The Smurfs: Hidden Village - A Smurftastic Cooperative Adventure

Rebuild the Smurf village, bake delectable cakes, and rescue lost Smurfs, all while avoiding the evil sorcerer Gargamel.

Published by Maestro Media, The Smurfs: Hidden Village is a cooperative board game for 1-5 players, with a 30-minute playtime.

Gameplay

Each round is played over a series of turns until all the Smurf meeples have been placed. On a player’s turn he plays one of the Smurf cards in his hand and must trigger its effect. At the start of the game, there are only the starting Smurf cards in play, and these all have negative effects when played. However, during the course of the game as new Smurfs are acquired, players will have cards with positive abilities. Next, the player will place one of the Smurf meeples from the supply onto one of the eight locations on the board.

Every location has two rows. When placing a Smurf, the player chooses which row to place it on at that location. To complete them, different rows require a different number of Smurfs (and sometimes resources). Once a row is completed, the action is performed. Some actions will have you roll the danger die when you perform it. This has a range of results such as forcing you to lose resources or possibly, if you’re lucky, gain them.

The cat Azrael moves between the locations each round. If a player puts a Smurf on a location where Azrael is, he must roll the Azrael die. This die can have a variety of effects similar to the danger die.

Four of the locations get you resources. There are three different resources in the game. One of the locations allows you to build. There are 6-8 houses (depending on difficulty level) and players have to build them all throughout the game. Each one requires a different combination of resources to build. When a house is built, a player may choose to remove one Smurf card from the game (a useful way to get rid of Smurfs with negative abilities). There is also a location that allows players to remove a Smurf card.

The dark forest location allows players to retrieve a lost Smurf. This can either be taking a Smurf meeple from the howlibird nest location (Smurfs can end up there from the negative effects of the dice rolls) or drawing one of the Smurf cards from the deck of lost Smurfs in the forest. When a lost Smurf its drawn, it goes into the active player’s hand. Once played, it will go into the general discard pile and become part of the general draw deck on future turns.

Finally, there is the workshop. There are two different actions here. One allows players to reveal three new invention idea cards. Two of the Smurfberry resources can be spent to build one of these during a player’s turn. There can be four built inventions at a time. These can introduce new actions that Smurf meeples can use, helpful boosts that stay in play, or powerful one-time abilities. The second action at the workshop allows a player to build any one revealed invention idea without spending any resources.

After a player has placed his meeple, he checks to see if there are any Smurf cards left in his hand. If there are not, he draws back up to his starting hand limit; otherwise, he does not draw any new cards. His turn is now over.

Once all the Smurf meeples are placed, the round is over. All meeples are returned to the supply (except at the high difficulty levels, in which case any meeples on the howlibird nest remain there until rescued) and a Gargamel card is drawn. These will have either a one-time negative ability (such as deconstructing a built house) or will have a negative ability that will stay in play for the duration of the next round. The card will also indicate which location Azrael moves to.

One Gargamel card that is shuffled into the bottom of his deck is the game over card. If this card is drawn before players have won the game, they lose.

There are 2-4 cake cards revealed at the start of the game. These present a general goal players are working towards, such as building two houses on a single turn or collecting 10 resources. When one of these goals is complete, that cake card is flipped face-down. Players must complete all cake goals to win the game. Players must also draw all the Smurfs from the lost Smurf deck and have all the houses built. If all three of these goals are completed, they win the game.

Review

The Smurfs: Hidden Village feels designed to be a cooperative game for families that already enjoy gaming but have kids who maybe aren’t ready for bigger games the parents might be interested in. It's a little more complex than mass-market games, but the difficulty level is pretty accessible. There's enough luck and challenges that players do have to adapt and strategize, but the standard difficulty level still feels quite easy and victory attainable. We played a couple of times and never felt like we were in danger of actually losing.

It was a fun, enjoyable playthrough just the same. We liked the way the challenge kept shifting between where Azrael was on the board, the Gargamel cards, and the Smurf cards in your hand — especially at the beginning when you have to choose between all bad ones, and it's just a question of which one will hurt you the least. So, for one round building might be difficult, for another round you might be scrambling for resources you just lost. This ensured that there was constant discussion each round, reevaluating the situation.

The game is bright and colorful. We had only the slightest knowledge of the theme but we enjoyed the cheery look of the game. The components are quite nice, especially the Smurf meeples and resource tokens. The only components we did not like were the houses, which have a base that consists of thick paper — these are going to get bent and show wear and tear very quickly. The roofs also did not fit onto them very well. The rulebook also makes a couple of references that are incorrect, such as iconography or color used.

This isn’t a game you’re likely to play often as an adult gaming group, unless you love the Smurfs, but it’s a very good game for families that are looking for a well-designed cooperative experience. There are several levels of difficulty, which is a nice way to escalate the challenge. While it’s not a game for very young children, the 8 and up age range given on the box seems fair, while still being something parents can enjoy.

Pros: Good for families, mostly nice components

Cons: A little on the easy side for adults, the houses are not well made

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.