[gameinfo title=”Game Info” game_name=”The Smurfs 2″ developers=”Wayforward” publishers=”Ubisoft” platforms=”Wii / Wii U / 360 / PS3″ genres=”” release_date=”Out Now” version_played=”Wii U”]
The Smurfs 2 has the usual story that you’d expect from a Smurfs storyline. The evil bad guy Gargamel has snatched the blonde Smurfette from her home in the Smurf village. The rest of the Smurfs crew take up the challenge in finding her and returning her to the village yet again.
The presentation in The Smurfs 2 is one of it’s redeeming assets. It features a hand drawn art style which took me back to my childhood as it represents the original art style of the show rather than the movies. Story is told through the use of cartoon still-frame images with an overlay of narrative. Whilst these do well to tell the story, i would’ve much preferred actual cut scenes. I also think that this would’ve been more appealing for children who can’t really read all that well.
The animation in the game is pretty great and the scenery is extremely vibrants and sharp. There is a bit of glitchyness when it comes to the character animations but they’re hardly noticeable due to the beauty of the rest of the game. The sound in the game is a great representation of the original shows and the movie.
Smurfs 2 is a traditional side-scrolling 2D platformed. The goal is to make it to the end of the level by bouncing on enemies and avoiding pits. There are also a host of coins and other items to collect upon your journey. Unfortunately The Smurfs world is let down by a largely uninspired level design. Unfortunately all of the levels seem to blend into one and never really provide any new ideas along the way. The game features six different locations to explore. This excited me at first but I soon realised that the game is still extremely repetitive despite the vast variety of locations.
There are 5 levels in each world and you will face a boss battle in the form of a Smurf bad guy at the end of each world. The game isn’t long by any stretch of the imagination but Way Forward are to be praised for including a number of reasons to continue playing beyond completing the main story. You will be challenging with beating 3 achievements in each level. These vary from collecting a number of things or completing within a certain time limit.
The incentive in doing this is to unlock all the new characters from The Smurfs universe. There is good reason to do so as each character has an unique ability that completely changes up how you’ll play through the level. This is where you will get your variety from and it’s recommended that you try each level out with a number of characters to see how they differ.
I played the Wii U version which to my surprise actually added in a unique feature to the Wii U. A player can use the gamepad in order to control Clockwork Smurf. As Clockwork Smurf you fly around the world helping player 1 attack enemies whilst dropping them berries and coins. Whilst it doesn’t add much to the gameplay, it’s good to see the developer take use of the gamepad.
Whilst this game clearly isn’t intended for adults, I invited my nephews around to try out the game and they absolutely loved it. The difficulty seemed to be just right for them and they really enjoyed playing through the game with a huge variety of characters that they’ve come to know and love from the movies. 30 levels, 6 boss fights and a bunch of achievements make this game something that they’ll be playing for weeks.
