The Smurfs as a franchise has been one that has seemingly been perfect for video games since its inception with a large cast of characters, well-defined characters at that, a set location that’s well-known with Smurf Village and a big bad in the form of Gargamel. While it has seen a handful of noteworthy games over the years, however, most played it safe and didn’t take bold moves with the license. As a result, you never got an outright bad game, but you were often left with a forgettable affair that was fine for a quick rental or playthrough, but left minimal impressions on the player after the fact.
A Cozy Village
Smurfs Dreamswas first shown off a few months ago and stood out right away because its isometric viewpoint led to it looking essentially like The Smurfs crossed withSuper Mario 3D Worldand that’s a formula that not only led to my personal favorite 3D Mario platformer, but also an incredible Sackboy adventure on the PS4, PS5 and PC. That, however, felt very much like a game that didn’t take many risks at all with the core 3D World formula and it felt held back as a result because so few risks were taken. Now conventional gaming logic would tell you that the big licensed game inspired by something else would suffer that fate too, but from what I could gleam from our playable time with a demo version, that’s far from the case.
Throughout history, a lot of licensed fare would take the safest path and offer up either a watered-down or far easier version of the source format. The team at Ocellus has taken what they did with the 2D platforming of Marsupalami Hoobaventure, however, and expanded it to the third dimension. There they delivered a top-notch original DKC trilogy-like with a strong rhythm to its platforming and they’ve largely done the same here with things like grind rails on harps being something I would have never expected to see in a Smurfs game, but that greatly increase the pace and speed of the core platforming action. LikeMario 3D World, there is a deliberate pace to the action - but I would say that even early on, Smurfs Dreams offers up a greater challenge than expected given the license and that’s a very good thing.
Flying Higher than Expectations
I don’t mind an easy platforming adventure, but I like that the platforming here blends logical puzzles with rewards - like finding a hidden area allowing you to get a lot of hearts to repeat tasks due to taking too many hits and that getting the player into the mindset of always trying to explore. Beyond unearthing goodies like hearts, it can also enable you to find projectile weapons to take out spike-covered enemies that you otherwise have to carefully jump over or take damage from. The game’s platforms are pretty narrow, even early on, and while you aren’t going to have insta-kill spikes or take fall damage, you do want to pay close attention to the helpful shadows that appear while jumping.
Now the idea of a shadow being cast for platforming is nothing new, butSmurfs Dreamstakes accessibility into account with its core design by having a shadow alongside a bright white and black outline to give an even clearer indication of where you are in relation to the platform or enemy you’re above. This kind of feature is rare to see in a 3D platformer and I can’t recall any game that included it by default like this, so it’s impressive to see and should make it a fantastic platformer for either newer players or those looking for a challenge that never gets frustrating thanks to anti-frustration features like this and frequent checkpoints.
Darkness in a Dream
The overall game feel is exceptional even with a limited amount of gameplay area to traverse because within that hour-ish of play area, it’s already easy to appreciate so many elements of the game design. The Smurf Village hub world is large in a way, but also laid out easily with guide arrows to help you get from Point A to B without a set map to worry about. The platforming action is deliberately-paced, but enjoyable to experiment with since you can choose to walk and jump or run and jump. This offers up different challenges for the isometric platforming because going too slow opens the door to taking a lot of enemy damage over time because you will have instances of needing to vault over foes.
The run and jump momentum works rather nicely and allows for a healthy mix of rapid-speed movement before slowing down to avoid hurdling yourself into enemies or spikes. While it’s tough to tell how precise movement needs to be throughout the adventure, anyone lulling themselves into a false sense of security because it’s a licensed game will be in for a rude awakening as this has a healthy challenge to it. The most relaxing parts of the playable portion were either in Smurf Village, which you can explore a bit and get a feel for the platforming, and the rail sections alongside a surprisingly rock-heavy soundtrack.
Throughout the adventure in the walled-off demo, one thing that stood out to me the most was the soundtrack because it goes so much harder than one would ever expect for a Smurfs game. The license is a fantastic trojan horse because it sets your expectations up for one thing and then the game as a whole delivers something that goes far beyond what a player could predict in terms of quality across the board.
Perils and Pitfalls
The Smurfs - Dreamslaunches on October 4 and has all the makings of being a sleeper hit 3D platformer. Between its rock-solid platforming and surprisingly-high difficulty level even at an early stage, it has a lot to offer platforming veterans and newcomers alike with anti-frustration features already baked like character outlines for tricky platforming. There’s a lot to like already in this game and that’s with having little of the full adventure to enjoy, which bodes well for the full game this fall.
Get ‘Smurftastic’ in the Latest Smurfs 2 Trailer
