"First-person puzzle metroidvania" sounds like the sort of thing that there should be a trillion of, so it's pretty wild to me that I can't think of anything that plays quite like Supraland (barring its own followups, I assume). If the game had crashed and burned, and proven the whole idea to be unworkable, that would explain it; instead, it's only made me more convinced that the genre still has plenty of untapped potential left.

The stars of the show IMO are the magnetic belt and connector beam upgrades. They're unique, there are engaging puzzles built around them, and outside of their specific use cases they still do a good job improving your ability to get around. A game having a single powerup that nails this trifecta is a rare and noteworthy thing, and it's doubly impressive that Supraland does it twice. There are also more standard upgrades sprinkled in - double-jump, stomp, gun, the works. Supraland is decently creative with these as well, incorporating puzzle elements that recontextualize them a bit. The color-coding in several puzzles is a good example of the game wringing out extra puzzle potential from its toolkit.

So there's a lot to appreciate about Supraland's design in theory, from far away. Actually playing it, though, doesn't quite live up to all that optimistic analysis. Part of it is the story and writing, which feels like 50% of it was made for people twenty years younger than me and the other 50% was made for people twenty years older. Part of it is the setting, which feels like a half-baked execution of the mini-world aesthetic (which I'm a total sucker for if done right, btw). But most of it is the combat.

On the surface, it seems like there's nothing to complain about here: the weapons feel fine and the puzzle tools usually have neat combat applications. The problem is really in the context that the combat exists within, or rather the lackthereof. There is one dedicated "combat section" in the game that I remember; aside from that, my experience with the game's enemies was me having to put the brakes on exploring or puzzling every twenty seconds to deal with whatever popped out and started harassing me. It is intensely frustrating and puts a damper on the entire game. Not because it's difficult, mind you: each enemy is about as tough and threatening as a mosquito. But hey, so are mosquitos, and I shouldn't have to tell you how aggravating those little bastards are.

I think I remember reading that this was a common complaint and that the followups dialed down the combat significantly. If this is true, it probably represents an improvement, but I do think the system is fundamentally okay and just needs to be integrated with the rest of the game in a more thoughtful way. Certainly it provides a nice excuse to throw a zillion more optional upgrades around the world.

...which leads me into my last note regarding Supraland. I didn't bother going full completionist on this after hitting the credits, but I did look up what was left and was surprised at how many of the upgrades I'd missed sounded decently significant. I didn't miss the stomp, but apparently that is possible. I'm sure some people are going to take that as a negative - "how can the game possibly let me miss actual content so easily?" or some such. I think that's valid, and part of me is a little sad at having missed out on what I did. But mostly I think it's rad for the game to be laid out the way it is; and however bad it feels to miss out on a substantial upgrade, it feels at least as good to open a chest expecting some ho-hum "+2 sword damage" thing only to get something completely unique in its place.

In short: it's okay! If the dev takes the right lessons from it, then Supraworld could end up being something really special. Or Crash and Six Inches Under might have already done that, I dunno. Maybe I'll check them out later.

(okay fine i have one more point: i like the section near the end where they get rid of most of your upgrades but not the connector beam. it's a smart way of giving the beam extra weight and mileage by forcing you to really rely on it in a way you haven't had to before. although they do have to lock you in a sub-area to do it, which is antithetical to the genre and just kind of a bummer)

Supraland is not the usual game I'd delve into. Mostly because I usually s u c k at adventure-puzzlers, however, my partner had played and loved it and seeing him do it made me wanna give it a go.

Turns out, it's actually very enjoyable. The main issue I had with it, is there's absolutely no hand holding whatsoever - you're pretty much just thrust into this world (okay, there's some, with arrows saying go here, but how you get there is kinda vague - at least for my small brain).

I do however, enjoy how many upgrades you get that just make the whole thing incredibly fun and easy to traverse / kill enemies. There's also plenty of 'creative' puzzles to solve that as in most puzzle games, have stupidly simple solutions that are in clear view but just never actually come to mind right off the bat.

Also, the Crash DLC is genuinely fun too - removing basically all combat and turning it just into a strict puzzle/platformer was an interesting choice, but one that absolutely paid off.

This game was consistently fun the entire way through. It just keeps throwing new mechanics and ideas at you and they're all just so fucking fun. You don't need to do the puzzles the way the devs intended either. I skipped sections several times, most of those times on complete accident. That's the kind of freedom Supraland offers and I loved it. I found the developers sense of humor charming overall although some of the references to other works felt like bargain bin material. The story is also pretty strange with its race war allegories. I've seen a lot of other users criticize the combat but I thought it was really fun. This is just a fun game peeps.

Ein 3D Metroidvania mit starkem Fokus auf Rätsel. Die Welt und die Story sind witzig. Die Kämpfe haben sich nicht wirklich gut angefühlt. Bekannt Fähigkeiten in einem 3D Setting anzuwenden, sind schon eine Herausforderung für sich. Jedoch gab es keinen Zeitpunkt, an dem es sich schwammig angefühlt hat. Die Präzision der Steuerung hat mich sehr überrascht. Ein weiteres Manko neben den Kämpfen ist das Upgrade System. Viele Upgrades sind nur durch Kaufen erhältlich. Dadurch muss man für die Upgrade unweigerlich etwas grinden. Eigentlich mag ich ja Maps, die nicht vorgeben, wo Gegenstände versteckt sind. In dem Spiel hat mir es dennoch gefehlt. Im Gegensatz zu 2D Metroidvanias ist man nicht gezwungen, das Gebiet weiträumig für ein verstecktes Item abzusuchen. Allerdings ist diese Feature eher für Perfektionisten relevant. Für mich war es nach der Story zu Ende. Auch wenn ich in den ersten Stunden überraschend viel Spaß hatte, war ungefähr das letzte Drittel eher nervig als spaßig. Zu viele Gegner, später mehr von den stärkeren Gegnern, Rätsel werden komplexer und undurchschaubarer und einige der Rätsel ähneln sich stark. Alles in allem hatte ich eine gute Zeit mit dem Spiel und werde mir den Nachfolger auch anschauen.

It starts out quite promising. Evoking a solid mixture of Metroid Prime and Zelda at the best of times even.

But it really starts to show the cracks in the latter half. Puzzles start to feel a lot more obtuse by introducing mechanics that never had any introduction as a thing that was possible, the level design feels a lot more slap dash with paths that don't even feel legitimate, the combat feels awful all through out, and it has a pacing that feels like you're almost at the end but it just keeps going and going. Simply put, the game is bloated for how otherwise small it would be.

It feels just a bit too over ambitious for how scrappy and janky it is.

But it's not without it's positives for sure. I like the setting a lot (I'm a sucker for rat maps always), and I love what the game is trying to do. It has the sensibilities and charm of a 6th gen game and that hits right where I want it to.

It's ALMOST really good, it just needed a lot more polishing and trimming. At the very least, it has me interested in it's sequels just to see how the devs refine it.

An absolutely charming game.

The wit and humor in the dialogue does a lot to sell the charm, and the colorful, vibrant, and varied world does the rest.

This game makes you think! There is a new puzzle pretty much every "room" (this game is basically open world, but there are regions, hubs within regions, and sub-areas). I actually had to look up a guide on the few occasions I wasn't able to find the solution myself.

And the coolest part? This game is a metroidvania! Item- and ability-based progression? Check. Interconnected world with unlockable paths to make traversal faster? Check. Ability gating? Check-ish? A map? Check!

I haven't quite 100%'d the main game, but I am very much looking forward to play Crash.

I like a lot of the puzzles in this, but the world is just a bit too hard to navigate and there are a few parts where I was stuck not knowing what to do for a while. Also I had to cheese the tower defense because it seemed impossible to do legit. Don't really feel like scouring the world for the 60 odd chests I missed, which is kind of a shame since the puzzles are mostly well designed and fun. I just don't think the exploration aspect was as well done and that's what completing the game would mostly be.

It's not the size of your open world, it's how you use it. Supraland showcases that perfectly with excellent puzzles in one of the best designed Metroidvanias I've seen. Great context clues, secrets around every corner and a creative list of gadgets really test you mind. Once you find one solution that in turn becomes a mechanic for later puzzles. It all really flows together seemlessly.

However, I do wish combat had either been more defined or left out of this adventue completely. I never really enjoyed it and avoiding it is next to impossible. It's a pretty big flaw, but thankfully one that doesn't bring down the adventure too much.

This is a really meaty game. Completionists will have a blast solving everything here and I look forward to checking out other games in this series. I would recommend Supraland to anyone who is interested in a good brain buster.

The first 2/3 of the game were pretty good and felt like it was genuinely my fault for not understanding puzzles. The upgrades added more interesting ways to explore the game and never felt overwhelming.

The last 1/3 of the game however started to feel like they lost what made it charming and became annoying, trying to add too many concepts too quickly or just making parts so obtuse that unless you're already really into puzzle games it was unfun to figure out. I also think that the final "boss" was actually just terrible. Like just gross and so out of place.

I think someone better than me at puzzle games could love this game but I am me, so I don't.