The Game That 'Dethroned' Angry Birds: Smurfs Village

Easy on your fingernails now, Angry Birds is back to number one. For a little while, it was dethroned from its number one spot in the top grossing category in Apple's app store. Here's what's messed up about it. It was overtaken by a game called "The Smurfs' Village". Yes, smurfs took over the feathered fury. What are we iOS users thinking right?

The Smurfs' Village is a free application, made by Capcom Interactive, that is basically Farmville with smurfs. The philosophy is that the smurfs are running away from the villain, Gargamel, and need to make a village from scratch. They build houses, plough land, plant fruits and 'keep a lookout' for Gargamel in the process. It's got the same buying of seeds process of Farmville, as well as the experience points and Gold points (which are conveniently called Smurfberries in Smurf Village). Also like Farmville, users have to spend dollars to buy more Smurfberries or wait to advance levels via experience points for more. Finally, you can see your friends' Smurf Villages if you connect with Facebook, or see other random Smurf Villages should you choose to stay disconnected.

The way it differs from Farmville though is some houses have mini-games built in which help with the experience points. It also differs in that while Farmville is more or less a first person game, The Smurfs' Village is a third person game. You tell the smurfs what to do and they do it. The number of smurfs you have at your disposal increases as you increase levels.

Like I said earlier, Angry Birds has returned to its deserved top spot. To think that a game with smurfs could overtake the awesomeness that has even a hardcore gamer converted, has me a little confused. But here's the thing, The Smurfs' Village is a free application while Angry Birds is paid (still shouldn't really matter given how much we pay for/jailbreak our iPhones). Also, given what a phenomenon Farmville was, and to some degree, still is, The Smurfs' Village is basically a smurfier version of Farmville for the iPhone/iPod Touch.