The Smurfs have stopped walking around Smurf Village and started putting their foot down in go-karts, all thanks to the latest title from Eden Games, Smurfs Kart. Smurf Kart was developed by Eden Games and published by Microids, and it’s currently only available on the Nintendo Switch, but they’re looking at bringing it to Xbox and Playstation in 2023.

Jumping into the action straight away, you have the option of Time Attacks, Grand Prix, or Free Race in Singleplayer, or you have the option of Grand Prix or Free Race in the Multiplayer section of the menu. There are currently 12 different Smurfs you can race with, including some fan favourites like Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Clumsy and Handy.

Grand Prix is exactly what you would expect, but feature several different options on how you want to race, with the first two being Fun and Hyperspeed, which is translated to Normal and Hard. Once you have selected how you want to play the game, you are given the choice between the three cups available from launch; The Village Cup, The Forest Cup, and the Gargamel Cup. I found the latter an interesting choice seeing he is not a playable character.

If you are chasing a more relaxed feel without needing to make sure you win races to get points, you have the option of using Free Race. This lets you choose whatever track you desire and practice to your heart’s content without it ruining the chances of you winning the cup. It also makes learning the track shortcuts that little bit simpler.

Maybe smashing out times is your thing and you want to make sure you hold the record for how quickly you can get around a track. If so, Time Attack is for you. This is a fast-paced game mode for people that have mastered the tracks and decided they wanted to make the time to beat on the tracks.

The controls on this are super similar to other titles, such as Mario Kart, and I didn’t find anywhere that suggested the control scheme could be adjusted to suit your own tastes. They seemed to be nicely optimised for the title, but there were times when it would just randomly throw me into the walls by pulling left or right without me even needing to be touching the joysticks. This was annoying when it came to using shortcuts, as sometimes it would push me into them, and other times, it denied me from entering them. It was also a little disappointing to see the touchscreen feature of the Switch had not been utilised in the slightest.

The cartoon style in this game was very fitting and looked a lot like the 2017 movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village. The developers did a fantastic job with the art style in this game, with everything from the character models down to the environment around you while you are racing. The HUD was very clean and set up well, with a place marker in one corner and a map in the other, complete with the locations of the other racers so you can keep an eyeball on your competition.

The sound effects can range from being confusing at times, to great at other times, with some of the attack or defence sounds making you think hard about where it’s coming from, and I would have liked to see a little more done with the vehicle sounds as they felt like they were lacking. The star when it comes to the audio is the music, feeling very upbeat with that Smurfy vibe to it.

Sure, it’s fun to see some new characters get behind the wheel, and it’s great if you want a change from the usual “Ya-Hooo! I doubt many people would have considered the Smurfs for this kind of thing, but Smurfs Kart doesn’t bring anything new that will set it apart from existing Nintendo Karting games. It’s great to see them stick with the Smurfs art style, but the sound effects are rather lacking, particularly when it comes to the karts.

Written by: Hayden Nelson