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

gamepur.com:

Before I even started Grapple Dog properly, I already found myself taken with Jazz Mickle’s funky soundtrack when it kicked in on the opening screen: a suitable taster for the tunes to come. When the adventure began in earnest and I discovered that the eponymous dog was named Pablo, the same name as my own dog, well — I had a feeling I’d have a good time.

Grapple Dog is a colorful and charming platformer from developer Medallion Games, and the first title to release under the auspices of Super Rare Originals, the new indie publishing label from Super Rare Games. The story is a familiar one: an unlikely hero, a quest to save the world, a selection of mystical artifacts that have to be collected, usually by besting powerful boss enemies. But Grapple Dog’s simple premise and cutesy aesthetic belie not just the depth of its gameplay, but also some genuinely amusing writing and story beats.

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 jump, do a ground pound, wall-jump, that sort of thing — it’s the main method of traversal in the game. As a general rule of thumb, anything blue can 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’s a fairly robust simulation of momentum physics implemented when hanging from things, too, which will help you leap further and jump higher, though it does admittedly take a bit of getting used to. Occasionally you may find yourself pinging across the screen at high speed after swinging from a grapple point, which can make the precise