Have you ever scrolled through the new release lists on your favorite gaming store (this one, silly), spotted and bought something that looks intriguing, and then realized you’ve stumbled on one of the best games you’ve ever played? And, what's more, nobody else is even talking about it? That was my experience the first time playing Supraland.

This game has no right to be even close to as extraordinary as it is. It's a vast, enormously involved, and incessantly funny first-person action-puzzler that's set in a literal sandbox world among the discarded toys in a boy’s backyard. It boasts rich, detailed graphics, it's 20 hours in length, and it's all somehow the work of a single person—developer David Münnich. That’s just not a combination that can happen. And yet, from the opening moments, it feels like you’re playing a game from a vast, experienced team. 

In Supraland, you play as a red plastic toy, living in a backyard village with your red plastic toy friends as the prince of your people. Sadly, you are at war with the blue plastic toy figures who live on the other side of the garden, and you're charged with crossing this vast no-man’s-land in an effort to make peace. To do this, you need to gather a huge number of abilities and solve all manner of puzzles and side-quests—all the while under the disinterested gaze of the colossal child who looks down on you all like an equivocal god.

At first, you'll use your ability to spawn a purple cube in order to solve the the earliest first-person challenges. But later in the game you’ll gain weapons, double-jumps, teleports, and so much more. In true metroidvania fashion, all of these abilities allow you to return to previous areas with a new perspective, and you can use them to access new parts of the yard.

That’s what’s most impressive here: as you gain more abilities, the game’s area gets larger, but the distances shorter. It’s the gaming equivalent of cinema's dolly-zoom. You can traverse more quickly and more elaborately, in order to see more, do more, and reach further. And all the while, the many characters deliver hilarious dialogue that changes throughout the experience. It’s the sort of project that you want to shout to random strangers about because you're so desperate for everyone else to find out what they're missing.

Even better, once you finish it, there’s a whole other game for you to try—Supraland: Six Inches Under. This follow-up was originally supposed to be a DLC, but accidentally became a full-length game that’s even better than the first!

It mercifully avoids the trite red-vs-blue theme that you might expect, instead choosing to focus on exceptional fun above all else. Even after I'd played for 20 hours and finished the storyline, I found that I'd only discovered around 70% of its secrets. With puzzles that challenge the best first-person games, Supraland is a treat that you won't be able to believe you haven't played before. Then you too will write an article to let everybody know how great it is—just like me.