If you played Thunderful’s The Gunk on Game Pass, you’re going to feel right at home with this latest Smurfs adventure.

In fact, it feels a little too close to home at times, between the ammo types, and mushroom like platforms and scenery, but there’s also this distinct Smurfs like charm with bright colours, white hats and plenty of blue.

It’s certainly not an issue, especially with how much I enjoyed The Gunk. This adventure even sees you team up with long term Smurf enemy, Gargamel, as you jump through portals, take on challenges, and go in search of the Green Stone which will maximise the full potential of the SmurfoMix. This is a unique weapon that fires projectiles, arrows, beams of light and more to help you in combat situations and in solving puzzles.

Coming from OSome Studios, this adventure is centered around the unique weapon – the SmurfoMix – which is lifted from Gargamel’s Lab and explodes into pieces upon discovery. It’s up to you to find all the fragments, exploring The Cursed Land in a semi open world environment, and then bring them together to restore its power.

Unfortunately, by detonating the weapon into multiple pieces, the evil Stolas has been released, wreaking havoc on all of the Cursed Land. Which inspires Gargamel to help.

Smurfs 2 is playable solo or in local co-op as you switch between Handy, Brainy, Storm and Dimwitty in order to save the Cursed Land. It’s an easy to control experience as you bounce between platforms, shoot your way forward, crawl through tight spaces, and collect as many resources as you can to level up the attributes and components of the weapon.

Gargamel’s teleports also let you appear in seemingly unreachable areas and see you visit challenge zones to acquire various medals. It adds a nice variation to the mechanics and gives you some fun vantage points to fight your enemies with.

The core loop feels a bit repetitive overtime, particularly with the familiar looking environments, but also in just shooting crystals to progress and free up land space. But it’s also approachable and engaging enough that you can switch off and play in the background while watching or doing something else.

Still, there’s some lovely cutscenes here with that distinct Smurfs charm. So much that it feels like watching the classic cartoons and it totally gets you in the mood and spirit.

All told, this is a surprisingly fun way to pass the time and is a cool platformer with a nice hook that’ll keep you going and make you fight for the Trophies, even if they’re a little on the tricky side to get.

Verdict

The Smurfs 2 The Prisoner of the Green Stone is a surprisingly fun time that does just enough to keep you playing, engages with its mechanics and looks great while doing it. Gameplay repetition, environmental familiarity, and some challenges getting those Trophies slow the game’s roll a bit, but this is a real surprise that will keep you playing longer than you might expect.