The Smurfs: Mission of Goldil – game review, opinion [PS4, PS5, XONE, XSX|S, NS, PC]

The iconic Smurfs debuted over 63 years ago and since then they have won the hearts of many generations of kids in comics, fairy tales, movies and, of course, games – although the blue creatures were not very lucky with these. The last title signed with the brand by Pierre “Peyo” Culliford was The Smurfs Epic Run, released in 2015, which, as you guessed, was not the pinnacle of our industry. Now, after many years of drought Microids in a duet with OSome Studios, we have mimicked a completely new adventure of beloved midgets.

The Smurfs: Yellows mission – Green plants are attacking

The traditionally quiet life of the Smurfs was again disturbed by the terrible Gargamel, who, after 63 years of failures, still continues his mission in life to catch forest inhabitants and turn them into a precious stone. This time the hideous sorcerer discovered a mysterious way to contaminate the surrounding plants with pure evil, as a result of which they became his servants and poisoned practically the entire forest inhabited by the Smurfs. Worse, several Smurfs have gone missing, so Papa Smurf is asking us to go on a special mission!

Hardworking, however, quickly developed a very cool tool to fight plague called Smurfizer, which releases a healing pollen that turns contaminated plants into their normal versions. Equipped with an innovative gadget, we start looking for our friends – initially we play the role of Osiłek, then his role is taken over by Wagniak, then the Chef, and of course the beautiful Smurfette. Depending on how you play, complete the game The Smurfs: Mission Yell it can take you from 4 to about 6-7 hours – I tried to do everything I could, so it just took me a little more time.

The lands that we will travel to find ingredients for Papa Smurf’s magical antidote have been really well realized – everywhere we have a lot of colorful plants, hidden passages, secrets and collectibles to collect. The artistic direction chosen by the developers fits nicely with comics and animated productions with smurfs, so fans of the iconic brand will really be taken into the sky.

Smurfizer to the rescue!

Due to the fact that the newest Smurfs have been prepared with the youngest audience in mind, the difficulty level of the game is really simple – although some secrets will require you to be very precise or even return to the board later, when you unlock the new features of the Smurfizer. The gadget created by Pracuś is developed with new possibilities – at the beginning, we can only attack with it, but then it allows flying, sprinting and a few other smurf surprises. Of course, due to the specific target group, the platform challenges are not super demanding and the only difficulties you can do are at the crazy course of the Savage, who has mimicked the idea that he will make his own obstacle course for other Smurfs.

Here I also ran into a fairly serious localization bug! While everything is really nicely translated and adapted to the Polish canon of Smurfs, Dzikus talks to us in English, as if someone in the studio forgot to record it, or the developer forgot to add these dialogues to the fun. It’s not a problem for adults, but kids will have to translate a bit.

As for the combat system shown in the reviewed one The Yell Mission, this one is also very simple and even the youngest toddler should deal with it. The bestiary, however, is not very impressive and throughout the adventure you will smurf only with some poison-shooting mushrooms, creatures called “gilded”, rivals growing out of the ground, or those that stand on poisoned sticks that should be gradually smashed. We will defeat them all with the Smurfizer, of course, but each of them requires a different approach, which makes the gameplay not that trivial and makes you think a bit.

Out of 100 Smurfs, what’s going on here?

The Smurfs: Mission Yell it also has a co-op mode, but this one is really disappointing. If any of you remember how this system was solved in the first Knack, you will know what’s going on. When the second player joins the game, he does not take control of the next Smurf, but he flies himself as a small smurf-like gadget, the role of which is limited only to the exploration and possible treatment of plants. Let’s say if a parent who plays with a really toddler takes advantage of it, this should be enough, but otherwise it’s better to just play alone and share the pad.

Another tablespoon of tar in this smurf keg of honey is optimization. I played the reviewed title on PlayStation 4 and while at the beginning it was even smooth, but later, when more opponents and more advanced constructions of poisoned vines enter the action, the whole crunches mercilessly, which can really take away all the fun. Fortunately, the last stage in Gargamel’s house is quite modestly designed, so you won’t experience such obstacles.

And that would be my dear Smurfs. OSome Studios has prepared a really cool platformer, where both the youngest and adults who remember the Smurfs from their childhood will have fun. Despite a few mistakes, not very complex mechanics and a very simple story, it is an insanely smurf and fun title for the whole family.

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