Smurfs' Village for iOS

Smurfs' Village is one of many "build-a-town"-type games on the App Store, but is one of the most successful, and for good reason. Loaded with content, numerous options for how to build your town, and not entirely unforgiving in terms of when you need to pay for upgrades and when you can wait a few minutes for a recharge, Smurfs' Village is a fun game without too many issues.

The game starts quickly with a light story introduction. You are Papa Smurf and your Smurfs have been chased from their old village by Gargamel. So you will build a new one and bring the Smurfs back together. If you've played similar games like Dragonvale or Farmville you know the drill from here: Plant crops in your gardens, harvest, and use the resources to build houses and attract people to the village. Smurfs' Village uses a smooth interface that is responsive and laden with details to ensure you always know what you are doing, and the app ran without any slowdowns, even as the village size grew dramatically.

There are numerous resources that recharge over time, or you can pay real-world money to speed up the process. Like all games in this genre, the paid element is 100 percent optional, but if you ignore it, there will be times when you cannot do anything and must wait. Keep this in mind before you start playing. While Smurfs' Village is certainly not for everyone, it is a very family-friendly game that can keep young and older entertained for hours, even without micro-transactions.