Overall, I thought this was a well made and exceptionally fun game. I loved the Smurfs as a kid, so I was looking forward to the nostalgia, and it did not disappoint. It's something kids can enjoy, but it's challenging enough, and there is enough to discover, that grown-ups will like it too. The only jarring bit, coming from the nostalgia angle, is that the voices sound nothing at all like the actors from the original cartoon, but you get used to it pretty quickly. I didn't encounter any major bugs. There are a few places where you can get stuck on the map, but if you keep hitting jump, it will eventually spit you out. There was only one place I found where I couldn't get out at all, and there you can just use the menu option to fast travel to a different area and then travel right back. There were however serious intermittent stutters. I don't think my hardware was the problem. It would run perfectly at a solid 60 fps most of the time, and then out of the blue, it would turn into a slide show for 1 to 3 seconds and go back to normal. I don't know if this is a problem with the way it streams in assets from disk (in my case an SSD) or if it's compiling shaders or what, but in any case, it's not a showstopper. Hard-core gamers who want a serious challenge should probably look elsewhere. There are 3 difficulty options. I beat the game on normal, the middle setting. I found it satisfyingly challenging but not overly so. It might actually be a bit too challenging for younger players, but most adults won't have any problems at all, and some might actually be bored with it, depending on your skill level. The only other minor complaint I can think of is that the music is a bit bland and forgettable. But, at least it's non-distracting and just sort of gets out of the way of the gameplay. I thought The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf was exceptionally fun and very much worth my time.
