Grapple Dog is a vibrant and colorful platformer with plenty of heart (and a grapple gun)

Earlier I even started Grapple Canis familiaris properly, I already constitute myself taken with Jazz Mickle's funky soundtrack when information technology kicked in on the opening screen: a suitable taster for the tunes to come up. When the adventure began in earnest and I discovered that the eponymous domestic dog was named Pablo, the same proper noun as my own dog, well — I had a feeling I'd have a proficient fourth dimension.

Grapple Dog is a colorful and mannerly platformer from developer Medallion Games, and the kickoff title to release under the auspices of Super Rare Originals, the new indie publishing label from Super Rare Games. The story is a familiar 1: an unlikely hero, a quest to save the world, a selection of mystical artifacts that have to be collected, ordinarily by besting powerful boss enemies. Just Grapple Canis familiaris's simple premise and cutesy aesthetic confute not just the depth of its gameplay, only also some genuinely agreeable writing and story beats.

Swing when you're winning

The meat of the gameplay revolves around the grapple gun that Pablo picks up very early on in the story. Combined with a modest selection of other platforming staples — you can bound, do a ground pound, wall-jump, that sort of matter — it's the main method of traversal in the game. As a general rule of thumb, anything blue tin be grappled from. This includes stationary blocks, poppable balloons that give you a boost, and moving grapple points on conveyor belts in later levels. There'due south a adequately robust simulation of momentum physics implemented when hanging from things, also, which will help y'all leap farther and leap higher, though it does admittedly accept a scrap of getting used to. Occasionally you may find yourself pinging across the screen at loftier speed after swinging from a grapple indicate, which can make the precise platforming sections trickier unless y'all take information technology slower and steadier.

The game itself doesn't seem to want y'all to tedious down, though. There's definitely some Sonic the Hedgehog DNA ingrained in the game: between the natural inclination towards speedy traversal and the optional time trials unlocked after completing each level, there'south an undeniable sense that you lot've, as the hog himself puts it, "gotta become fast." Pablo fifty-fifty curls up into a ball when he jumps, a visual nod that immediately brings to mind everyone's favorite chili-dog-loving speedster. Grapple Dog, in fact, seems like information technology could lend itself to speedruns in much the same style as the classic Sonic games do, the fluid movement and pinballing potential of the grappling hook sending Pablo careening towards the finish line in no fourth dimension at all.

Pick on someone your own size

The boss fights, too, wear their influences on their collective sleeve. The first is a desperate chase reminiscent of like ready pieces in the likes of Guacamelee! and the Ori games, while many of the others run into Pablo squaring upwardly confronting Dr Robotnik-esque automata that crave you to dodge attacks and jump into a weak spot in peak Sonic fashion. They're adept fun though, requiring decent mastery of the controls and mechanics to score a victory, and the music shines through once more with some boss themes that, frankly, absolutely slap.

Later levels will also crave a like level of coordination. Grapple Dog eases you in gently, only while you'll probably find yourself breezing through the early worlds, the later ones can have some punishingly difficult sequences. This generally manages to err on the side of challenging, but there are certainly moments that cross over into frustration. Towards the stop of the third globe, for case, you'll find yourself pursued by a flying robot snake for the majority of a lava-filled level.

A stressful situation at the best of times, simply said snake has a addiction of flying ahead of you and out of your field of view, leaving you unable to see where it might be. That in plow forces you to plow on ahead bullheaded through various tricky platforming segments, just for it to of a sudden reappear exactly where you were planning on landing and knocking off a clamper of your health. Nevertheless, the claiming largely feels fair, and checkpointing throughout levels is generous enough that you're unlikely to detect yourself overwhelmed with frustration.

A beautiful chaos

And a good affair too, considering Grapple Dog actually is a please to behold visually and aurally. Surprisingly detailed pixel art grants character to everyone from Pablo and his friends, to adversary Nul and his robot minions, and even to the occasional NPC you'll happen across in one level or some other. This is augmented further by the Banjo-Kazooie-inspired sound effects that play whenever a character speaks, a nice picayune bear upon that adds an actress modicum of charming eccentricity to each interaction. The blitheness itself is delightfully fluid, though some subsequently levels did suffer from some performance bug and slowdown, even on my beefy calculator — no doubt the chaos of having so many pieces on screen, like lava, conveyor belts, moving grapple points, and more, gives the engine a lot to deal with, merely hopefully those minor issues can be ironed out in a future patch.

At that place is likewise a welcomed handful of accessibility and difficulty options available in the menus. Extras like invincibility and infinite jumps can be turned on here, in a similar vein to Celeste'south Assist Mode, and at that place are toggles and sliders for various visual furnishings and audio channels. Information technology would have been dainty to meet a few more options for color-blindness, because many of the platforming elements are color-coded (blue means you tin grapple information technology, green means you lot can ground-pound information technology, etc), but most of those elements also accept symbols visible on them which helps them to stand out fifty-fifty if the player can't make out the color.

The verdict

All in all, Grapple Dog seems to excel at what information technology sets out to do. It'southward a fun, polished, light-hearted game with a fun mechanic at its core, harking dorsum to the gilded age of 2D platformers while giving the model a fresh coat of paint with its stylish pixel art. The music was the first thing I loved virtually it, simply thankfully it'due south more than just that: Grapple Dog certainly has way, but information technology's got the substance to back it up likewise.

+	Delightfully stylish pixel art and music that absolutely slaps
+	Genuinely challenging platforming that'southward piece of cake to learn, hard to master
+	Fun, if slightly derivative boss fights
+	You tin pet the dog
–	Occasional performance issues
–	The challenge of the game sometimes veers into "frustrating" territory