The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf is Fun, Albeit Rough on Nintendo Switch

The age old debate of whether or not good gameplay can offset a poor looking game is likely to continue for folks who are looking to pick up The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf on Nintendo Switch. To be clear, the graphical issues I encountered while playing the game do not seem to be present on the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game, as friends have told me. But on the Switch, the game just doesn’t look great and crisp, but I enjoyed it none-the-less. Why? Let’s check it out.

Something isn’t quite right in the Smurf Village and the surrounding world, and using some new technology that the Smurfs themselves developed, we can now spray the antidote all over the world, cleaning up the problems and…saving the world? In Mission Vileaf, you will travel around, cleaning up the muck, saving Smurfs, and more. The more you play, the more new mechanics you’ll have access to that bring forward a number of new platforming opportunities. And the platforming mechanics are pretty solid – they might not be on the level of Super Mario, but they are more than adequate and moving from A-B can sometimes require a bit of thought and skill. Bouncing on mushrooms is a great example of this.

There is a decent number of enemies to contend with as well, and each need to be defeated in different ways, whether simply spraying them with the antidote, or ground pounding to pop them out of the ground. The variety is refreshing, and unexpected in a title like this.

And what’s a platforming title without lots of things to collect – and there are tons of things in each area you’ll want to locate. These can be used to upgrade your equipment, and…well to complete a checklist. While gathering everything wasn’t my end goal when playing, there are people who will and I’m happy for them!

And as the Microids told us before reviewing, this is meant for everyone, and targeted to kids. With three difficulty modes to choose from, I do believe that the range of who can play and enjoy the Smurfs is pretty wide. All three of myself, my 11 year old, and my 7 year old, enjoyed our many hours with Mission Vileaf, and while I’ve moved on to other things, my kids haven’t. Yes, that means Mission Vileaf is taking priority over the new Animal Crossing DLC.

Grab it. It’s a worthwhile platform that could have been better if not for some poor graphics throughout – in handheld mode, though, it’s gorgeous! But I do believe this is a situation where some solid gameplay elements can trump a muddled graphical mess.