{"id":129748,"date":"2022-11-14T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-140617"},"modified":"2022-11-14T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:00:00","slug":"review-smurfs-kart-not-as-smurf-as-smurf-but-surprisingly-smurf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/11\/14\/review-smurfs-kart-not-as-smurf-as-smurf-but-surprisingly-smurf\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Smurfs Kart – Not As Smurf As Smurf, But Surprisingly Smurf"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
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\"Smurfs<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it comes to karting games<\/a>, you can either try something new in an attempt (and likely failure) to reinvent the genre, or you can play it safe and just take notes from Mario Kart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smurfs Kart<\/a> has absolutely no qualms about going with the latter option, with barely a shred of originality to be found in its game design. But you know something? That isn\u2019t always a bad thing. In fact, this decision to borrow heavily from the best \u2014 coupled with developer Eden Games’ (Test Drive Unlimited<\/a>) form in the racing genre \u2014 means Smurfs Kart is a decent little racer.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to be sitting down while you read this, because nothing we\u2019re going to tell you about Smurfs Kart\u2019s structure is going to stun you in your boots. You already know the drill. It\u2019s a karting game starring characters from everyone\u2019s favourite blue Belgians (with apologies to fans of football team Club Brugge, or a drowned Tintin).<\/p>\n

The roster consists of 12 of the navy numpties, from well-established favourites like Papa Smurf, Jokey, and Smurfette to others that old farts like us admittedly aren\u2019t as familiar with, such as Blossom, Astro Smurf, and the mechanical Clockwork Smurf. Each has their own voice acting and their own personality, meaning they each feel about as unique as a dozen completely blue characters can possibly feel. Each also has their own unique kart, which can\u2019t really be customised in any way but at least fits the personality of the Smurf driving it.<\/p>\n

\"Smurfs<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are two speed settings to choose from \u2013 Fun and Hyperspeed \u2013 which work exactly like the \u2018cc\u2019 ratings in Mario Kart, not only increasing each kart\u2019s top speed but also upping the AI difficult level significantly.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re on the track, anyone who\u2019s played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which is practically everyone, according to sales figures) will feel immediately at home with the handling, which isn\u2019t an exact facsimile but is close enough that you\u2019ll have adjusted by the first race. That is, assuming you haven\u2019t accidentally turned on the driving aids by mistake like we did. Much like Mario Kart, it\u2019s possible to turn on assists for younger players \u2013 these stop you going off the track, keep you accelerating, and let you steer with motion controls. It\u2019s possible to accidentally turn these on during the pause or character select screens but they\u2019re just as easily turned off again.<\/p>\n

Powersliding is your typical hop-and-slide method you see in Nintendo\u2019s game, and you get your typical three-stage sparks when sliding which determine how fast your speed boost is when you come out of the turn. It charges a bit faster here than in Mario Kart but otherwise it\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n

\"Smurfs<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Same deal with power-ups. Coins are replaced by Smurfberries and most of the typical Mario Kart weapons are in here too under a different guise. Green shells are acorns, red shells are bees, bananas are clumps of dirt, that sort of stuff. It\u2019s all straightforward, it\u2019s all Mario Kart, it\u2019s all easy to learn.<\/p>\n

This would all be for naught if the game ran like absolute Smurf but that\u2019s actually one of the few genuine surprises we had while playing Smurfs Kart \u2013 this is quite a pretty game when all\u2019s said and done. The frame rate isn\u2019t 60 frames per second like Mario Kart is, but while it\u2019s 30fps it\u2019s at least an extremely solid 30, unlike some other karting games on the Switch (we\u2019re looking at you, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3<\/a>). And that drop to 30 has clearly been made to ensure the game looks as detailed as possible.<\/p>\n

And to be honest, it really does look lovely at times. If it isn\u2019t running at native 1080p resolution while docked, it must be really close to it, and there are some really lovely lighting effects there coupled with detailed characters and tracks. Unless you vomit at anything less than 60fps, you\u2019ll be surprised at how impressive it looks whether docked or handheld.<\/p>\n

\"Smurfs<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It isn\u2019t without its negatives, mind you, and the most notable of these is in the number of tracks available. Each track is well designed and a joy to race around, and they aren\u2019t just lazily arranged flat surfaces: there\u2019s been clear effort here to make them fun, with pretty much each of them offering some sort of shortcut and some even featuring different routes altogether.<\/p>\n

They even manage to feel diverse when the setting is the same. A few of the tracks take place in the Smurfs\u2019 village, and while the initial flyovers for each of them look worryingly similar, once the races start there\u2019s a clear variety between, for example, the course that winds in between their houses and the one set in their huge cornfields.<\/p>\n

The main problem is that there are only 12 courses to choose from, split into three cups. While it\u2019s possible to unlock mirror versions of these, that\u2019s still not a hell of a lot of variety for a $40 \/ \u00a345 game. Multiplayer is local split-screen-only, too, with no online play to keep you occupied. It really won\u2019t be long until you\u2019ve thoroughly played each track inside-out, and while this may not be a massive issue for younger players, older fans will get a bit Smurfed off after a while.<\/p>\n

\"Smurfs<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That said, there\u2019s also a Sticker Album in the game which awards players for performing certain achievements, including winning certain numbers of races with specific characters. This should add a bit of longevity and give players a reason to take on each track for the umpteenth time. Ultimately, though, this lack of content is the only main issue \u2013 albeit a pretty big one \u2013 in a surprisingly well-made karting game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

On the track, Smurfs Kart pulls off a surprisingly solid imitation of Mario Kart, with satisfying handling and some wonderful visuals (albeit at 30fps). In the grand leaderboard of Switch karting games, it\u2019s not quite going to trouble the podium places, but it\u2019s certainly lingering just behind the front-runners and definitely delivers an entertaining time, even if it\u2019s as short as its subject matter. A lack of courses is what keeps it from being one of the very best karting games on the Switch, but they certainly haven’t Smurfed this one up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) When it comes to karting games, you can either try something new in an attempt (and likely failure) to reinvent the genre, or you can play it safe and just take notes from Mario Kart. Smurfs Kart has absolutely no qualms about going with the latter option, with barely a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}