I'm Chris Farrell from the All Things Good and Nerdy podcast, a wacky weekend morning show, part of the gunny Geek Network. Just like the show you're checking out right now. Shows on the network are individually owned, and the opinions expressed may not reflect others. Find other awesome geeky shows over@gunnegeeknetwork.com. And welcome to play comics, where once again, we are here looking at a video game based on a comic and how well it represents that source material. Today I am joined by Mike Clyburn from Twisted capes. Mike, how are you today?
I'm good. How are you, Chris? I'm feeling kind of blue, actually. I see what you did there. That's good. That is good, because we're talking about Smurfs, and it's going to be a smurfing good time. Sure. Smurf it is. We have spent forever trying to get this one scheduled. We've had the game locked in for probably 17 years now. But I just have to know what made you want to look at the Smurfs. I grew up watching Smurfs and what felt like bootleg counterparts, the snorks. Do you remember that?
I do. They're weird. Yeah. So I grew up watching Smurfs and thought they were fun at all points in time. And then I just looked at your list, and I was like, that's the one that seems most interesting to me to just kind of do some research on and talk about a little bit. So that was it. So your experience with Smurfs, is that more of from the cartoons then?
I guess, yeah, it was all cartoons. I aged out before the computer generated image movies started because then I was, like, way too old. It was way too old, and I hadn't had children yet, so it was all tv shows and happy meal toys and all that kind of stuff. How much experience do you have with the Smurf comics or really, did you even realize when you were little that there were Smurf comics?
I did not know there were Smurf comics. I think that was probably prior to my falling into comics, right. So I started reading comics when I was a teenager, and when I fell into comics, I fell in hard. I started with big two stuff, Spider Man, Batman, and then kind of went all over the place with comics, but I never circled back to Smurfs. I think I did, like, archie and stuff bone way back in the day, but then I never thought, like, oh, let me check out a Smurfs comic or anything like that.
My wife, for some reason, her textbooks for french class always had Smurfs and lucky Luke and asterisks. So do you know why that is? Why? So Smurfs originally originated in Europe in, like, the 50s. So I think they started in Belgium and then France, and then they just kind of spread and multiplied popularity like crazy. I did not know that. See, that's the kind of cool thing that comics gets you, is that look into other cultures.
And it's fun because you get to do like, you wouldn't think that you're going to care about an entire village of tiny blue people that wear just nothing but shoes and hats. It's crazy. But you go in there and they're all somehow individualized. Or at least most of them. Yeah. And they have these complex things going on, which in an 80s cartoon resets every 20 minutes, but still it progresses for a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Did you have a favorite smurf?
I did not. My little brother and sister were more of the Smurf people. I didn't really get into them too much when I was. Okay, okay. I think I liked briny Smurf because he's smart. Kind of a smart alec as well. So that was kind of nice. Which Smurf would be the drummer in a metal. Grumpy? Is it grumpy? Smurf, angry Smurf. Whichever one's mad. Okay. That one's going to be my favorite then.
Yeah, that's the one. I feel like you have to have a certain level of aggression to play metal drums. Right. Not a ton, but just, like, enough. That and just the inability to sit still. Yeah, definitely that. In all of your research, did you run across the crazy? Like, how would this ever get past people's holy crapness of Smurf's comics? No, I didn't. Did you find something specific?
There are a few stories, and I can't remember which ones they are right now, but there were evil Smurfs that were black. I know, right. And just perfectly showing the cultural norms of 1950s. Yeah. And there's so many little things like that in cartoons that just kind of slip through and nobody notices because it's just a product of the time. And then you look back at it and, holy crap, that is bad.
It's like, that didn't age well at all. I think Smurfs is actually a fairly old property as well, starting because they did start back in the little bit before. You're just like, man, this is a moment in time. We're not really proud of that. You think about how 1950s America was, and Europe was pretty similar, although a lot of them like to pretend that they weren't.
That's true. Definitely true. I don't necessarily forgive it, but I understand it, I guess, is how I look at things like this from these bygone eras, I suppose. Yeah, you do need to look at things as a product of their time. Like, you can have somebody looking back at history who is horrible and would never be accepted the way that they were today, but they're a lot better than everybody else. Right. And sometimes being a lot better is the best you can hope.
There was. It's, it's kind of crazy how a silly thing like the Smurfs is such a social commentary based on that snapshot in time, and then it changes as you get more into the cartoon and stuff like that, because obviously a 1980s cartoon is not necessarily going to have the values of a 1950s comic. It just wouldn't work. It's just fun to see that at.
Play and knowing that you have to go in there and make a 300 episode first season, however many it was, and who knows how many you're going to get. You know that you're making this to go into syndication. You know that you're making this because it's the sell toys, so you can't really kill anybody off. You can't have people progress too much, but you need them to progress some so you can sell the second and third and fourth version of that character. It's such a good balancing act.
I definitely had some of the toys. I definitely had some of the toys growing up. Just one of the things where it's like, oh, as a kid, you just kind of get into something for like a cup of coffee, and then you're over it. That's kind of what Smurfs toys were for me back in the day. How many Smurfs toys do you have now?
None. None. I have none of my old, old toys. Kind of sad, but we had a really bad hurricane come through, and it flooded my neighborhood, and most of my toys were in the basement and everything got ruined. Everything got ruined. It was just unsalvageable. Live and learn. That is sad. But I'm also jealous that you had a basement. Yeah, basement was cool. Basement was cool. And then it wasn't. Or depending on how the temperature of the water was, it was even more much.
It was probably cold, not cool. Welcome to Charleston, where we live at sea level, and you can't dig into the. Pennsylvania. There's lots of hills and mountains and stuff here. It surprises me sometimes looking at Smurf stuff, how they have never really gone away. They've definitely come in and out, but they've always been around. You've always been able to find something.
Yeah. I mean, if you're not looking for them, they might slip underfoot. It's kind of hard to keep track of them unless you're really paying attention, but, yeah. The fact the franchise is like 60 some years old at this point, it's wild. And that's just existence. It's not video games. Like when I was doing the research for the game specifically. Do you know there's 20 Smurfs games? 20. It's a lot of Smurfs games.
How does that happen? I wasn't even aware of the fact that there were that many. It's absolutely crazy. It's not because it's the thing that I was playing, but like, wow. And a lot of them didn't come out over here, but way more than I thought did actually come out over here. Yeah. Just absolutely wild. Now that you have kids, what is it like seeing the Smurfs while also watching them having their first experience?
It's interesting, right? Because my older son does not care for stuff like this, but my younger son, he finds it fascinating. I think it's the colors and the voices and all that kind of stuff. He's only five, but that kind of thing is fun. But then again, it's fleeting. Watch for like a couple of seconds and then dip right out. I think the movies are a little more interesting for kids their age because there's a lot more production value and there's kid comedy in there. So it's easier for them to maintain focus on some of the films rather than tv shows, if that makes sense.
Oh, it definitely does. I can't imagine kids now being used to the cartoons that they're used to, sitting through some of the things that we sat through, because that stuff just drags. Yeah. We've grown as an entertainment consuming society since the 1980s cartoon came out.
It's really sad in a lot of ways, because we have these things that are so pinnacle forming, such a good foundation for what we have now. And it's almost unwatchable. It's almost like trying to hand somebody Atari games. And I'm guilty of this too. I can't handle Atari 2600 games. Oh, why? That is going back too far technology wise. And I can't wrap my head around it. I can't do. That. I get that.
But I also know kids who can't wrap their head around NES games or Super Nintendo games, and that makes no sense to me. At what? There's no joystick. There's just these two buttons and this dPad. That's it? Yeah, that's it. Do you figure it out? What do you move with? The Dpad is for the menu. It isn't. I can't emote. No, you really can't. Sorry, buddy. What's this tail coming off the controller? That's how we plug it in.
You're making me feel old. I'm already just ignoring the fact that you said the years ago. Yeah, I just turned 40 this last year, and I'm just like, nah, it doesn't feel good. Doesn't feel good. But then I try and stand up, and my knees remind me I'm every bit of 40 years old. I'm not that far behind you. And after running hurdles in high school, my knees are probably past yours. Yeah, no, absolutely not. Knees do not age well at all. Sure don't.
One of the thing about Smurf's comics that I know I picked up on and made sure that I conferred with Kaylee was, you didn't have a lot of plot progression in those either, from book to book. So it's a lot of, this is something easy to be somebody's first Smurf comic. Even with asterisks, you would have callbacks to other things that had happened. But Smurfs, you've got, okay, here's this thing that happened. It's a lot like the cartoons that we would have in the.
But I think you do that specifically to get your younger audience into a comic the adults are looking for. I need progression. Like you were saying, something needs to happen. But kids, it's like, especially if it's coming out monthly. Oh, man. You can't have too much progression, because if this kid is reading month to month, four weeks is a long time for a kid. They're not going to keep a plot point in their brain, so you probably have to rehash a lot of that.
And I'm definitely not complaining about it being the way it is. It's nice to be able to not have to worry. What reading order should I have to do for this? Just grab what you want and read it. That is a problem with comics, like ongoing comics for sure, but I think it makes sense for something like the Smurfs to keep it simple and accessible. Right. Because then you gain a love for comics, and then you end up doing stuff like we do, talking about it on a podcast.
Well, we're going to go back in time and tell our younger selves about how we get to never grow up. While I drop some promos for a few other shows. We let things pile up in the DVR. We add them to our queues. We wait for the dvds and Blu rays. We timeshift the Timeshifters podcast. Sci-Fi horror, fantasy, superheroes, comedy, action, film, television. Maybe some not so current events. Find us on itunes or@timeshifterspodcast.com. Hello, Christopher. What insanity are you up to today?
Oh, hey, Lydia. I'm downloading some movies. What? People are always telling me that's, uh, uh, not these. They're all public domain. Oh, look. Rescue from Gilligan's island. Let me see what you're doing. Oh, you're at archive.org? Well, they have thousands of films, tv shows, commercials, radio shows, and books available. Yeah, but there are so many. I wish there's a podcast or something that would discuss these, know, give us an idea of what's worth the, um. Christopher, there is. We do.
Oh, that's right. We host Orphan Entertainment. Once a month. We pick something and review and discuss it. That sure is nice of us. Sure. Why don't you click over to orphaned entertainment and remind yourself a little more about the show? Oh, we'll do. Let's see. That's at orphanentertainment.com. And, yeah, it looks like we're available. On iTunes and Stitcher radio. Oh, hey, can we review the Gilligan's island movie? We'll see, Christopher. We'll see.
Those are some great shows to check out. But first, let's finish up with this one. So, Mike, I know you were excited about smurfs. I know that you looked through the list and you said, smurfs. Oh, my smurfing goodness. This is going to be great. And then you have picked a 1999 p s one game put out by infograms and at the time, Helio Game production, which has now turned into Doki Denki studio. This game is made for small children.
Sure is. So, fun fact, I never actually owned a PS one. My friend, I had an n 64, and I was, like, in love with my n 64, and my friend had one, so I would go to his house to play his PS one. He'd come to my house to play the n 64. It was kind of great because you don't always get to have both systems in your house. You're very fortunate. And so that's where a lot of my ps one play happened. Very fun. Very fun. Era of games.
As we look at this game, yes, it's made for small children, and that is not something that we hold against a game here on play comics because the whole point is to see how the game can introduce people to the comics. And a lot of the ways that that happens is the plot. In this one, you have some beautifully made cutscenes. They're obviously 80s cartoon inspired, but made new or at least updated and remade for this game. And they kind of go with a story where baby Smurf shows up and gets kidnapped and you have to go save Baby Smurf and other Smurfs. And I'm not sure if that really is a plot, but again, this is for small children. So whatever. It is what it is.
Yeah. There wasn't really much going on there. It was baby and then other Smurfs and then Gargamill and all that stuff. So you're just like, all right, kind of standard smurf fair. You get to ride a hamster or a rabbit or whatever it is because it's PS one graphics. I don't know what it is. I really don't. It looks kidna. Right? Hedgehog. Maybe it's a different blue thing. Right.
Maybe a bandicoot. That's the fun part. We're being completely serious. We have no idea what this thing is. One of the levels you get to ride on the back of something. No clue. And it doesn't matter because it's Smurfs. It could be anything. Literally could. It's not a Smurf, though, because it's not blue. Yeah.
One of the other fun things with this one is you're not really a specific smurf in the game, so you can be any smurf you want to be. There's one part, and I can't remember who it is now that I'm saying this. Oh, there's one part in the cutscene where Smurfette is talking to harmony Smurf. So I saw a lot of people online saying that you were being harmony Smurf, but if you don't want to be. All right, whatever. You're just.
Can just. You can just smurf your own name. It was more fun that way. Like, if you were to do such a thing, what would your smurf have been called? I don't know. Me neither. I don't know. I don't know what adjective I would just throw in front of my name. I always had trouble with that. But we had to do the icebreakers in school, and it was use an adjective that starts with the first letter of your name. Oh, God, no chance. That's a nightmare scenario for me.
Although icebreakers themselves are a nightmare scenario anyway, so not much hope as you go through this game. You're progressing through levels where it's your pretty standard set of levels from a 90s early 2000s game. Nothing really surprising there at all. But again, it's made for small children. Some platforming, nothing too crazy interesting enough to look at from eight to eight years old perspective, but I don't know that I would be like, oh, let me break down the doors, play this game.
Although honestly, I can see it as, hey, here's a little kid who wants to play a game with me that's way too hard. Maybe let me give them this one as a primer course for platforming because it does have some things where you have to figure out what you're doing, but it is pretty easy. You have to figure out how to press the buttons to make it happen, but it's pretty obvious what you're supposed to be doing, right?
And like you said, it's a game for children. It's like meant to be your Mario, your sonic, your very first type of platformer, which good. If this game was your introduction to platforming, good for you. You probably had some fun doing it as a child, probably not the best. Now, you've probably played way better platformers.
And we don't normally spend a lot of time here talking about whether the game itself is good or bad, but I do want to kind of get into that a little bit with this one because you really have to understand your audience for things. And we're not saying it's made for children as a bad thing here at all. Just like some comics are made for kids and the adults don't like them, this game is made for kids. And all the reviews I saw on it were, it's way too simple. And things like, if they had made this, but had it be a demon souls look to it. Yeah, that makes sense. But this is a Smurfs game made for little kids. It is what it is. You got to judge it by what it is.
You can tell it's very influenced in its style by Crash Bandicoot and stuff like that. It has a lot of those types of collect. I guess they were acorns. What were those things? I don't know what they were trying to collect in the game, but it's how Crash was collecting those fruits as he progressed through the game. But yeah, it's interesting in that regard. You can see those influences for sure. For sure. Does it make the game better?
Probably not, but it also doesn't make it worse. So what are you going to do? Absolutely not.
We have seen infograms games here on the show before, so infograms as a company knows what they're doing. Obviously, they had had other Smurfs games before. They had the Smurfs for Super Nintendo, which I don't think actually came out over here, but we did it anyway because Kaylee wanted to. They made Smurf Racer. They went to the complete other end of the spectrum and did another franco belgian comic called north and South. Yeah. Your company making Smurfs games also made one where you can play as the confederate south. Yeah, we're just going to let that one sit. And Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, which is the good one.
I never got down with Dragon Ball games. It was just never a thing for me. Well, for PS one Dragon Ball games, it's definitely the good one. But we haven't looked at Doki Deki studio or Helio game production on this show at all. So I think this is a nice introduction for them. They made what they set out to make. Yes, sure did. Do your Smurfs get the kids all riled up about the Smurfs? Because kids are going crazy for the Smurfs.
Crazy and being Smurfs. Of course you have to go against Gargamel at some point because did they have another big bad guy? No. Really? Gargamel's cat? Yeah, that's about it. But that's kind of the. Weird, weird motivations that guy. Real weird, never consistent. He wants to eat them. He wants to turn them into gold. He wants to destroy them. I mean, let's be real. If I could turn a whole village into gold, I would probably want to do that.
Yeah. I wouldn't start with Smurfs, though. Doesn't sound great in retrospect, saying. Hearing myself say that, but not. I'm not starting with Smurfs. I do kind of have to agree with you, though, because you could exploit spurfs for their littleness and blueness and then later turn them into gold when they start to turn on you.
That's true. What do they taste like? This guy wanted to eat them so bad. What did they taste like that you were going out of your way daily, daily hunting these things to try and eat them. Did he ever eat one? I can't remember. Not in an official thing, I don't think. I'm sure somebody somewhere made a horrible fan made comic where he did. Yeah, that's weird. That's definitely a weird thing. They'd be like Smurf nuggets. Would they be like sweet?
Oh, then you can put them with a nice sriracha sauce. Because if they're sweet with the sweet and spicy with sriracha. Oh, man. Talking my language right now. Yeah, we're going to go eat some Smurfs. I'm going to assume that this episode has gone places that, like, 99% of the people, including both of us, did not ever think it was going to go. No.
But that's the fun part of comics because they go in such crazy places. And especially when you have a story set up like Smurfs where there's not a lot of plot progression, you get to reset all the time. Anyway, the thing with this game, it is just really simple. It's hard to talk a lot about it because it is a very straightforward go from where you start in the level to the end, and it's a lot of straight lines and jump over things that are in the way.
Yeah, the mushroom jumping is interesting. Again, a lot of that crash bandicoot feel to me, jump on something, make you go higher. But yeah, the level design is not anything crazy. But how good is it if a kid rage quits a game that you made for kids? It's not because unfortunately, from experience, watching a kid get upset with a game, you're just like, okay, I'm not going to let you keep doing that to yourself. It's not fun. I've been there. I've been a gamer for a very long time. It's not fun to rage quit.
But with all this simpleness, what do you think the game gets right about Smurfs as both a comic and looking at the cartoon?
First of all, the cutscenes, I think they absolutely nail that. I think they get the personalities correct. If we're being honest, some of the things that you're doing this game are kind of weird in comparison because I feel like I didn't go back and watch like, smurfs, tv shows or anything like that, but I felt like there was a sense of wonder and adventure in those that just, it wasn't really there for the game. If that makes a lot of point a to point b, jump over, bounce off this mushroom, collect these candy canes or these acorns or whatever, and just go to the next level, do more of the same.
I was actually kind of disappointed that there wasn't any kind of voice acting outside of those cutscenes. Because you could have had things popping up like the cartoons, and it wasn't there, and it was there for the cutscenes, and it showed you what you needed to see, and it was good. And then in the actual game, I don't know what they could have done, but I wish there was something.
Yeah. Here's the question I'm having difficulty remembering. Was there usually a ton of voice acting in games back then? Like mid. Just like randomly mid game, mid level?
Not a lot. Which kind of makes me think that a lot of it is just me looking at it through 2024 eyes. Yeah, but you could have had somebody yelling for help as you get to the end. They did yell checkpoint when you hit the checkpoint. So it's not like there wasn't anything and it wasn't bad. I'm sitting there and the cartoon voices weren't exactly as I remember Smurfs. But also, you're making a game in 1999 looking at a cartoon made in the 80s. Even if you got the same people, they weren't going to sound the same.
Right. And I think your point about screaming help as you're going to rescue another smurf, the end of a level is really good because it's just like, oh, I'm getting close to the end. That nice little just source of encouragement right there is like a level design type thing. That's cool. Yeah, I think that's a good call. You know what else those rude little monsters could have done? They could have said thank you when you busted them out of the cage.
Right. It feels so wrong that you go through the difficulty of prying the bars open, and they're just like, all right, I'm leaving. What? No thank you? No thank you? No hug, nothing? Yeah, you're one of those people that just merges in the traffic and doesn't say thank you and just drives on. The worst. Sometimes I do that, and sometimes I start the zipper merge because I'm not sitting behind the truck. Who's at the beginning of the on ramp?
Yeah, you got to take turns. We got to take turns. If you learn nothing from this, we got to take turns. You go, I go. You go. I go. Would you give someone this game, living in a world where there are no other Smurfs games, so you can't say no because there's a better one. But would you give them this game as a primer course for Smurfs?
That's a very good question. I'm going to say no only because I feel like the joy of Smurfs is all the crazy different personalities interacting, and you don't really get a lot of that here. They interact, but it's not like the show is just hijinks. The comics are kind of hijinks. You don't get really a lot of hijinks. It's go do a thing. Go do a thing. If they had a passing casual interest in Smurfs, but really like platformers, that's probably the better call.
I'm undecided, and I can't remember the last time I was undecided. Because you're right. I mean, everything you say is true, and I would say it, but you just did, so I'm not going to say it again. But also, it's made for little kids, and you can probably give this to a three or four year old. Yeah, that's very fair. Not think twice about it once you give to them either. Oh, yeah. There's absolutely the worst thing in this game is that they're blue. That's true.
If you had somebody that you knew wanted to get into Smurfs, what comic would you give them? And say, hey, smurfs is like this. You should check it out. Oh, boy. I don't know. There's got to be something. I don't even know if there's anything more modern, but I would probably go something more modern just because I feel like handing somebody a 1950s comic book is not the best. It would be good for me because I'm an old man, but that's a whole different issue.
Yeah, I think the. I just quickly looked it up. The latest thing was in the mid 80s. It's probably a little better than late 50s, but I probably go with that run if I went with anything at. All, I'm thinking, and I might be imagining that these exist, but I'm thinking I might give somebody rugrats comics, because you have another thing where there's not a ton of progression, episode to episode and issue to issue, but it's fun and hijinks and things are just fun.
Yeah, actually sounds kind of nice. A little bit of nostalgia. Also perfectly aging myself, because I know you're right there with. And I'm sure you've seen some of the videos and stuff. Would Tommy be doing now or Chucky and stuff like old. I'm old. I mean, obviously Tommy would be in the kitchen making chocolate pudding, asking what's happened in his life at three in the morning. Goals. And finally, on a completely different note, who's your favorite muppet?
That is a good question. That I did not prepare for at all. Going to go with animal. Dude just slays the kit and he's an absolute wild card. You never know what's coming. Quickly followed by Beaker and swedish chef. They're just so silly. They are. I love them. All. Wonderful choices. Mike, it has been great talking to you about all these. If people want to hear more from you, where else can people find you around the Internet?
Great. So we are at the twisted cape right now taking a little bit of a break. It's actually been on the extended break, but we'll probably put something out soon. You can find us on Twitter at cape. Always hit us up at our email, thetwistedcape@gmail.com. I also run a DM for a brand new DNd podcast that we just started. It's teamclockpod cl o k on Twitter and teamclockpod@gmail.com.
Both of those are great shows and great fun, and everybody else should go check those out. And of course, we'll have links down in the show notes because clicking links is so much easier than trying to remember how to spell things. Yeah.
As always, the best place to find me is over@playcomics.com. Where there's links to all the social media things. Lately it's been Twitter. I don't know. My people haven't left, so it's really hard to leave. And yeah, it's kind of weird and feels dirty, but it's where my people are. So what are you going to do? If you want to help support the show, you can always give money, like Ono Class and Dan McMahon and Carlylene Tinevich does. Or you can go leave a review on a Place like Apple Podcast or podchaser. You can tell your friends about it, whether it's in real life, because sometimes people talk in real life, or you can just do it on the Internet. That's cool, too. In either, you know, tell people about it and let them know how cool this is. And maybe we'll find a new guest that way because they hear about the show and then they want to be on the show, and that's just always cool. And then you can get some credit somehow, which isn't really going to do anything, but it's still cool. So yeah, do that. Also, don't forget that play comics is a part of the goingnnegeek.com network with a bunch of other great shows. Kind of biasedly legends of S-H-I-E-D-L is pretty good, and I think I'm the worst person on it. Not because I think I'm bad, but because my co hosts over there are that good. We are right in the middle right now of looking at season two of moon Girl, and then we are going to be jumping into X Men 97, and at least one of us might wet his pants. You get one guess who that is. If you like the music that I'm rudely talking on top of right now, head on over to soundcloud.com. Best day to check out best day's music. But most of all, just grab a game, grab a stack of comics, and go find yourself a new favorite character. Today's feature, tea, is an apple cinnamon thing that I brewed three days ago.
Oh, you're a tea drinker? I am. Nice. Love tea. The fun part is I made this, and then my cup kept it too hot, so put it in the refrigerator overnight. And then yesterday I was in here and I just was a dummy and left it on my desk. But my cup kept it cold, so it's still good today. Those cups are amazing. Apple cinnamon tea. My friend got married, and he got a bunch of those types of cups, and they're engraved, so I've been using that for everything. It's great. Perfect.
I'm really wishing I'd gotten a blue one, so I could have told everybody I got a blue yeti. Yeah, no, ours was pitch black with the silver engraving. You got to be fancy for a wedding. Very pretty. So as we look through this game, I need to stop saying so, and I'm going to make myself redo that and everything else I will do in post. Do it in post. How you get timely endings.