PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, SWITCH, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Heavily inspired by Nintendo’s most beloved 3D platformers, Smurfs Dreams finds the little blue Belgian buggers in a spot of bother as the dastardly Gargamel has poisoned the berries that the Smurfs use in their daily cooking. After eating the contaminated food, most of the Smurfs – apart from Papa Smurf and your character – fall into a deep sleep, so now it’s your job to enter their dreams and wake them up!
That’s as much of a plot as you really get, but it’s enough to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Starting off in the Smurfs’ village, you bounce on top of a giant pillow which blasts you into space – presumably some sort of dream world – where you can then choose which constellation (dream) you want to enter. There are four larger dreams (worlds) to choose from, each containing three levels, along with a dozen or so smaller mini-dreams. The larger dreams have their own unique look based around the identity of the Smurf who is trapped there, while the shorter ones are set on floating platforms in space.
Levels play out as fairly standard 3D platforming affairs where you’ll be running and jumping around, occasionally bouncing on enemies’ heads, collecting fruit and reels of cotton, and hunting for magic mushrooms which unlock later levels. Some levels contain extra gimmicks like giving you a slime gun which can be used to hit switches, a lamp that illuminates hidden platforms, or a hammer that allows you to perform a ground pound. There’s nothing especially taxing or challenging – this is meant to be a game for kids, after all – and admittedly there’s not really anything groundbreaking, but there are some nice creative touches like the level involving mirrors and another that turns your Smurf into Tetris shapes that you have to rotate and slot through gaps as you plummet down a chasm, which make each level feel different to the last and keeps things interesting all the way to the very end.
Elsewhere, you’re able to buy costumes for your Smurf (using the fruit and cotton reels found in each level) from a shop in the village, but you’re not able to interact with the other Smurfs in any other way – there’s no dialogue, text boxes or voice acting, which makes the village hub feel a bit lifeless. Nevertheless, Smurfs Dreams is a simple and straightforward platformer that looks and sounds great. It definitely caters for younger players who maybe haven’t yet got to grips with more intricate control schemes or are less familiar with the expectations of modern platformers, and likely won’t take too long to finish (around 6 hours), but there are some nice creative ideas dotted around that could definitely be expanded on if a sequel were to be made.
