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After the evil wizard Gargamel has sent the Smurfs to dreamland, you’re tasked with bringing them back to Smurf village in this charming 3D platformer.
The Smurfs: Dreams was developed by Ocellus Studio and will be released tomorrow for €39.99/$39.99/£33.49 on Steam for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch by Microids.
The Smurfs: Dreams consists of four dream worlds with 12 levels and 16 shorter sections. The Smurf Village serves as a hideout in which the awakened Smurfs can be found. You can’t really interact with a lot but at least you are able to spend the numerous collected fruits on a handful of new outfits, some of which can be purchased as downloadable content. We hop into space on a pillow and select the next destination on the galaxy map. In order to unlock new levels, we have to find star mushrooms hidden within each dream world. At no point did we have to replay levels to progress to the next section.
The camera cannot be rotated or tilted and for the most part offers you a good overview of the hustle and bustle. We control our Smurf quite precisely through the creatively designed worlds, each of which has been thematically tailored to the respective Smurfs such as Smurfette, Beauty or Smart Smurf. However, the controls don’t allow always the necessary precision. In some levels we have one of three special items at our disposal. You can use the mirror to reveal nearby previously hidden platforms, the firearm allows you to activate switches and temporarily immobilize enemies, and the hammer proves to be particularly useful in close combat.
The level design is varied and interacting with the gadgets requires some skill. The developers continually play with your expectations. In one world, we have to orientate ourselves using a huge mirror and therefore play inverted in order to jump onto platforms and avoid traps. Elsewhere, we try to avoid the suspicious eyes of giant Smurf guards after our box runs away – not the only stealth sequence in the game. For some levels the game switches to a top-down perspective. An indirectly controlled football game is also included. The game doesn’t lack the obligatory space sequence in which we have to avoid obstacles and escort missions in which we provide a fruit fly with safe passage. Repetitions are rare, but the play time is only around six and a half hours if you’re not inclined to track down all the collectibles in every world.
The nicely staged boss fights were designed in classic 3-phase fashion and especially towards the end, we really have to make good use of all three special items, though genre enthusiasts are rarely faced with major challenges. If desired, the game can also be played locally cooperatively with a partner. Technically, The Smurfs: Dreams runs smoothly in our run on PC. The platformer impresses with a pretty, colorful style that does justice to the original, but in terms of visual fidelity and gameplay The Smurfs: Dreams doesn’t come close to its strong competition like Super Mario Wonder and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Conclusion
The Smurfs: Dreams is a solid 3D platformer with varied level design and a charming look. If you’re looking for an entertaining and short platformer with a low entry barrier, you’ll enjoy this game, but it doesn’t elevate the genre to new heights.
Publisher Microids provided us with a PC copy of The Smurfs: Dreams which we used to capture the screenshots.
