Grapple Dog Review

Grapple Dog tells the story of Pablo, equipped with his trusty grapple, who will have to go through 33 levels across 6 unique worlds in order to stop the robotic overlord Nul and his evil nefarious plans of destroying the world. Can our hairy friend conquer the forces of evil and save the planet?

Grapple Dog is a 2D platformer run & jump platformer with a twist. As in the title, Pablo can use a grapple to get around specific areas of a level; along with the typical run, swim, jump, and wall-jump movements. The grapple allows for some fun and unique ways to get around a level and also encourages exploration of every nook and cranny possible.

Although you cannot use your grapple on everything and anywhere. When you’ll see a blue jello-like block or a blue target-like icon, it’s an object that can let you grapple to it to either swing left and right or be propelled higher. With the blue block, it can not only help you avoid hazardous obstacles but also reach higher areas to explore and find possible secrets.

Our furry little hero can also (somewhat) defend himself. Enemies can either be killed by jumping on their heads or with the grapple. However, using the latter can be tricky at times as you don’t have much control over the direction it shoots. So jumping on heads remains the most effective way to kill enemies. But in case your jumps miss, Pablo does have health that can be replenished with (what else) dog cookies or reaching a level’s checkpoint.

In order to be able to reach the area’s final level and obvious boss battle, Pablo needs to collect a specific quantity of purple gems to unlock the last mile of an area meaning players will be tasked to explore every area in order to avoid to constantly replaying levels. Sometimes, it’s just finding a hidden area or finding a carrot so a goat can break unbreakable blocks. Gems can either be collected throughout levels or by collecting a set amount of golden fruits. Also once you’ve cleared a level, it can be replayed as Time Trials.

The game’s nuisance is that the level of difficulty ramps up pretty abruptly. The first few levels feel like a perfect balance in order to give players a chance to get acclimated with the gameplay mechanics, but seemingly out of nowhere, the level/platforming complexity gets pretty tricky and tough as if the game expects players to master the art of grappling only after a handful of levels. While the grapple is very fun to use, it does require pixel-perfect collision because by overthrowing the grapple, you will miss the hook and it won’t connect causing Pablo to fall onto spikes for some damage or death (if the health bar is almost empty). Also trying to bounce on green chip-like platforms feel uncontrollable.

Grapple Dog looks great in all of its 16-bit pixelated glory. The game features colorful, bright, and uniquely designed 2D levels. Each world and level are overall well-thought-out and the character models look great. The little annoying thing pertaining to design is that sometimes in underwater areas hazardous spikes are hidden behind what should be background design causing unnecessary damage. The soundtrack is a solid banger. It features an upbeat funky score reminiscent of Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future from back in the day.

Grapple Dog is definitely one of this year’s must-play experiences and it’s easily in my top 5 of 2022. It’s a fun and addictive platformer with a unique twist in the shape of the grapple mechanic. Despite the abrupt difficulty spike, it’s nothing that you can’t adapt to. It feels very rewarding getting through a specifically challenging section. Combat is very simplistic and boss battles provide a unique challenge by combining platforming and the grapple. Highly recommended.