One of the best games made for the Atari 2600, which predated Super Mario Bros. by three years. Basically, your Smurf travels to the right, jumps over obstacles, avoids dangerous animals, and races against a time limit in order to reach Gargamel's castle and rescue Smurfette. It's a repetitious game, but it was loads of fun while I owned it. (This game is currently available for the Atari 2600 emulators.)

See Atari 2600 Smurf box images:
Front and Back

Another Smurfs game for the Atari 2600, only this one came packaged with the Kid Vid Voice Control module, which in itself was nothing more than a cartridge-controlled tape recorder from what I know of it. There are three educational games in this cartridge that go with each of the three tapes: a musical matchup game with Harmony, a shape matchup game with Handy, and a color matching game with Greedy. (This game currently runs on the Z26 emulator, using the cassettes recorded on WAV format.)

Smurf Rescue In Gargamel's Castle
(Coleco/ColecoVision)

Same entertaining gameplay as the Atari 2600 version, but with sharper cartoonlike graphics and better sound. You can find this one on the Net wherever ColecoVision emulators and Smurf-related sites are located.

The closest thing the ColecoVision had to Mario Paint, except that the graphics are blocky, the animation is limited to four frames, and you couldn't compose your own music on it, nor could you save your creation anywhere except onto videotape. What is does have to its advantage is two-player capability, so two people can work on the same masterpiece or take part in creating little Smurf character productions. It's also the first time you get to control Smurfette, Papa Smurf, and Gargamel in a videogame. You can also find this game on the Net.

The Smurfs
(Infogrames, Nintendo/Gameboy)

This game was a real rarity, since it was released here by Infogrames' American distributor Ocean in late 1996 and it only received limited distribution. Now it's back as a Player's Choice title, distributed this time by Nintendo itself! Anyway, if you have a Gameboy (preferrably the Gameboy Advance SP model) and you like the Smurfs, get this game and The Smurfs' Nightmare as well! It pretty much plays like a Capcom Disney game, except that it isn't as imaginative as a Capcom Disney game, nor is it as challenging. What makes this intriguing is that it's the first Gameboy game I've owned that lets you select which language you want for on-screen text. It's also Super Gameboy compatible, which means you get some well-chosen colors to go along with your game, but strangely it doesn't let you customize the colors and its borders just plain stink! (By the way, this game is available on the Net for Gameboy emulators!)

This game was originally released in Europe and has made its debut here in the summer of 1999. Quite frankly, it's a better game than the first Gameboy Smurfs game, with your Smurf character trying to rescue his fellow Smurfs from being trapped in their dreams. Plays almost like a two-dimensional version of Super Mario 64. This game will only be playable on systems like the Gameboy Color, the Gameboy Advance, and the Gameboy Advance SP. (You can also find this game floating around on various websites as a ROM image for Gameboy and Gameboy Color emulators.)

It's really two games in one. The first game is played like a Virtual Pet electronic toy, where you must try to keep Baby Smurf happy for as long as possible. The second game is played like a standard run- and-jump platform game, where you must rescue your fellow Smurfs from Gargamel's latest Smurfnapping scheme.

Taking the idea for Nintendo's Super Mario Kart game and modifying it to feature Smurf characters and their cartoon surroundings for racetracks was no easy feat, but Infogrames has done it. You can play up to eight different Smurf racers (Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Hefty, Jokey, et al.) up to a total of 9 accessible tracks, with a bonus track and bonus racers to unlock for completing all the tracks in Expert mode.

NOTE: The game is also known as 3, 2, 1, Smurf! in the United Kingdom and in other parts of the world.

This videogame was originally intended to be released here in the United States around 1996 (when it appeared in Nintendo Power), but apparently the lack of interest in supporting the dying 16-bit market may have caused Infogrames to reconsider releasing it here. As far as I can tell, it plays like a longer and more difficult version of the Gameboy Smurfs game, and on various levels you can play as different Smurf characters. One particular level is a sledrace with a snowboarding Yeti on a mode-7 scrolling slope. (The Mega CD version also includes animated intermissions similar in quality to the original Saturday morning cartoon show.) Personally, I think it's a bit more gratifying to play than any previous Smurf game that existed! The only place you can find this game is on the Net for Super NES emulators (ZSNES is the best choice for this game) and Genesis emulators (Fusion being the best one to date), but beware! Some copies of this game may not work, and owning emulated games is illegal unless you also own the original!

See SNES Smurfs box images:
Front and Back

Page for how to play this game

Basically an adaptation of the Super NES version of the first Smurfs game converted for the Gameboy Advance handheld system.  It also includes some Smurf-related mini-games that you can play before trying your luck on the main game itself. Unfortunately, this is only available across the seas and is rather difficult to find.  It is also available in some countries such as Australia as simply The Smurfs, using the same cover artwork as from the Playstation's The Smurfs.  The ROM image, fortunately, can be found on the Net in places where you may find Gameboy Advance games to play on emulators.

See Gameboy Advance Smurfs box images:
Front and Back

Even more surprising is finding out that this game was also made for the Nintendo and Sega 8-bit home consoles in Europe. They pretty much look like full-color versions of the Gameboy version.  You can find copies of the Game Gear version selling on eBay.

Same game for the Super NES, only on CD-ROM, so if you had this game, you could legally own the emulated Super NES copy of it as well. Too bad this isn't available here in America, though if you're lucky, you can find copies of this game selling internationally on eBay.

Apparently this game seems to have borrowed an element from the last season of the Smurfs cartoon show (which stunk, by the way). Two Smurfs are apparently trapped in time, and it's up to the player to guide them through several different time periods and geographical areas to find pieces of a crystal to bring them back to their own time. It's basically another run&jump game, similar to the action found in Our Heroes Favorites, except that you can play as either a Smurf or Smurfette (like in Capcom's The Great Circus Mystery featuring Mickey & Minnie Mouse for Super NES and Genesis). Originally, I thought it was the only known multiplatform Smurfs videogame to exist anywhere -- which was before I even heard of The Smurfs being available for the European Genesis/MegaDrive system. (This game is also available on the Net for Genesis and Super NES emulators -- good luck trying to find it!)

This game is also known as The Smurfs' Great Adventure in Germany.  It's a quest game where you must help the Smurfs find the equipment and ingredients they need for an antidote-making machine to help turn the spotted orange-colored Smurfs back to normal.  You can find ROM images for this game on the Net to play on a Gameboy Color-compatible emulator.

Infogrames has released a series of educa-tional games for children for use on Windows-compatible PCs featuring the Smurfs.

Learn with The Smurfs - Numbers & Letters

A Smurf world full of fun, designed for children aged between 3 and 6 years, for them to play, discover and enjoy the magic of multimedia. Featuring different games to teach children number and letter skills

Learn with The Smurfs - Shapes & Colours

A Smurf world full of fun, designed for children aged between 3 and 6 years, for them to play, discover and enjoy the magic of multimedia. Featuring different games to teach children shape and color skills

Learn with The Smurfs - Memory & Logic

A Smurf world full of fun, designed for children aged between 3 and 6 years, for them to play, discover and enjoy the magic of multimedia. Featuring different games to teach children memory and logic skills

This is what this particular game title translates into from the German box design shown. Here's a rough translation of the game's description:

"The evil sorcerer Gargamel has kidnapped and is keeping Smurfette imprisoned in his old castle. Papa Smurf takes his magic books in hand and finds in one of them the TeleTransport Smurf for releasing Smurfette. The most courageous Smurf must now gather from all parts of the country the necessary things for the TeleTransport Smurf to be built. The Smurf who can succeed in getting the most things needed in time is the winner. "

This is what this particular game title translates into from the German box design shown. Here's a rough translation of the game's description:

"The poster over the village announces it already. 'You are all invited to a large fair in the forest!' Naturally all the Smurfs raced as quickly as possible into the forest around their village to have fun at the fair, except Papa Smurf, who was very skeptical. Could it possibly be? Will the Smurfs be falling for one of Gargamel's insidious magical traps yet again? Rescue the Smurfs! Escape from Gargamels traps at the fair and release with each task a Smurf that he has kidnapped. FEATURES: 2 different degrees of difficulty — on logic and memory ability based tasks — 18 skill games — a studio to generate animated comic strips — 36 fair stories — a studio set around your own music and songs with colors and pictures."

This is what this particular game title translates into from the German box design shown. Here's a rough translation of the game's description:

"A nature adventure of full tricky tasks, merry mysteries, and exciting plays in the land of the Smurfs! An extremely serious situation! Thunder clouds, storms, gales and other dangerous natural catastrophes bring the land of the Smurfs completely in chaos. But where is Mother Nature? The bad Gargamel has her sick at home with a miserable flu. Only with your assistance can the Smurfs defeat Gargamel's evil plan: together they must find everything they need for the cure to take care of Mother Nature's terrible flu. In addition you need many good ideas! Observe and notice everything well; prove your skill, Only then can the land of the Smurfs be saved."

Tiger Electronics developed some portable Smurf games in five different formats, which you can check out at The Electronic Handheld Game Museum. There's also a keychain-sized Smurf handheld game in the form of a Gameboy released by Nintendo, which you can find a picture of at BlueBuddies.com.