Grapple Dog from the team at Medallion Games is one of the best examples in recent memory of taking the very best from retro platformers of the 8bit and 16bit generations while still creating something altogether unique and modern. This charming little adventure will have you jumping, swinging, and zipping your way through a bunch of colorful worlds filled with fun characters and a humorous story that shows what a good 2D action-platformer is all about.
On the surface the game is as simple as it gets, but also allows for a lot of depth for those looking. This means that anyone will be able to pick up Grapple Dog and have a great time no matter their gaming style or background, especially with the added accessibility options included. The more people enjoying a game the better! If you want a fun little platformer that doesn’t ask the world of you, then you are going to love it. Likewise, if you are a speed-runner there is a lot of extra content to keep you going and climbing the leaderboards. And for those gamers in-between, like myself, you’ll be in heaven with the amount of content on offer depending on your mood.
The overworld for the game is built like a classic Mario game and has you moving from island to island in your cute little boat completing stages until you reach a boss. Each stage has a lot of things to complete and you probably won’t be able to 100% each stage on your first pass. You see, to reach a given boss you are going to need more than just beating each stage in a given world. Each stage has a numbers of crystals that you can collect and it’s these crystals that are needed to unlock the boss battle.
You won’t have to collect every single one, but it sure will help. On top of this you’ll be able to unlock bonus stages that will also offer up their own crystals. Going back to stages is also nice because crystals you collect will stay collected. Replaying a stage won’t reset them meaning you can more freely explore stages and get an idea where the ones you missed might be. Then there’s the collection bits in the form of fruits that are also important. Picking up a certain amount will give you a bonus, and collecting all of them another bonus. There is a lot here to work through and makes coming back to stages a lot of fun.
Grapple Dog seems like your standard platformer fare, but its main mechanic comes from the first part of the games name: the grapple. This grapple gun device you get makes the game a whole lot of fun and plays in a similar style to the classic Bionic Commando games, only much better in my opinion. This is because unlike those classics this game still lets you jump! This opens up the gameplay quite a bit and it’s weird that I can’t recall another game doing this. You not only can run, jump, climb and slide, but also grapple special blocks to help you traverse the stages.
In terms of normal gameplay it’s a blast to swing and avoid/kill enemies and obstacles. Learning to swing it important and the better you get the more fun the experience becomes. You’ll begin to take chances and find entire new areas of stages, but you’ll also start anticipating movement and start flying through stages like Spider-Man. It takes a bit to get accustomed to, and Pablo the dog does feel a tad floaty, but once it clicks you’ll really be jamming. The feeling you get when you blast through a area almost on autopilot is fantastic. I’m no speed-runner, but I totally understand the appeal after playing Grapple Dog when on a real roll.
Grapple Dog is impressive most because when it’s over you are ready for more. Most often when a video game ends that’s it. I am happy completing something and moving on, so it takes a special game to have me coming back. This is why games of the last few generations, even the best of them, sort of jumble together and I don’t often think about picking them up again. But, when we are talking about the greats from the 8bit and 16bit generations I can easily sit done and complete entire games regularly. Grapple Dog has the real possibility of becoming such a title.
I am excited about the future because Grapple Dog was published by Super Rare Games as part of their originals platform. In fact, Grapple Dog is the first release from them and it makes for one hell of a first showing. And since Super Rare Games publish physical copies of Nintendo Switch games I look forward to this one getting a physical release because I’m more than really to purchase it again in a heartbeat.
Grapple Dog takes the best of what made 8bit and 16bit platformers great and manages to create a modern classic that deserves to be in your games collection
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