Smurfs' Village Review

By , on November 14, 2010

Smurfs' Village
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Simple, Smurfy freemium town management gameplay.
  • Faceboook integration for friends (currently buggy).
  • Fun mini-games and missions to mix up the gameplay.

CONS

  • Poor push notification implementation.
  • Extremely expensive 'berry' buildings.

VERDICT

Smurfs' Village hasn't quite launched with its best foot forward, but for those who have fond memories of the Smurfs and can't get enough management titles, there's no reason not to grab this game.


  • Full Review
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I guess it was only a matter of time before someone realized that the Smurfs lived in a village, 'And hey! What a great idea it'd be if you could manage that little town?!'. So, lo and behold, Capcom have created the official Smurfs' Village and all your usual Farmville-ish obsessions can now be dedicated to defending the Smurfs from their ever present nemesis, Gargamel.

Much like other freemium farm/town management style titles, you'll need to earn levels through experience earned from farming, building and in a neat twist, from playing mini-games that refresh every few hours. These range from mixing potions for Papa Smurf to helping Greedy Smurf to bake treats for your growing population of general Smurfs. Actions are limited by your population, requiring individual Smurfs to either build or tend to fields, but players can spend 'Smurf Berries' that are earned each day, via gifts or purchased directly from the store to either speed up the process or to purchase unique buildings that provide additional benefits to your village.

Much like the cartoon, the visuals are vibrant and the Retina optimized graphics run smoothly even on large and complex villages crawling with busy little Smurfs. Facebook integration is used to add new friends for benefits, however at the time of this review the feature did not seem to be working. Also, push notifications are used to inform players when events have completed, however no notices were given when crops were ready, causing some to be lost needlessly.

Smurfs' Village has the right formula for ensnaring players after a new freemium management style game, but until some features are fixed you might want to hold off on purchasing additional berries.

Screenshots

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