Although The Smurfs had their heyday more than a few decades ago, they’re seeing a resurgence in the video game space. Microids and its partners have been making good use of the license, and are back again with a new, 3D platformer, called The Smurfs: Dreams. Now that I’ve played through it, I can tell you why it’s something you shouldn’t ignore, provided you like games like Super Mario 3D World.
You’ve surely already guessed this, but The Smurfs: Dreams’ decently long campaign takes place primarily inside the slumbering minds of your fellow Smurfs. It does, however, have a hub, with that being their iconic village, which is beautifully rendered and easy to navigate.
Once again, bad guy Gargamel is up to no good. He’s laced the Smurfs’ food with magic, or some kind of substance, which has put them all to sleep. Well, all of them except for our player character, who exists as an unnamed and basic Smurf, be they male or female. You can change genders whenever you want, and can use in-game currency (radishes, it seems) to buy and equip different outfits and themes. You’ll need to find spools of thread to unlock some of them, though, and two are locked behind DLC that I did not have. At least, I don’t think I did.
When everyone falls asleep, a magical pillow randomly appears at the top of the village map. The player character uses that to jump into the stars, to choose and complete levels that are displayed as dreamy constellations. There are several major constellations, which drive the story forward, but there are also a number of smaller ones that are only comprised of one or two stages, on average. Some of these are optional, but if you want to wake all of the Smurfs up you’ll need to complete them all. This includes one that appears after the final boss.
Most of the constellation worlds, and their two to four stages (or so), are different. They’re themed after the specific Smurf whose dreams they are manifest. I appreciated this variety, but did find that things got repetitive near the end.
As previously stated, The Smurfs: Dreams is a 3D platformer like Super Mario 3D World. Thus, you’ll make your way through stages that are filled with verticality, traps, enemies and occasional special items by way of a goo gun (which stuns enemies and causes certain platforms to temporarily lower), a lantern (which makes hidden platforms appear, but can remove those of a different colour) and a hammer, which is good for pummelling breakable platforms and objects. It’s also great for killing enemies, of which there honestly isn’t a great variety. You’ll mostly see the same bug type foes throughout the game, which my save said took me about 9 hours to complete. However, I left it paused a number of times, to look something up online, check the Xbox Store, go to the bathroom and whatnot.
A lot of the gameplay involves true platforming, by way of jumping from platform to platform. You’ll be able to run, jump, hover and turn into a bubble for a brief amount of time, all of which helps navigate these rather well designed stages. You’ll also want to take your time, and try to find hidden areas, secret doors and things like that. Each stage has collectible blue mushrooms, of which I believe I collected 92. I still have to go back and find some. Plus, there’s hidden yarn to find, the odd piñata, and those currency radishes to pick up.
As you venture through the game, you’ll also find environmental objects that shake oddly, or see Smurfs buried in the sand with their legs sticking out. Going up to these and pressing a shoulder button will allow you to collect and discover these hidden Smurfs. I’m not sure if they contribute to the achievement and trophy for waking them all up, or if that just refers to the constellation characters.
I liked that a good amount of thought was put into each level and every constellation, because I enjoyed taking my time and trying to find all of the hidden things. Some of them were hidden quite well, while others were nefariously placed. That said, repetition did turn to a bit of fatigue near the end. As such, I recommend pacing oneself while playing this game. Maybe don’t finish it in two sittings like I did.
It’s important to mention that you get two hearts per stage, and they renew at the many generous checkpoints. It’s also possible to pick up magical green pots, of some sort, and throw them at enemies (or innocent background Smurfs) to regain a heart. The game isn’t terribly challenging, especially since it has so many checkpoints, but it does have its moments despite this, and the fact that it doesn’t have lives or game overs. Children may require help at these times.
There are also occasions where you’ll need to collect a certain amount of little suns, find keys (which are sometimes optional, but not always) or defeat waves of enemies. The game provides checkpoints in-between waves.
At the end of the major dream constellations, you’ll encounter some pretty challenging and thoughtfully crafted bosses. None of the bosses are the same, by way of mechanics or design, and the final one will end up being very different from what you’d expect. It wasn’t my favourite, but I appreciate them trying something different.
Overall, The Smurfs: Dreams presents a pretty fun and engaging campaign, and one that turned out to be longer than I’d thought. It does get repetitive, and could’ve used even more variety, but it’s a very pleasant surprise and a game that is well worth playing if you’re a fan of platformers. It never reaches greatness, but is on the cusp. A sequel could be great.
If they are to develop a sequel, which I hope they will, this game will need to do well enough to warrant it. At approximately $52 Canadian, it’s budget priced and decent value.
In this proposed sequel, I’d like to see a more fleshed out and interactive Smurf Village. While the Village looks great and truly pops off the screen with colour and detail, there’s not a lot to do. You can interact with a few things, can opt to find the 11 hidden spools of thread and/or unlock the hidden shortcut, but there’s not much else to it outside of taking in the sights. Of course, the main reason it exists is as a way to show your progress, what with Smurfs coming back to wakefulness as you complete constellations. To begin with, they’re all in a laying position, with ‘zzz’s coming out of their mouths. Once awakened, they go back to doing what they do best, be it making music, running around a mushroom or emoting with each other.
There’s wasted potential there.
I previously stated that The Smurfs: Dreams surprised and impressed me with its quality of design. The same is true of its rather tight controls, and its impressive visuals. This is a polished experience, and a big step up from the last Smurfs game I played. It looks really nice, pops, and I didn’t experience any technical issues.
The Smurfs’ Village looks better than anything else though.
Its audio is more of a mixed bag, but isn’t bad by any means. It’s good, but could’ve been better. Certain music repeats a bit much, certain sound effects get to be a bit much, and sometimes there’s too much to the soundscape. For instance, the final boss had far too much going on, to the point where things got muddy and I decided to turn down my headset. This was the first game I used this new headset for.
Generally speaking, though, the music is above average as is the rest of the sound. There’s no voice acting, and things are conveyed through visual cues and expressions, as well as bubbles that show things like exclamation marks. At first, I thought I was supposed to interact with these citizens, but nothing happened. Sure, some gave me money, but that was it.
With all that having been said, I’ll conclude this review by stating that The Smurfs: Dreams was a truly pleasant and appreciated surprise. While it’s kept from greatness by a lack of enemy variety, some repetition and some missing potential, it remains a very solid and impressive game. The building blocks are there for a truly great sequel, and I hope we will get one.
Ocellus Studio should be proud.
This review is based on the Xbox Series X version of the game, which we were provided.