Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle

The Good
Smurfs was kind of a guilty pleasure. Players led a non-specific Smurf through forests, caves and fields into Gargamel's Castle to rescue the only female Smurf in the Village, Smurfette. The graphics were bright, detailed, and colorful, looking exactly like the cartoon. The music was also bouncy through the outside areas, using classical music, and gloomy in the caves and castles. It was an easy quest, but the environments were diverse, and the gameplay was satisfyingly addictive.

The Bad
Unfortunately, Smurfs also had some odd control issues, mostly with its jumping. Double jumps were often a pain, especially if mistimed at all. But it's really hard to place the blame, as it was either the game, or the awkward ColecoVision controller, which handled like a dead moose. Simply walking into an obstacle would result into an instant death (fences and tufts of grass were ferocious in the fields, it seems). Even turning the character around could be a minor annoyance at times, especially trying to run away from a spider or trying to position for a jump.

The Bottom Line
Given its control issues, Smurfs was a surprisingly fun title, and one of the ColecoVison's earliest and best games. The graphics and music really made it stand out, and Smurfs were still a popular show at the time of its release (after all, what other character could use its name as a noun, verb and adjective?). Fortunately, it wasn't a title that simply cashed in on the popularity of its license, and offered some entertaining gameplay and occasional challenges.

The Good
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle was one of the first platform, side-scrolling games I played for the ColecoVision. For the early 1980's, it featured some impressive graphics, music and sound effects. Heck, it even had an actual storyline and was based on the friendly, polite and asexual little blue creatures I watched on Saturday mornings as a kid.

The Bad
Their were four things about this game that I always disliked. Firstly, you die if you do not properly jump over specific objects, even a little blade of grass! I can sort of understand this when you are dealing with spikes, but grass? Secondly, the game has an energy bar that slowly declines, similar to what would later be seen with "Adventure Island". This means that you not only have to make perfect jumps, but have to do so fairly quickly. Thirdly, Gargamel does not appear in the game. Heck, even his trusty cat is no where to be seen. Last, but not least, I always found it a bit odd that the Smurf had no offensive weapon, like being able to toss apples or something at the enemies. No self-respecting Smurf would go after the likes of Gargamel without some sort of weapon or magic potion.

The Bottom Line
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle is a fun little side-scrolling, platform game, that shows some respect to the franchise as well as some impressive graphics, music and sound effects. If you grew up watching the Smurfs on television, you may want to try and get a hold of this game.