The Smurfs – Dreams is a 3D platforming adventure developed by Ocellus Studio where your mission is to free your fellow Smurfs from a sleep spell cast on the village by Gargamel. While The Smurfs – Dreams originally launched in 2024, it is still worth a look now, especially for players searching for a colorful, family-friendly platformer with local co-op and more gameplay depth than its cartoon license might suggest.
In The Smurfs – Dreams, you traverse different dream worlds with unique settings using diverse tools and mechanics to defeat enemies, solve puzzles and wake the trapped Smurfs. While you might expect the title to have no depth and be strictly for kids, it is definitely kid-friendly while still offering real gameplay variety. Each world adds a new mechanic to play with, and the adventure moves from whimsical cake-themed worlds to darker, more muted atmospheres. The Smurfs – Dreams is available on Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox and Steam, with local co-op accessible on all systems.
The base control layout is easy to follow, using a traditional platformer setup with sprint, double jump and a unique mechanic button. Whenever you interact with the environment, the game also gives consistent reminders of which button to press. That can feel a little redundant since it is almost always the same button, but it adds forgiveness for younger players or anyone newer to platformers.
The Smurfs – Dreams also has a mechanic that sets it apart from similar platformers: a button that briefly puts your Smurf into a bubble. The bubble itself is not what makes it interesting. Instead, you can cancel it into an air dash, letting both new players and platforming veterans move through levels in ways both can enjoy. You can also hover in the air for an extended period to avoid incoming obstacles.
There are collectibles too. Players can gather cherries and rolls of thread to earn different costumes for their Smurfs. Mushrooms hidden behind secret pathways can unlock hidden worlds and let you save even more Smurfs than the ones tied to the main story. Luckily, these hidden areas can be easy to find if your intuition is correct, and searching for them does not become a tedious process.
You will also encounter various obstacles that need to be overcome while playing through the adventure. For example, to free certain Smurfs, you need to clear the enemies surrounding them. Other areas include syrup that prevents jumping or requires different mechanics to move forward. The gameplay shakeups happen often enough to keep the experience from dragging, but not so much that you lose the core platforming feel.
The story is simple to understand and has minimal depth, which makes it digestible for a younger audience or anyone wanting a more casual experience. Gargamel casts a magical spell on the Smurf Village, trapping the Smurfs in their dreams. Papa Smurf sends you out to free them. It is an easy setup to follow and works well for the kind of adventure this is trying to be.
One critique I have is the lack of voice acting for the main Smurfs, which has been present in some previous titles. I do think voice acting would give the Smurfs more personality than having none. Even when you save the main Smurfs and they return to the village awake, most of them don’t offer much new to see besides simply being there. The common Smurfs being present in the levels is a nice touch, though. It shows the scale of how many Smurfs are under Gargamel’s influence and adds to the worldbuilding in a small but subtle way.
Visually, the game’s art style and direction look stunning and whimsical. Each main world feels distinctive, and the backgrounds and overall quality help make the dream settings feel immersive. The Smurfs – Dreams does a good job taking familiar characters and placing them into environments that feel imaginative rather than generic.
The music and audio also sound good and eccentric throughout the game. When the adventure gets serious, the music tends to stop or drop into low ambience, which adds to the mood. One audio issue happens when multiple boxes or breakable objects are destroyed at once, causing the audio cue to play simultaneously. That can make the headphone experience a little harsh because the volume spikes past what feels comfortable. Those sections happen more often in the latter half of the adventure, so I would advise being cautious about breaking too many objects at once or lowering the volume a bit. Regardless, almost everything else in the audio design still sounds very good.
Another critique I have is the lack of save states when you close out of the game. You have to complete a chapter before turning off the title to do something else. While chapters typically take 10 to 15 minutes, it can be inconvenient if something comes up in real life or you want to switch to another game. This stands out because checkpoints are abundant, which is great for the new-player experience, but I do wish saves also happened at those checkpoints instead of only at the beginning of a chapter.
The checkpoints themselves are very forgiving. There is no traditional life-based system that forces you to restart from the beginning of a chapter, allowing you to keep making mistakes until you figure out what to do. That makes The Smurfs – Dreams especially approachable for kids, casual players and anyone who wants a platformer that challenges them without becoming punishing.
Despite The Smurfs – Dreams being a relatively short campaign experience, I would argue that for $29.99 you get your money’s worth with a continuously changing gameplay loop. The title does well in surprising players by changing the gameplay even up until the end, which can be an issue in other family-friendly platformers that sometimes run out of new ideas too quickly.
The co-op also helps make the experience stronger. Teaming up with another person enhances the adventure, especially because the bright backgrounds, melodic music and forgiving platforming work well for players of different ages and experience levels.
Overall, The Smurfs – Dreams is much better than someone might expect from a licensed family platformer. It is colorful, approachable and clearly friendly to younger players, but it also has enough movement options, hidden areas, collectibles and changing mechanics to keep more experienced platforming fans engaged. The lack of voice acting and limited save options hold it back a bit, but they don’t take away from the fact that this is a charming and surprisingly polished adventure.
For families, co-op players or platforming fans looking for something bright, relaxed and well made, The Smurfs – Dreams is an easy title to recommend.
