Anyone remember The Smurfs? I know of them, but I have never intentionally watched a single TV episode or movie. Thankfully, that didn’t immediately disqualify me from reviewing The Smurfs – Dreams, and I would quickly learn there just isn’t that much Smurfiness infused into this puzzle/platformer. The developers have crafted a competent platformer wrapped in a last-gen Smurf-suit. It borrows obvious inspiration from other great platformers like Sackboy, Astro Bot, Spyro, you get the idea.
The game kicks off Gargamel using some berries to put all the Smurfs to sleep so he can invade their village. It’s up to you (and Papa Smurf) to save the day by running around levels created from the dreams of your fellow Smurfs, collecting countless cherries and mushrooms and doing some serious platforming. These levels offering a nice variety of activities and unique themes and even some fun stealth moments. If you’ve ever played a 3D platformer then you already know what to expect and you won’t be disappointed.
While The Smurfs – Dreams is obviously targeting the younger crowd I do enjoy a good platformer. My lack of Smurf knowledge didn’t really detract from the experience; there is no spoken dialogue, only grunts and other sound effects alongside the cutscenes. The game does a good job at teaching you the mechanics of the game but not always how to use them. Simple things like combat are never really explained. There are visual clues like a target on a bug so you know to jump on it, or a spiky-back critter that you probably shouldn’t jump on, but what about when there are no markings? Try and find out…that is the mantra for this game.
There isn’t much going on here to tax the power of the PS5. The game looks good, with cutscenes that could easily be shown on TV and a rocksteady 60fps during even the most frantic gameplay moments. There’s not a lot of texture detail or fancy lighting and shadow effects. Overall, I’d say The Smurfs – Dreams looks “flat” and at times, one or even two generations old.
Controls are tight and responsive but there is sadly no use of the speaker or haptics. The lack of speech detracts from the cutscenes, but the pleasant background music while exploring the various dream worlds makes up for it. There is a nice variety to the music to fit all situations, especially the boss fights. The difficulty is all over the place, mostly impacted by the static camera view which doesn’t work in all scenarios, and an overall lack of proper onboarding…unless that’s the intent. I love games that are all about discovery, but discovering how to actually play a game should never rely on trial and error.
There are only a few boss battles in The Smurfs – Dreams, each with their own special gimmick to find and exploit. These multi-stage battles checkpoint after each stage so you can brute force your way through nearly any battle. Personally, fighting the locked camera view was my biggest battle in this game, and it did impact my overall enjoyment. Each level is loaded with collectibles, and some are cleverly tucked away and easy to miss, but you can always go back and replay chapters to find those missing items.
There are plenty of quality-of-life features that make The Smurfs – Dreams perfect for the entire family. You get three slots for concurrent games if needed, and there are numerous and frequent checkpoints and infinite lives taking a lot of pressure off the player. Regrettably, the game is very short and considering the limited content, there’s not a lot of variety to the scenery or the gameplay mechanics, so the game can slip into a rut.
Fans of The Smurfs are going to love this charming platformer, while everybody else can comfortably wait around for a sale while you play Astro Bot and Ratchet & Clank. If you want to save $20 and have a reasonably good gaming PC, you might want to check out The Smurfs – Dreams on Steam. It looks and plays the same and is only $30.
