Supraland Review

Supraland is a sandbox game that features one of the most unusual mixes you could find in the gaming world: first-person shooting, dungeons, puzzles, backtracking, power-ups, upgrades and enemies to fight. All of these elements may seem to have come directly from famous titles like Portal, The Legend of Zelda and the subgenre Metroidvania, and even the developers themselves admit it. Supraland plays with its own reality, in which a human controls that world as if he were a kind of god playing with his toys, and the local characters give evidence at all times that they are aware that there is a higher kind being there.

In terms of history, Supraland tells us very little about what is going on, but it’s possible to understand the protagonist is the son of the king of that kingdom where everyone is red stickman dolls, and he needs to save the inhabitants from the sabotages that are done by blue kingdom’s people. Clearly without much intention to bring a very complex or deep storyline with him, Supraland manages to engage the player through his funny dialogues like “haha you will save the kingdom while we stay here doing absolutely nothing” that break the fourth wall all the time and play with clichés of the games, making references with lines of dialogue and many Easter eggs that borrow characters from other media.

However, what really catches the eye is its crazy gameplay that, as I said earlier, mixes several genres. The red guy protagonist begins his journey as raw as possible, without any kind of special ability or attribute that differentiates him from any other character in that kingdom, carrying only a sword that is handed to him along with a dialogue like “it’s dangerous to go alone, take it”. Later on, it’s possible to buy health upgrades, weapon damage and the like from a vendor, who also adds new items for sale when we bring barrels to your store – just accept, it doesn’t even make sense, I know.

In addition to pressing many buttons to open doors and activate mechanisms, in Supraland there’s also an ability to conjure a purple box, which can be used to keep the gates open and make containers of the same colour have some effect on the scene. Not only that, but there are also several puzzles that require highly creative solutions, which will make the player think a lot and realize that the answer was under his nose all the time. Apart from that, already known skills from the gaming universe are present in Supraland, like a triple jump – better than just a double jump, eh? – Very useful to reach higher places, long-range weapons that serve to eliminate enemies that drop useful coins to buy items in the store and chests that contain very stimulating rewards – upgrades, mostly.

Even with much deserved praise, Supraland leaves a little to be desired in the Switch version. There are constant drops in fps and lighter chokes that can be noted all the time. I also missed the support for motion controls, something very present in most first-person games that come through the Switch ports. Finally, in the portable mode the visuals seem a little blurry and washed up too much, while in the Dock the experience is much clearer and more pleasing to the eye. Anyway, the version for the Nintendo console does not lose that much for the Xbox and PS4, but I admit that it could have been much better optimized. Not that it makes the game bad, but the impression that the game is not that demanding, visually speaking, to have suffered this level of downgrade is in my mind.

In short, Supraland is an excellent game, well above average and I confess that it surprised me a lot with its proposal. Its challenges are quite fun and clever, enough to reward the player not only with new upgrades and skills, but also with the simple sense of accomplishment provided by finding the solution to an enigma. The combat stays in the background, but it works very well in its proposal to offer short and long-range confrontations. Finally, everyone should try Supraland, for real. Give it a chance and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.