. The added speed and ease of the controls really makes this version stand out.

Winner: “Furu Furu Park”

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One additional consistent downside with “Arkanoid” and “Cameltry” is that “Furu Furu Park” only comes with one level for each, so you only get a little taste of each game, and can master each of them fairly quickly.

These aren’t all the Taito classics in “Furu Furu Park” that get a mini-game re-invention. “Sonic Blastman 20XX” and “Pocky & Rocky” are also revisited, but I wasn’t able to find older versions of those two titles to compare.

Overall, when comparing “Furu Furu Park” to the original titles that were used to make up the compilation, the originals win out. However, in terms of value, “Furu Furu Park” is the clear winner, coming in at a very affordable $19.99. If you were to try to just pick up “Bubble Bobble” and “Arkanoid” alone for the NES, it would run you somewhere between $80 - $100. While that may be worth it to some collectors out there, it won’t necessarily appeal to your friends when they come over to hang out. In addition to the Taito games listed above “Furu Furu Park” has twenty-five or so other mini games, most of which can be classified as having a “crazy Japanese” influence, and, although it may not be the best mini-game collection on the market, it definitely is one of the most unique.

One quick side note, it appears that one of the games changed drastically in the localization process, “Unwrap the Mummy,” was a bit more risqué when the game was originally released in Japan. Looks like the U.S. loses out again.