Smurf Basketball

Smurf Basketball (also known as The Basketball Adventure of The Smurfs in France and French Belgium, and The Smurfs' Basketball Adventure in Dutch Belgium and other countries, except Australia) is an American-Belgian sports comedy video game based on The Smurfs. The game is produced by Warner Bros. Interactive, Hanna-Barbera Productions and Midway Games. It is also one of the Smurfs-related games to not be produced by Infogrames. The game was released to Sony PlayStation in North America on May 11, 2000, Europe on July 6, 2000 and Australia on November 4, 2000.

Sypnosis
Gargamel sends a team of monster basketball players from the future to abduct the Smurfs through a UFO and force the blue creatures to play a basketball game against them. If the Smurfs win, they are set free. If they lose, they will be turned into gold by Gargamel.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to the 1995 Looney Tunes basketball game Looney Tunes B-Ball. It is an arcade-style basketball game starring the Smurfs.

The game features 3-on-3 gameplay. Up to four human players can play simultaneously with the Sony PlayStation Multitap. Players can collect gems on the court to purchase in-game power-ups, such as a protective forcefield or a smurfberry to throw at opponents. Another power-up which can be purchased is a character-unique signature long-range shot (for a 3-point field goal). These shots can only be used by a character on his defensive side of the court and if his team has the funds to do so, but the shot always travels in the direction of the goal his team is attacking. The game ball will, at random, turn into Feathers which will fly around the court and automatically does this when a shot-clock violation occurs. The game also includes in-game cheat codes, which can be used during gameplay, and are activated by inputting specific sequential button presses. The game also displays animated cutscenes.

Voice cast

 * Scott Innes as Papa Smurf and Dreamy Smurf
 * as Brainy Smurf
 * Harry Shearer as Clumsy Smurf and Painter Smurf
 * Michael Bell as Grouchy Smurf, Handy Smurf and Lazy Smurf
 * Frank Welker as Hefty Smurf, Poet Smurf and Azrael
 * as Smurfette
 * as Greedy Smurf and Harmony Smurf
 * as Vanity Smurf
 * as Jokey Smurf
 * as Farmer Smurf
 * Dan Castellaneta as Tracker Smurf
 * as Sloppy Smurf
 * Hank Azaria as Tailor Smurf
 * Jim Cummings as Gargamel
 * Pat Musick as Snappy Smurfling
 * Noelle North as Slouchy Smurfling
 * Charlie Adler as Natural 'Nat' Smurfling
 * Julie McWhirter as Sassette Smurfling
 * Yeardley Smith as Baby Smurf

Quotes

 * "Let's play, my little Smurfs!" - Papa Smurf.
 * "Golly! I sure love playin' basketball!" - Clumsy Smurf.
 * "My evil scheme is working perfectly! Soon those stinking blue rodents will fail miserably at this game, and nobody will be able to stop me! I will dominate Smurf Village! (cackles evilly)" - Gargamel.
 * "I hate baskeball! (All Smurfs glare at him) Well, not much. (chuckles nervously)" - Grouchy Smurf.
 * "Papa, why can't I play?" - Smurfette
 * "The reason why, my little Smurfette, is because the Smurflings assigned you to be the cheerleader of the team. Now, why don't you run along and do what you were made to do?" - Papa Smurf.
 * "Yes, Papa Smurf" - Smurfette
 * "You won, little creatures. So, you're free to go! Now, we'll try to give this evil wizard a lesson that he won't forget." - Monster Basketball Leader.
 * "(when he is defeated by the Smurfs and chased away by the monsters) Help! Azrael! Get me out of here! I'll have my revenge, Smurfs! You'll all be sorry!" - Gargamel.

HD Remake
A high-definition remake was released on October 23, 2008 for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and even, the PlayStation Portable to celebrate The Smurfs' 50th anniversary. In addition, there will be an another HD remake, made by Avalanche Software, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch.

Trivia

 * This game is considered non-canon to the whole Smurfs franchise, despite that the game is based off the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
 * In one of the cutscenes, the Smurflings are the ones who came up with the designs of the basketball player outfits for all the male Smurfs and a cheerleading outfit for Smurfette.
 * Early concept art had numbers on the jersey of the male Smurf basketball players. This was changed to a Smurf symbol to save time.
 * Smurfette is the only Smurf in the game to not be a basketball player. She is instead the cheerleader for the Smurfs basketball team.
 * This game featured fully-voiced traditionally animated cutscenes. Those scenes were directed by David Silverman (longtime director of The Simpsons), layouts by Scott Shaw and animated by Kevin Petrilak and Mike Kazelah.
 * The gameplay was made with computer animated 3D visuals.