Grapple Dog

This week, you could go to the theater and watch a poorly-reviewed and horribly miscast Uncharted movie full of CGI moments ripped straight out of the much-more-exciting video games. Or, you could play Grapple Dog, a fun new action/platformer that is a mix of Indiana Jones and Bionic Commando. They both cost about the same and are filled with massive set pieces full of colorful bad guys, but only one will keep you entertained for more than two hours. Yeah, I think the choice is pretty obvious, but if you're somehow still on the fence, here's a full review ready to remind you that Mark Wahlberg is nowhere to be seen in Grapple Dog.

This is a story of a band of explorers who are on the hunt for the four fabled Cosmic Gadgets, which are said to be scattered across Partash. It's while looking for clues that our canine hero Pablo lags behind the group and inadvertently awakens a long dormant robot. The good news is that he manages to find a useful grappling hook. Unfortunately, the bad news is that all hell has been unleashed, Partash gets blown up and the evil robot sets out to burn down the entire world. Now it's up to Pablo to go on an epic adventure to run, jump and swing through five challenging worlds in an effort to find the four Cosmic Gadgets and use them to stop the robot from enacting its evil plan.

As the name suggests, a lot of this game revolves around that grappling hook that Pablo found in the jungle. Pretty much every level uses the grappling hook in one way or another, so mastery of the swing quickly becomes the difference between life and death. The good news is that hooking things is easy, thanks in large part to visual icons that let you know when it's safe to fire the hook. Unlike a game like Bionic Commando, Grapple Dog doesn't let you hook just anything, but rather makes it so that it's only blue parts of the level. This starts with big chunks of the level being painted blue, but it will eventually lead to blue conveyer belts and blue orbs floating in the sky.

One thing that I really like is that the sense of exploration is baked into every part of the game. The goal isn't so much to safely make it to the level's exit, but rather to explore the area and search for purple gems. Every stage (including the boss encounters) has five of these purple gems hidden away, and it's up to you to use your grappling hook to investigate. Sometimes this means taking an alternate path, while other times you'll need to solve some sort of puzzle in order to find what you're after. This is a great way to keep the exploration theme, and searching for these hidden items becomes a major part of completing each stage.

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The reason why it's so important is because you'll eventually use these purple gems to unlock the various boss fights. This is another highlight of Grapple Dog, because every single one of these boss encounters looks and plays differently. You'll be running away from a robotic T-Rex in one stage, and then swinging on the back of a flying dragon in another. I like that these fights require thought and reflexes, allowing you to really show off the grappling skills you learned from the regular levels. They are also challenging, which I appreciated. For a cutesy game that looks like it could be aimed at kids, I liked that Grapple Dog wasn't afraid to be a little tough from time to time.

Like all good platformers, the game does a good job of introducing new obstacles and villains with each new world. While you've seen a lot of this before, it feels different when you're in control of a grappling hook. I love how the game will often go vertical, thanks to objects to hook onto and little pools of water floating around the stages. In fact, there's a surprising amount of water found in Grapple Dog. Pablo cuts through the water like a knife and can even leap out of the pools to gain a little extra height. No matter if it's on land, underwater or swinging high above the Earth below, Pablo is a blast to control.

That said, he does take a little getting used to. A lot of what he's good at is controlling the momentum of the action, which often assumes that you're speeding around the levels. Things get tricky when he slows down. A simple action like moving one step forward isn't necessarily what he's good at. It feels like you have to watch a full animation cycle, which will often put you beyond the spot you were trying to go. This also proves to be a problem when it comes to fighting nearby enemies. I found myself taking cheap hits because there's not an immediate way to attack what's in front of you. Thankfully, there comes a point where everything clicks and these issues become a thing of the past. Give Pablo a little practice and you'll be climbing up walls and swinging through the sky better than Spider-Man.

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Outside of the learning curve, my biggest complaint is the performance. Maybe it's different on PC, but I found my Switch version dropping frames and slowing down at inconvenient moments. There are a few sections that really chug, which surprised me, considering that it's not the most visually taxing game I've played on the Switch. I also encountered multiple crashes, including one at the very end of the hardest boss in the entire game. This did not leave a good taste in my mouth.

The good news is that pretty much everything else checks out. The visuals are bright and colorful, and I found a few of the cinemas to be genuinely adorable. I like the variety of levels and obstacles, as well as the emphasis on exploration. On the other hand, I wasn't a big fan of the repetitive electronica soundtrack, which samples a few too many words and voices for my liking. But all is forgiven when you find the hidden Game Boy game buried deep in your boat. It's important to have a good portable game to keep you company on those long trips.

Grapple Dog is a delightful new platformer with an ear towards exploration. Discover massive stages and epic boss fights in this long and satisfying action game that stresses both skill and reflexes. The Switch version is let down by performance issues and the soundtrack is going to drive you up the wall, but the lengthy journey is fun from start to finish. If you're looking for a game that mixes the best elements from Alex Kidd, Indiana Jones and Bionic Commando, then you need to adopt Grapple Dog.