It’s Toon Week here on GamerDad.com, where we’ll look at games based on cartoons for kids and adults. Today it’s The Smurfs!  Whether it’s a classic cartoon from the 80’s, an even earlier European comic strip, or a couple of recent computer animated movies, The Smurfs have been delighting children for decades.  Heck, even I watched the cartoon when I was a kid (but only because it came on right before the Pac-Man cartoon).  I wasn’t a big fan of the show, but I did like Jokey Smurf and his exploding presents.  I’m also glad I got to meet the voice of Papa Smurf a long time ago before he passed away.  Anyway, now you can play a new Smurfs game on the 3DS, and it’s not what you’d probably expect!

In the game, the Smurfs are out for a walk in the woods, but when they return, their village is destroyed! Now you must help Papa Smurf and his friends rebuild the village and find out who destroyed it in the first place.  You’ll first tap on places to build mushroom houses for all the Smurfs.  To build houses and other structures, you’ll need materials like wood and stone.  To gather these items, you’ll have to play mini-games in the woods and in the mines with the touch screen and stylus.  Tap and swipe trees to chop them down, and move a mine cart to catch stones.  Once you have enough materials, you’ll be able to play some building games where you swipe wood to make lumber, pound down nails by tapping on the screen, and move shaped stones around like Tetris.

Certain houses you build can unlock other mini-games as well. You can reach higher scores by boosting the Smurfs’ morale with mini-games like Hide & Seek at Brainy’s house, or a music game on Harmony’s stage.  You can also cook food at the Chef’s house with a cooking mini-game, but first you’ll have to gather food by playing Farmer Smurf’s garden game.  Use the cakes and potions you create to give you a boost in the mini-games, and tap on Jokey’s presents during the games for extra bonuses!  Decorate your Smurfs’ houses by choosing the color of their mushroom top, and build furniture, too!  Visit Papa Smurf’s house to view the characters you’ve built houses for, quests you can do, and unlocked artwork, as well as other goodies.  Practice the mini-games at Hefty’s house, too.

Despite being based on kind of a dopey license, The Smurfs game isn’t really that bad. The mini-games are entertaining and increase in difficulty as you progress, but they never get overly hard so their target audience (kids) will never get too frustrated.  Some of the mini-games work better than others, though, but you’re not really penalized for doing poorly.  Sometimes the quests you must do will slow down the progress of the game, which gets a little boring, but otherwise this is a cute little building simulation game for kids and Smurf fans.

Kid Factor:

No violence or objectionable material here. Reading skill is a must for the text and instructions, though.  Younger kids might need a little help, but otherwise this is a pretty decent little title for kid gamers.  The Smurfs is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television