You can pet the Dog.
Grapple Dog é feito com muito capricho em diversos aspectos, seja visualmente com sua arte estilosa e suas cutscenes dramáticas, ou com sua trilha sonora surpreendentemente boa, na sua história simples e cativante e mais importante no seu level design, já a jogabilidade deixa um pouco a desejar.
A clara inspiração do criador Joseph Gribbin em clássicos como Donkey Kong Country e seu histórico de trabalho na Nitrome com certeza o ajudaram no desenvolvimento de um jogo de plataforma sólido, desafiador e cheio de conteúdo. Porém a mecânica principal de movimentação (o gancho) e a física do jogo podem te fazer cometer erros que você não esperava, causando um pouco de frustração.
Ainda assim, Grapple Dog é bem único, cheio de personalidade e divertido de jogar.
A clara inspiração do criador Joseph Gribbin em clássicos como Donkey Kong Country e seu histórico de trabalho na Nitrome com certeza o ajudaram no desenvolvimento de um jogo de plataforma sólido, desafiador e cheio de conteúdo. Porém a mecânica principal de movimentação (o gancho) e a física do jogo podem te fazer cometer erros que você não esperava, causando um pouco de frustração.
Ainda assim, Grapple Dog é bem único, cheio de personalidade e divertido de jogar.
ruff around the edges.
A beautifully crafted game that I've unfortunately struggled to get hooked on. The Grapple Dog's controls and animations feel satisfying, and in theory, this alone should make for a great platformer. But from the early stages I just didn't feel like the mechanics were being utilized in a way that engaged me, or urged me towards mastery. I'm not opposed to coming back someday, but I think it might take a friend's recommendation to persuade me.
I really wanted to like this and then I realized I was trying to make myself enjoy it when I just wanted to finish it so I could move it on backloggd. The music is soooo good, it reminds me of if Hideki Nagamuma did the soundtrack for the Japanese version of Undercover Cops. The visual style is so cute. But the dog handles like a lead balloon. He's so floaty but it's so hard to recalibrate a jump midair. I felt like I was fighting the game itself instead of the enemies in it.
I felt like i was grappling with the grapple hook
Grapple Dog! Wonderfully cute platformer with kickass music and charming story. Movement-wise, it's a bit stiff... but in a good way? The level design and mechanics around the movement really serve it in a fun way.
Grapple Dog has charming art style and a clever concept, but unpolished physics ultimately make it a frustrating experience. I enjoyed the first few worlds but once the levels become more demanding, the controls are not precise enough to keep pace.
The game offers some accessibility options like no damage and extra jumps, but the swinging still brings down the experience. The amount of collectibles required to advance also becomes a roadblock for those just wanting to power through to the end.
The game offers some accessibility options like no damage and extra jumps, but the swinging still brings down the experience. The amount of collectibles required to advance also becomes a roadblock for those just wanting to power through to the end.
I really liked the first third or so of this. The music and art are great and give some cool WarioWare-esque vibes which I'm really into. The problems come starting around world 3, where there's an unfortunate combination of really bad performance slowdown and difficulty spike. I died many times because the game was hitching too much too read my controller inputs. By the end I was just glad to have finished it. A more polished sequel could be great!
One GBA-ass platformer
Grapple dog is amazing! More people need to play this game. It’s got that thing going like Mario games do where they introduce game design in a low stakes way and up the stakes with them even combining gameplay elements. It’s a true joy to play through. I love that’s it very much feels like GBA game. Feels very chunky and scratchy! Just feels good. Highly recommend this game.
A cute game where you play as a dog with a grapple hook… badass! He can swing on certain objects which makes you feel a bit like spider-man zooming through levels finding collectibles and going through a good variety of obstacles and new mechanics.
Unfortunately to me there are a couple major issues with the game. The locking on for the grapple hook can be extremely spotty, so you often are trying to hook onto something small but it just won’t work for whatever reason. This isn’t a huge issue early on but when the game gets harder later it becomes a frustrating experience. It’s made worse by the fact you can tell grapple dog was meant to be grappling and wall jumping, cause the other simple platforming actions just don’t feel quite right, such as controlling where you are landing or trying to do some finely tuned platforming. A slow down in progression later in the game paired along with some annoying boss fights makes this game ultimately suffer as it gets further along, but luckily there is still some fun to be had.
Unfortunately to me there are a couple major issues with the game. The locking on for the grapple hook can be extremely spotty, so you often are trying to hook onto something small but it just won’t work for whatever reason. This isn’t a huge issue early on but when the game gets harder later it becomes a frustrating experience. It’s made worse by the fact you can tell grapple dog was meant to be grappling and wall jumping, cause the other simple platforming actions just don’t feel quite right, such as controlling where you are landing or trying to do some finely tuned platforming. A slow down in progression later in the game paired along with some annoying boss fights makes this game ultimately suffer as it gets further along, but luckily there is still some fun to be had.
Ach, I mean. It's like almost good.
A surprisingly finnicky character controller that you spend way more time fighting with over tiny jumps left and right than you do enjoying it doing big swings. Loads of little things just don't feel right.
Some awful checkpointing in what I played. Sometimes you'd get launched through a barrier that you couldn't go back through, immediately hitting a checkpoint meaning you have to start the level over if you happen to have missed any collectibles. Later on it swings the other way and you'll be doing a big detour to collect some stuff, before dying to a silly bit of platforming, making you do the easy detour over and over.
The music is nice and funky, but the loops feel like they're about a minute long and are repeated for every stage of the world you're in, driving you to totally insanity by the second stage.
There's fun stuff in here, and it feels well crafted, so I feel bad about not liking it... but boy did I not like it.
A surprisingly finnicky character controller that you spend way more time fighting with over tiny jumps left and right than you do enjoying it doing big swings. Loads of little things just don't feel right.
Some awful checkpointing in what I played. Sometimes you'd get launched through a barrier that you couldn't go back through, immediately hitting a checkpoint meaning you have to start the level over if you happen to have missed any collectibles. Later on it swings the other way and you'll be doing a big detour to collect some stuff, before dying to a silly bit of platforming, making you do the easy detour over and over.
The music is nice and funky, but the loops feel like they're about a minute long and are repeated for every stage of the world you're in, driving you to totally insanity by the second stage.
There's fun stuff in here, and it feels well crafted, so I feel bad about not liking it... but boy did I not like it.
I enjoyed Grapple Dog but it didn't quite reach the great category. Grappling is really hard to feel good and while it worked the majority of the time it did feel finnicky from time to time. I dropped off at the 4th boss that felt quite unfair.
Wow there's a lot of content
Grapple Dog is polished to a sparkle. It's really a blast to play, it just instantly feels fun, and the level design is effortlessly intuitive. The pixel art is SO CLEAN too, it's kind of mesmerizing.
My biggest issues with the game lay with the gameplay itself. I've seen some other comments mentioning the motion feeling off somehow, but honestly I got used to it as the game went, although specifically when Pablo is in his rolled-up ball animation, he really does tend to fly around at the touch of a button and becomes way too hard to control precisely, which is sometimes required. My bigger issue was with the grappling hook, which unfortunately is kind of the core of the game.
The grappling hook has three angles: up, up-left, and up-right. I don't think this ever felt right. It forces you to make shots at weird angles when you'd rather just tilt it a bit more this way or that way. This is one of those things that's not really meaningful to someone who hasn't played the game, so I'll leave it at that.
One other major game design issue that I'm still confused about: checkpoints don't work like they do in... every other game. And by that I mean, if you touch a checkpoint, it doesn't save your progress, and it doesn't heal you. It only works once. This sounds like a little nitpick, but it seriously messed with my playthrough several times in ways that made me restart a level when I was 80% done with it. This is because if you hit a checkpoint, then go back and collect some gems or fruits, if you die before hitting another checkpoint, you have to redo it all. Even worse, the level might block you from going back after you die because certain gates will reset. It's also just frustrating to lose health right next to a checkpoint and instead of being able to quickly touch it and get going once again, I would often just die on purpose or open the menu to restart at the checkpoint, which just felt so unnecessary. Very odd choice that I saw no benefit from.
Other than some gameplay flaws, it's a really, really solid platformer that is so easy to get into and hardly needs any carrots-on-sticks to get you playing more.
My biggest issues with the game lay with the gameplay itself. I've seen some other comments mentioning the motion feeling off somehow, but honestly I got used to it as the game went, although specifically when Pablo is in his rolled-up ball animation, he really does tend to fly around at the touch of a button and becomes way too hard to control precisely, which is sometimes required. My bigger issue was with the grappling hook, which unfortunately is kind of the core of the game.
The grappling hook has three angles: up, up-left, and up-right. I don't think this ever felt right. It forces you to make shots at weird angles when you'd rather just tilt it a bit more this way or that way. This is one of those things that's not really meaningful to someone who hasn't played the game, so I'll leave it at that.
One other major game design issue that I'm still confused about: checkpoints don't work like they do in... every other game. And by that I mean, if you touch a checkpoint, it doesn't save your progress, and it doesn't heal you. It only works once. This sounds like a little nitpick, but it seriously messed with my playthrough several times in ways that made me restart a level when I was 80% done with it. This is because if you hit a checkpoint, then go back and collect some gems or fruits, if you die before hitting another checkpoint, you have to redo it all. Even worse, the level might block you from going back after you die because certain gates will reset. It's also just frustrating to lose health right next to a checkpoint and instead of being able to quickly touch it and get going once again, I would often just die on purpose or open the menu to restart at the checkpoint, which just felt so unnecessary. Very odd choice that I saw no benefit from.
Other than some gameplay flaws, it's a really, really solid platformer that is so easy to get into and hardly needs any carrots-on-sticks to get you playing more.
Grapple Dog looks the part, sounds the part, even plays the part, but there is always something that feels off about it. It is heavy and the way momentum interacts with the speed caps is strange. As the game goes on its crack show even more, moving elements are slow and either spawn too early leaving them out of sync or pop in as soon as you get near them. It is a very polished first half which hides a second that is barely being kept together.
It's charming, and the music makes me wanna groove, but holy fuck why does he control like that? The momentum just feels waaay too heavy
A throwback to the GBA with its presentation and soundtrack that sadly falls far short due to some incredibly frustrating physics. Trying to land where you want in this game is next to impossible and it feels like the heaviness or mass was accidentally tuned up to 10.
It's disappointing because there's a great game hidden in here with the grappling hook taken full advantage of, but I felt like I was wrestling with the controls for the entire 4/5 hour playthrough.
It's disappointing because there's a great game hidden in here with the grappling hook taken full advantage of, but I felt like I was wrestling with the controls for the entire 4/5 hour playthrough.
This game appeals to me on some core level by evoking two games I'm ridiculously fond of without actually being much like either title. The first is Ninja Cop (Ninja Five-O to some), the absolute king of grappling hook games, one of the most enjoyable gameplay experiences for the Game Boy Advance. The second is Go Go Beckham! Adventures on Soccer Island, one of the most visually pleasant and fun experiences for the Game Boy Advance. To remind me of both of these lesser known gems from a very specific and formative time in my gaming life is a heck of an achievement, and meant I was willing to give this every chance under the sun.
That it then turned out to be a fantastic game in its own right, with some of the cutest designs and most pleasing game feel I've ever encountered is a nice bonus, really.
The grapple physics feel great, and the range of the hook is generous enough to allow for a lot of saves whenever the momentum isn't enough or you leap out at the wrong time. The slam is a useful secondary tool, that you have a lot more commitment to (more than once I threw myself with some force between two different bounce pads I could have safely ricocheted off), but a rapid jump can still save your bacon now and then, and generous health drops and well-placed checkpoints mean that a foolish platforming mistake is never TOO painful.
Boss fights are so-so, but still maintain enough of the core mechanics to leave some fun to be found, and the briefness of them means you're never far from another level, or one of the exquisite bonus stages that challenge you to either collect, platform, or commit robocide at some speed in increasingly challenging layouts that make you feel like a champion for getting through.
Grapple Dog is a good dog. A good game. I meant a good game. Be a good game, sit. Stay. Installed in my library in case I ever brave the time trials.
(I suspect I will use the fantastic accessibility options to turn them into a rapid fire goofy revisit of the levels if I do, mind)
That it then turned out to be a fantastic game in its own right, with some of the cutest designs and most pleasing game feel I've ever encountered is a nice bonus, really.
The grapple physics feel great, and the range of the hook is generous enough to allow for a lot of saves whenever the momentum isn't enough or you leap out at the wrong time. The slam is a useful secondary tool, that you have a lot more commitment to (more than once I threw myself with some force between two different bounce pads I could have safely ricocheted off), but a rapid jump can still save your bacon now and then, and generous health drops and well-placed checkpoints mean that a foolish platforming mistake is never TOO painful.
Boss fights are so-so, but still maintain enough of the core mechanics to leave some fun to be found, and the briefness of them means you're never far from another level, or one of the exquisite bonus stages that challenge you to either collect, platform, or commit robocide at some speed in increasingly challenging layouts that make you feel like a champion for getting through.
Grapple Dog is a good dog. A good game. I meant a good game. Be a good game, sit. Stay. Installed in my library in case I ever brave the time trials.
(I suspect I will use the fantastic accessibility options to turn them into a rapid fire goofy revisit of the levels if I do, mind)
A great little platformer with rock-solid, perfectly challenging level design, stylized and colorful graphics, a funky fresh soundtrack, the only downside being that some of the very final levels time trials can be brutally punishing. Yet, I can't recommend this game enough!
Expectation: 7
Score: 8.5
I went into this one expecting a precision platformer like Celeste and Super Meat Boy, so after playing the first level I was kinda disappointed when it seemed more like a traditional, level-based, mario-esque 2d platformer so I
was pretty disappointed at first. But then after playing further, I found this to actually be a somewhat unique blend between the two sub-genres. It actually does feel like a precision platformer, but with longer level design and a health bar.
Beyond that, the game is pretty solid. While the grappling controls are a bit awkard at first, once you get used to them it feels good to play. Level design is well done, graphics and music are well done, story and writing is solid.
All around I would definitely recommend this as a weird in-between of Mario and Celeste, and while it's not quite as good as either one, still def worth a play
Score: 8.5
I went into this one expecting a precision platformer like Celeste and Super Meat Boy, so after playing the first level I was kinda disappointed when it seemed more like a traditional, level-based, mario-esque 2d platformer so I
was pretty disappointed at first. But then after playing further, I found this to actually be a somewhat unique blend between the two sub-genres. It actually does feel like a precision platformer, but with longer level design and a health bar.
Beyond that, the game is pretty solid. While the grappling controls are a bit awkard at first, once you get used to them it feels good to play. Level design is well done, graphics and music are well done, story and writing is solid.
All around I would definitely recommend this as a weird in-between of Mario and Celeste, and while it's not quite as good as either one, still def worth a play
A 2D platformer about a dog and its grappling hook, that looks pretty and polished in its pixel art, has quite a few good instrumental tracks, and throws in referential video game humor for good measure. Unfortunately, the grappling mechanic doesn't work the best as it only shoots in 3 directions, and both it and the jumping feel floaty, leading to the time trials being quite frustrating. Also, you may need to collect gems twice before boss fights in case they don't save, or be aware of crashes while restarting a level.
At least you can pet the dog.
At least you can pet the dog.
Attention! I have stopped playing this game solely because I'm having weird slowdown issues when I move too fast or are in certain areas in the game. I'm totally sure it's not my PC, and I cannot find ways to monkey with the .exe of this to make it run in a more efficient way. If this has happened to anyone else & you fixed it let me know how, I generally really really enjoy this game but at this point the slowdowns are too much of a hinderance to ignore.
Other than that issue, what a charming & addictive little game. The art style is stellar; with this bouncy pixel look that's just detailed enough to have more style but still keeps every graphical element readable & easy to comprehend quickly on a scan. While I think at some points the movement is a little too slippery for precision platforming, I do like the grapple mechanics a lot & the bouncing mechanics brought in later give you this great sense of momentum. The music is boppin', the dialogue is funny without being overly quirked up; just generally this has a really appealing vibe & gamefeel. If I can ever get this issue resolved (or get it on another platform), I'd love to see it through. Hopefully the sequel addresses all the issues!
Other than that issue, what a charming & addictive little game. The art style is stellar; with this bouncy pixel look that's just detailed enough to have more style but still keeps every graphical element readable & easy to comprehend quickly on a scan. While I think at some points the movement is a little too slippery for precision platforming, I do like the grapple mechanics a lot & the bouncing mechanics brought in later give you this great sense of momentum. The music is boppin', the dialogue is funny without being overly quirked up; just generally this has a really appealing vibe & gamefeel. If I can ever get this issue resolved (or get it on another platform), I'd love to see it through. Hopefully the sequel addresses all the issues!
Very endearing, super simple platformer. Really well polished, fun central mechanic. So very GBA-like to have 3 buttons and a d-pad control everything. I got that feeling I normally get with games where I felt a real compulsion to hoover up every stray fruit and gem, and it felt really good collecting everything and slowly figuring out levels.
Brutal difficulty spikes though. Sometimes I found myself having to put my Switch down for the night and attempt a level the next day because it was frustrating me so much lol. A lot of little moments that just felt like total BS, and it's not the chill slightly easy platformer I initially thought it would be. But it was a fun time.
Ran like ass for a 2D platformer with a bunch of slowdown (and the game crashed the instant I beat the final boss which has led to me just abandoning my effort to 100% it because fuck that. I seriously thought it was a meta game element at first but nope, it just crapped out on me and didn't save.), but it was made by one person so I'm very willing to go easy on that part.
Brutal difficulty spikes though. Sometimes I found myself having to put my Switch down for the night and attempt a level the next day because it was frustrating me so much lol. A lot of little moments that just felt like total BS, and it's not the chill slightly easy platformer I initially thought it would be. But it was a fun time.
Ran like ass for a 2D platformer with a bunch of slowdown (and the game crashed the instant I beat the final boss which has led to me just abandoning my effort to 100% it because fuck that. I seriously thought it was a meta game element at first but nope, it just crapped out on me and didn't save.), but it was made by one person so I'm very willing to go easy on that part.
+ Fun grapple mechanic
+ Lots of content
+ Satisfying 100% requirements
+ Good difficulty curve
- Repetitive music
- Unable to backtrack after certain checkpoints
- Most bosses felt like formalities
- Some audio & stuttering bugs
+ Lots of content
+ Satisfying 100% requirements
+ Good difficulty curve
- Repetitive music
- Unable to backtrack after certain checkpoints
- Most bosses felt like formalities
- Some audio & stuttering bugs
Very cute, adore the art style. The music is like peak 90s Sonic CD energy, it's absolutely great in small doses - unfortunately it's on a pretty short loop and the same track will be used over multiple levels, meaning it gets old fast.
I have two complaints about the gameplay that made me put it down. The first is... it's Grapple Dog, but it doesn't seem to be sufficiently about using the grappling hook? There are long platforming sections about wall jumping, or swimming, or whatever, where you can't use the hook at all. It is only compatible with specially designated blue blocks. It's like a Spider-Man game where you spend more than half your time running at ground level.
The other issue was, I just found it frustrating when the difficulty ramped up. I repeated sections multiple times, trying to loop around for the purple gems and scoop up 100% of the fruit, but getting nicked on spikes and death pits, and it just had that feeling of "I can't believe I have to do this huge diversion to get the gem AGAIN". Contrasts poorly for me with Pizza Tower which also incentivises you to zoom through the level collecting all the stuff ASAP but is much more generous with player durability.
I have two complaints about the gameplay that made me put it down. The first is... it's Grapple Dog, but it doesn't seem to be sufficiently about using the grappling hook? There are long platforming sections about wall jumping, or swimming, or whatever, where you can't use the hook at all. It is only compatible with specially designated blue blocks. It's like a Spider-Man game where you spend more than half your time running at ground level.
The other issue was, I just found it frustrating when the difficulty ramped up. I repeated sections multiple times, trying to loop around for the purple gems and scoop up 100% of the fruit, but getting nicked on spikes and death pits, and it just had that feeling of "I can't believe I have to do this huge diversion to get the gem AGAIN". Contrasts poorly for me with Pizza Tower which also incentivises you to zoom through the level collecting all the stuff ASAP but is much more generous with player durability.
Very fun to control, but the soundtrack is repetitive
I really, really wanted to love this game. Every character is so funny, and cute, and charming, the visuals are stunning, and there are unquestionably moments of brilliance throughout. Unfortunately, the flaws of this game are too persistent to overlook.
This game probably has the worst character handling I've ever experienced; it's loose, like you never really feel in control. The titular grappling hook will often grab onto nothing instead of what you're aiming for, and the performance hitches/skips when you take damage means that you're consistently taking additional punishment in the form of missed jumps.
After the first few worlds, I was truly invested in this game, and was looking forward to every opportunity I had to pick up and play. This is why I was so disappointed to find that as the game went on, the cracks started to show.
It's still not terrible, but I think that with some fine-tuning, the upcoming sequel could be a thing of greatness, and I am eagerly anticipating it.
This game probably has the worst character handling I've ever experienced; it's loose, like you never really feel in control. The titular grappling hook will often grab onto nothing instead of what you're aiming for, and the performance hitches/skips when you take damage means that you're consistently taking additional punishment in the form of missed jumps.
After the first few worlds, I was truly invested in this game, and was looking forward to every opportunity I had to pick up and play. This is why I was so disappointed to find that as the game went on, the cracks started to show.
It's still not terrible, but I think that with some fine-tuning, the upcoming sequel could be a thing of greatness, and I am eagerly anticipating it.
Still playing through it but this honestly feels really fun and the most Nintendo thing to ever be made by a non-Nintendo studio. Theres just a real feeling of fun and whimsy along with a good dose of speed and precision. Its a glorious mix of platforming that feels challenging but never quite gets fustrating.
I do have to ding it though for some of its more finicky optional item placements. Also while the soundtrack is great, I really wish there were a few more track variants as sometimes the tracks do get a bit grating since they play so often.
That said, for those looking for a Nintendo style platformer with a ton of charm, you could do worse than playing this little gem of a game.
I do have to ding it though for some of its more finicky optional item placements. Also while the soundtrack is great, I really wish there were a few more track variants as sometimes the tracks do get a bit grating since they play so often.
That said, for those looking for a Nintendo style platformer with a ton of charm, you could do worse than playing this little gem of a game.