Supraland: Six Inches Under Review – Digging The New Playground

Supraland came to me not long ago, promising a mix between Portal, Zelda, and Metroid. For all intents and purposes, it really wasn’t far off the mark. That said, it had a different kind of charm to it that I can only describe as a parody puzzler, a game that enjoyed riffing on classic gaming tropes and series, and thankfully none of its humor appears lost to the depths. Supraland: Six Inches Under’s descent into the deep, dark caverns below the stick-people’s sandbox winds up hitting a few nuggets of gold along its trip, while not venturing too far into the deep unknown, for better or worse.

Deep Trouble

I mean, I wasn’t gonna say it that bluntly, but hey, he said it, not me.

Six Inches Under is barebones, but in the best way possible. There’s red plastic-y stick-figure people, blue ones, and the occasional baddies after you while you’re out adventuring through the sandbox. When an earthquake shakes, rattles, and rolls the red and blue peoples’ sandbox home deep into the caverns below, you, as a sole, normal plumber, now have to help these misplaced people get back to the surface. Thankfully, Supraland Six Inches Under is self-contained, and you don’t have to have finished or even played the original game to pop right in and enjoy.

I admit, I really love the whole shrunk-down playground theme. My time with games like Tinykin and Army Men really started coming back in full force when romping around Supraland’s toy-sized world. From homes made of Lego bricks to structural supports made of broken pencils and erasers, there are so many tiny details that make the creativity shine. That said, there are fantastical elements added in, a few details that aren’t quite 100% in line with the shrunk-down theme, but the whole concept of plasticine people running amok freely takes a hint of fantasy as it is. As Supraland itself would even ask you, who cares? Half the fun here is a fantastical Toy Story-style adventure turned into a little platform puzzler, so it’s forgiven for being a sort of sci-fi/fantasy kitchen sink where a little bit of everything gets mixed in.

There’s plenty of little buildings, huts, and other areas where you’ll be running around, each with a different vibe. From beachside resorts to tiny towns for a DLC, there’s a surprising amount of sightseeing to do, all perfectly portrayed with minute detail. Probably my favorite area of the campaign was Cagetown, a three-level animal cage turned into a finely-segmented city, with the poor and deprived staying on the bottommost layer and the rich enjoying the high life on the third floor. You’ll have to earn upgrades and tools to make it to the top and dethrone the Baron making life miserable by sucking up people’s money behind their backs. Okay, they’re actually painfully aware that they’re being robbed but don’t have the tools to solve it. Again, Supraland: Six Inches Under doesn’t hesitate to wear its humor on its sleeve, even if that humor, while funny, is a bit cynical at times.

I’d argue that, generally, the game tends to take things relaxed. It’s got a crap ton of references to movies and games, a little slapstick humor from time to time, and often jokes around with no shame at all, and that’s perfectly fine. Its focus is on gameplay and exploring, and Six Inches Under pretty much says you know why you’re here, and it ain’t for a sprawling fantasy epic. There’s a little rhyme and reason, so you can scoot your happy self along, and gladly laugh and take the piss out of the whole run while you’re at it. You’re a toy playing around in a city-like sprawl made of the underground area of a sandbox; what more could you want?

Digging Up Solutions

Trust me, the ability to buy Knee Bending sounds useless til you near your 30s.

So, how does this all stack up next to the base game? It’s pretty evened out in terms of new versus old. It’s still following the base game’s usual Metroidvania style of puzzle solving, introducing a lot of strange things that won’t make sense until you get later upgrades, either by purchasing them or finding them. You’ll be gathering up a good amount of base game favorites, like the Force Cubes or Magnetic Buckle, but you’ll also be seeing a couple of new tricks of the trade. One of these is an almost grenade launcher-like tube that spits out a weird orb of technology that can teleport you to wherever the little orb is. It’s simple in execution, but where it shines best is in the puzzles.

Let me say this now, while I love a good challenge, I will be the first to admit that Supraland has a very detailed way of dealing with puzzles. Some of the mechanics will make sense, relying on a more topical knowledge of the tools you have, but staying tame and letting you learn while sorting out puzzles, something represented well in the main puzzles of Six Inches Under. Then there are the side puzzles when it really starts wanting you to think for yourself. Thankfully, if you’re ever a bit lost, usually there’s a little radio somewhere nearby that will let you know if you have all the tools you need to solve the puzzle. Still, even with these little guides, again, there were a few that really required some mental gymnastics to figure things out. Players beware that, just like its base game, Supraland: Six Inches Under won’t be holding your hand the whole way. My best advice is to seriously consider all possibilities, no matter how inane you might think they are. There’s a surprising amount of things that I really didn’t think would work that I found out were set up to be the actual answers all along.

The best news I can give is that the DLC is just the right length. It’s got enough new areas to make you want to take a gander around (and occasionally make you work for it), but it never really overstays its welcome. By the time you’ve gotten to scouring the nooks and crannies, you probably won’t be far from finishing up. Depending on how long you take solving puzzles, your adventure could be anywhere from 7 to 13 hours. It does pull something of a bait-and-switch where it seems like you’re done with the campaign, but to my surprise, it actually has something of an extra after-campaign. Supraland: Six Inches Under really does remind me of the golden age of DLC, where you got solid extensions to your favorite games that did what they needed to, all for reasonable prices and in reasonable lengths.

That said, it would be inaccurate to say this cave spelunking was a flawless adventure. One of the bigger issues I had was the save system freaking out. From the moment I booted up Supraland: Six Inches Under, the save system seemed like it was going off constantly, which wasn’t a problem until I started getting error windows about it. It’d frequently take away control over my character for a moment before spitting out that error, and it did this time after time without fail until I completely closed the game and relaunched it. It mainly did this near the beginning of the game, but occasionally I’d have it pop up seemingly at random, and not always requiring a full relaunch before fixing itself. There’s also a really annoying issue where instead of selecting menu options via D-Pad or joystick, as you normally would a console game, there’s a mouse pointer that is never fun to try and work with on a controller. I have come across many a game with this cursor option, and it never gets any easier to direct the damn thing.

A Hidden Gem All The Same

Supraland: Six Inches Under skillfully dodges the “more of the same” problem, introducing a generous amount of fan-favorite tools and mechanisms while also offering a couple more additions that spice up the deep, cavernous dives you’ll be working your way through. The biomes are still as colorful and varied as the base game, and if you’re eager for more of Supraland’s toy-sized world, you’ll get that and then some, all wrapped up in about 8 to 12 hours of solid, fun gameplay that plays exactly like it’s advertised. Goes to show you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; just find new places where that wheel rolls. Just keep an eye out if the save system seems like it’s on the fritz, and do mind the cursor-based menu navigation. After all, it wouldn’t be a proper spelunking journey without a few hang-ups.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC; Publisher: Humble Games; Developer: Supra Games UG; Number of players: 1; Released: May 18, 2023; MSRP: $19.99

Full Disclosure: A copy of Supraland: Six Inches Under was provided by the publisher