Thousands of kid-friendly characters have been created over the years, but few could argue that many have the staying power of The Smurfs. The lovably, white-hatted, blue-skinned folk have been a staple part of most childhoods for over 60 years. Now they’ve arrived in VR, thanks to developer Kalank and publisher Microids. And as it turns out in 131XR’s latest review, The Smurfs – Flower Defense is an unexpected gem.
What are the Smurfs doing this time?
After many adventures of many decades, one thing remains true: if you’re a Smurf, the evil wizard Gargamel is the root cause of most chaos. And the same goes for The Smurfs – Flower Defense, where Gargamel has captured 20 Smurfs using a magic spell, and you have to free them.
This plays out in the form of a tower defence game. Across a selection of maps in the single-player campaign, you need to place a variety of towers, station a Smurf inside and protect the village from incoming waves of nasty insects. All fairly standard tower defence stuff. But with a few extra additions and gameplay loops, The Smurfs – Flower Defense offers something for everyone.
The Smurfs – Flower Defense Review
As 131XR mentions in its review, The Smurfs – Flower Defense start off like many other titles of this ilk. You learn what defensive buildings you have, the types of enemies you’ll encounter, and how much interactivity you have during each round. Destroying enemies earns you cash to build new towers or upgrade them mid-fight. Like most tower defence games, enemies follow set paths for you to defend, yet as the levels progress, things start to get a bit more complicated.
For starters, while you need Smurfs to man the towers – which are in limited supply – special characters like Smurfette offer extra abilities like a gun so you can do some shooting yourself. This is extra handy when considering the enemies aren’t constrained to the ground; there are flying assailants that’ll shoot directly at you. Furthermore, buildings can become damaged, requiring repair, and there are boss fights, making for quite frantic gameplay.
All of this plays out in either VR or mixed reality (your preference), but the gameplay mechanics remain the same. Cute, it might be, but 131XR thinks The Smurfs – Flower Defense shouldn’t be missed.
Where do the Smurfs go from here?
There have been loads of video games based on The Smurfs over the years, with The Smurfs – Flower Defense possibly one of the best instalments. Currently, Microids hasn’t yet confirmed any sort of roadmap for the VR game so hopefully that’ll come in time.
As 131XR notes, like many tower defence games before it, some sort of skirmish-type mode would add longevity once the campaign has been completed.
Are you a fan of tower defence games? Think The Smurfs – Flower Defense might be up your street? Let us know in the comments!
