The Smurfs: Village Party Review (erc493)
Die Schlümpfe - Village Party is a open world exploration with mini games and side mission to find and a party game packed as a whole game:
Pros:
+ mini games are fun (50 of them)
+ good bots balance the best of the Microids Party games so far with the bot balance (sure a few of them are a little easier or harder than others but it didnt really feel unbalanced)
+ after you finish the adventure mode you get unlocked Village Party mode where you can play all mini games again with a highscore to beat which is a nice idea
+ Village Party mode atmosphere is nice, also nightime looks better here
+ soild animations (victory animations are cute) and also the character models look great
+ the cutscenes and story are nice and feels like the new TV-Show
+ the open world defintly feels like The Smurfs and also a lot of object here, a lot of smurfs walking around and it dont feels lifless and empty
+ in Challenge mode is good you can play all Party games there with even all the main cast characters
+ side missions are nothing special but fit for the smurfs like: extinguish fire, race, shoot something like chestnuts, play golf, do a small puzzle with a stone and more... (and also all mini games in the open world)
+ collectiables are alright to find and are mostly fun to do, the only thing that is kinda confusing how to unlock was the Grap Grap smurf doctor side mission, you have to build all 6 the statues around the open world first then you unlock the mission and also one more mini game
+ ui art design is great
Cons:
- open world as a whole is actually is the worse part of the game because it feels unpolished, there is sometimes flying items and also gras in the air
- graphics in the open world are kinda weak there (ps3/xbox 360 quality) with blurry lighting and also shadow iuses a lot of them (missing shadows here and there)
- you play an OC (a normal smurf character in the adventure mode) its not really my thing i would prefer to play the main cast like Smurfette, Brainy, Sturmi, Hefty, Blossom, Handi, Farmi it would definitely gives even a better vibe to it but its alright how it is
- not all chracters you meat get cutscenes, there are characters that only get text boxes
Overall it is a ok Smurf game its faithul to the new TV show, not the best and not the worst, for sure not as good as The Smurfs Mision Vileaf and 2 Green Stone but i would say its on same level with Smurf Dreams and Kart. Its Microids most content cartoon Party game so far compared to others like Garfield and The Sisters for example.