{"id":24094,"date":"2024-02-05T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T00:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=24094"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:56:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T12:56:32","slug":"the-smurfs-learn-and-play-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/05\/the-smurfs-learn-and-play-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smurfs Learn and Play (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the distant past, long before streaming services and 24-hour cartoon channels, there was a thing called Saturday Morning Cartoons.\u00a0 Kids back then, me included, looked forward to this time because it was one of the only times TV was made just for kids.\u00a0 And as a child of the 80s, one of the most popular of these cartoons I remember was The Smurfs.\u00a0 Originally a European comic strip, The Smurfs gained popularity in the US from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.\u00a0 I was never a super big fan of it, but I watched it anyway because, one, kids will watch pretty much anything.\u00a0 And two, it came on right before the Pac-Man cartoon.\u00a0 In recent years, The Smurfs have had a bit of a resurgence with a handful of computer animated movies and specials, and a new series on Nickelodeon.\u00a0 And there\u2019s been a few Smurfs video games I\u2019ve reviewed in the past couple of years, like a kart racer and two 3D platformers.\u00a0 And now the youngest players get their turn on the Switch with The Smurfs Learn and Play!\u00a0 There are four games on here, so let\u2019s take a look at them!<\/p>\n

Hide and Seek<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is basically a hidden object picture find, kind of like Where\u2019s Waldo or those hidden pictures in Highlight magazine.\u00a0 There\u2019s a surprisingly big amount of pictures for you to do, and each one gives you several objects to look out for.\u00a0 You can use the touch screen or move a cursor with the L stick.\u00a0 The touch screen is easier, but the control stick is more accurate here.\u00a0 I like that even though the title screen and menus use the 3D Smurf models, the actual games use the 2D comic and old cartoon illustrations, since that\u2019s what I\u2019m more familiar with.<\/p>\n

Telling Time<\/strong><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t really a game, but a virtual picture storybook you can read.\u00a0 The first few pages explain how to read an analog clock, and the rest of the book explains the Smurfs\u2019 everyday schedules by the hour.\u00a0 Turns out Smurfs have pretty mundane lives.<\/p>\n

ABCs<\/strong><\/p>\n

This game lets you trace every letter of the alphabet, in upper and lower case, as well as numbers.\u00a0 You can trace with the cursor and L stick but it doesn\u2019t work very well.\u00a0 Luckily you can also use the touch screen in handheld mode, which is much better.<\/p>\n

Shapes<\/strong><\/p>\n

And last, here you must match pictures to their silhouettes.\u00a0 There are two ways to play.\u00a0 One gives you unlimited time to match up a few pictures with their shadows.\u00a0 The other is a time attack where you get one shadow and four pictures and must quickly pick the right one.\u00a0 You get a minute to do as many as possible to get a high score.\u00a0 You can use the touch screen or cursor and L stick here, and both work fine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

And those are all the games!\u00a0 Nothing violent or objectionable here, although one hidden picture page has a Smurf about hit to Brainy over the head with a hammer!\u00a0 Reading skill is required, and you\u2019d think a game that has letter and number recognition would have a voice reading the Telling Time story aloud but it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 So a parent will have to read that to their kids.\u00a0 But for five bucks, this game will keep younger players entertained for a good while.\u00a0 The Smurfs Learn and Play is rated E for Everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the distant past, long before streaming services and 24-hour cartoon channels, there was a thing called Saturday Morning Cartoons.\u00a0 Kids back then, me included, looked forward to this time because it was one of the only times TV was made just for kids.\u00a0 And as a child of the 80s, one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","category-movie-reviews","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24095,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions\/24095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}