Indie French developer Ocellus Services (Marsupilami: Hoobadventure) released a developer diary for upcoming platformer The Smurfs – Dreams, launching this October.
The video takes a surprisingly deep dive into the game’s development, including inspiration from an old Game Boy Smurfs game.
The Smurfs – Dreams take the familiar little blue guys (and girl) on a nightmare tour, where each Smurf must face and overcome their fears and anxieties.
That sounds a bit heavy for a children’s series, but it’s distilled into a colorful, playful 3D platformer, a la Mario. Players can explore four dream worlds, with 12 levels and 16 mini-levels. In order to wake up, they’ll have to gather magic orbs to restore Smurf Village and stop Gargamel.
Players can customize their Smurf character with unlockable accessories. The game can be played solo, or co-op with up to two players.
The Smurfs – Dreams will release October 24 on PC (Steam, GOG, Epic), PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox digital stores, and physical editions on PlayStation and Switch.
The PC version is also getting a Digital Deluxe Edition, which includes the thief skin, soundtrack, and artbook.
The Smurfs was a largely popular children’s cartoon throughout the 1980s (based on a Belgium comic series from the 1960s!). I can still hum the la-la-lalalala theme song. The franchise has enjoyed some recent popularity thanks to a Belgium-produced Smurfs series that was picked up by Nickelodeon in 2021, and still ongoing.
