Yeah, I Admit It - I Bought the Smurfs Game

Last night after my monthly game night at The Guardtower with my friend Dan I bought a new game from Wizkids.

The Smurfs: No Smurf Left Behind.

I'll admit it. The 80s were a big time for me. It wouldn't be right for me to say that I'm a "child of the 80s" 'though. I was born in 1965. I'm more a child of the 70s, really. But, the pop culture of the 1980s was huge in my my life. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. GI Joe. Thundercats. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Those were huge to me, and still are.

And, then there were the Smurfs. They were extremely prevalent back in the day. I watched the cartoon here and there, but never bought any Smurfs toys because they weren't articulated. I wanted my toys to be able to move and Smurfs were just cute, static little guys (and girl) that really didn't have any play value.

But, I did have a fondness for the little blue folk.

So, here were are in 2011 and there's a big screen movie, The Smurfs, opening today. I don't expect we'll be hearing much about The Smurfs come the time for the Academy Award nominations to be announced. But, I am still looking forward to taking my daughter to see it at our local theater tomorrow. I've made it safely through two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, Hop, G-Force and Cats & Dogs 2. I think I'll be fine with The Smurfs. And, besides, my daughter is really excited about it.


So, Wizkids came out with a board game called The Smurfs: No Smurf Left Behind. So, always on the lookout for games to play with my daughter, I picked up The Smurfs. Here's the description of the game:

Smurf for your lives! The Smurfs are trapped in the heart of New York City's Central Park! The only way back home is through a magical Smurf portal that only opens once every Blue Moon. But wait! Gargamel has also found his way to Central Park, and he has ensnared Papa Smurf in one of his nefarious traps. Now it is up to the Smurfs to free Papa Smurf from Gargamel's grasp and find their way to the Smurf portal before Gargamel closes it with one of his magic spells. Will the Smurfs make it out in time or will Gargamel succeed and trap the Smurfs in the human world forever? Play as the Smurfs or Gargamel to find out!

The game come with 6 very nicely done pre-painted miniatures (Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Clumsy Smurf, Gutsy Smurf and Gargamel), a fold out game cardboard 12" x 12" game board, 25 movement cards and a rules sheet.

Gameplay is all about the movement cards, and the movement icon printed on each figures base. When you play your movement cards, you may move the characters depicted on the card the designated amount of spaces in any direction allowed by the icon on the corresponding characters base. Papa Smurf begins the game in jail (captured by Gargamel) and you have to get another Smurf character adjacent to Papa Smurf to free him. Then it is a race to one of the blue Portal squares marked "Escape!" When a character reaches a portal it is removed from the board immediately. If all 5 Smurfs escape, the game is over and the Smurfs are victorious.

Meanwhile, the Gargamel player is trying to prevent the Smurfs from escaping by closing the portal with his magic spells. Gargamel doesn't use movement cards. He can move 3 spaces in any direction indicated by the icon on his base. The movement cards do come into play for casting magic spells, however.

It's not a strategically deep game, but then it's not meant to be. It does look to be a fun game to pass the time with my daughter. And that's not a bad thing at all!