Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a few Smurfs games to varying degrees of quality. The ’90s got NES, Genesis and SNES games and the most recent ones have been 3D platformers that delivered fun, if through a flawed execution. Thankfully, Ocellus Studio is at the helm of The Smurfs - Dreams and it feels very much like an isometric 3D game rooted in the gameplay flow of their prior game Marsuipilami - Hoobasventure. That was a 2D sidescroller with a bit of the original DKC-style gameplay flow in it, while Smurfs - Dreams goes for more of a 3D Mario World approach, but with a snappier pace than one might expect for a licensed game.
We enjoyed our time withThe Smurfs - Dreamsa few months back in preview build form, but the final game is greatly aided by more polish and a lot more context to the goings-on. The preview build gave us a bit of insight into the Smurfette stages, which are a few worlds into the main game and explained the rather sharp difficulty curve starting out. Now, while it wasn’t exactly throwing you into a castle stage of a Mario game right away, it was trickier than expected for a Mario 3D World-inspired platformer. Experiencing everything in its proper order makes the game feel so much more natural in how the stages flow.
Explore the World
Smurf Village is your hub world where you can do things like switch out to unlocked characters or change outfits while also going to leap around the constellations that allow you to save your fellow Smurfs that have been captured or put into a deep sleep by Gargamel. It’s an interesting setup to the adventure because progress feels more special since you’ll see the awakened characters either available to use or as folks able to help you along your quest. It’s a bit more personal than going through a painting and collecting a star ala Mario 64. There’s very much a feeling that what you’re doing has a greater benefit for your allies.
The stage structure is ever-evolving and encourages exploration without being annoying about it. So many games give you a slew of things to collect and a blank canvas to find them all and it just feels like either busy work or a chore. Here, you’ll have exploration being mostly rewarded in the puzzle-centric sections, with some helping in the regular platforming sections as well. You’ll have hidden paths to find and if you don’t find everything, it’s no big deal. There’s not a giant need to collect everything beyond bragging right and it does feel good to do things like find thread for new outfits and change up your appearance.
Hop and Bop
There’s a lot of strategy involved here with it being largely a hop and bop platformer, but also having action blended in with things like limited-time projectile attacks with seeds being throwable or even a little pop gun that you can use. It’s rewarding to use the gun and take out foes in a new stage after struggling with them before, and the sledgehammer is an incredibly-rewarding weapon to use. Wielding it very much evokes the feeling of power obtained in the original Donkey Kong and allows you to do damage quickly and also solve environmental puzzles as well. There will usually be right bumper-based puzzles to solve that require holding the button down to make the stage shift a bit - but the hammer enables you to just bonk these pegs to get stuff done and it feels great.
The Smurfs' Dream Game Has Arrived
The Smurfs - Dreams is taking shape and even early on, shows great promise to deliver one of the finest 3D platformers on the market.
There’s a visceral thrill evident in all the mechanics shown off in the full game that wasn’t present in the preview build and it adds new layers to the fun you can have going through the world. The harp rail-running sections remain a visual highlight and offer the player a change of pace where you can either glide along the rail without a care in the world or go up and down and hop around if you want to. There’s a good amount of player freedom here for a game with a lot of on-rails isometric platforming and that part of it is nicely handled. Going from a puzzle-centric area with more enemy arrangements that need to be taken out in a certain order to find goodies.
Spooky Action
Each aspect of the gameplay is nicely executed, with the platforming offering up a fair challenge to players of all experience levels. The devs have put a lot of player customization features in to make for an easier experience, but even without making things super-easy, players can look forward to things like bold outlines making it a breeze to see your character against the stage itself. You can also adjust the outfit you’re wearing to make it stand out more – which is what I did on the PS5 version to give myself a white and gold outfit that evokes both angels and also the legendary luchador Mistico. The only issue I can really take with the execution of everything is boss battles can be too formulaic, but the mainline stages have a ton of variety in them and it can be fun to replay them later to find everything you missed out on before.
Each aspect of the gameplay is executed quite nicely, with the platforming offering up a fair challenge to players of all experience levels.
Doing so allows you to shift the focus from just trying to finish the stage up or get past a trickier stage, to spending more time appreciating the graphics – which is something I did after toppling the first massive boss battle and wanted a chance to redo things to be more efficient. While I did make it through faster, it shined a light on how nice the reflection effects were for things like water or the gold on the harp-riding sections. During regular play, it’s easy to appreciate the smooth character animation and the highly-detailed environments are always a treat to the eyes. The inclusion of highly-visible shadows with a bright white outline alongside more accessibility options makes for an enjoyable experience and the highly-visible shadows make platforming in darker areas much easier.
Smurfs has a bit of voiceover work in its cutscenes, which are a blend of CG and motion comics that aren’t quite a movie, but do a fair job of conveying the story during their time. The soundtrack varies from cheery to spooky depending on the area, with the village being relaxing and the harp-rails having a lush sound to them. The sound design is stronger than the music in some ways, with sound effects doing a fine job on their own of conveying the damage done by the hammer and its thunk versus the lighter impact of the blaster gun.
Closing Comments:
The Smurfs - Dreamsis a delightful platformer and a fantastic pickup for anyone who loves Mario 3D Land or 3D World. This is very much inspired by it on a surface level, but with more rhythm to its platforming action. It’s a trickier game than one might expect given the license, which has usually been used in simpler, less-challenging games. It plays nicely across the board and doesn’t have a lot of flaws in its gameplay beyond having a set formula that changes up based on the weapons you have access to in the stage itself and a soundtrack that’s hit or miss.
