Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines Review - A Fun Platforming Adventure with New Worlds & Abilities!
Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines delivers fast-paced, fun platforming, blending smooth swinging mechanics with fresh abilities in a sequel that hits the mark.
The Story So Far…
The game begins with a recap of the first Grapple Dog game, where Pablo defeated the evil robot Nul. During the battle, a portal opened, and a mysterious robed figure warned Pablo of a looming danger. After dreaming of a cosmic gateway, Pablo sets sail with his friends Toni, the Professor, and the now-reformed Nul on a new adventure.
Upon entering the gateway, Pablo and his crew are transported to The Beyond, where they encounter the evil VYR, who tears the sky apart and unleashes his blob-like demons. Master Urson, the leader of the Beyonders, summons Luna, a local grappling dog, to help them.
Spoilers:
Essentially, Master Urson is the yin to Vyr’s yang. Both have crystals that maintain balance in the universe. VYR comes and steals the crystal Urson was guarding and breaks it into four pieces. You guessed it—the goal is to recover those pieces by traveling to four different worlds, defeating goo-like bosses, and recovering each piece.
Chunky Pixels
The vibrant pixel art brings each unique world to life. It has a chunky style, with characters and items outlined in thick borders. What I love about the Grapple Dogs games is the consistency. Everything is pixel art—from the game’s graphics and menus to the text you read and more. This truly immerses you in the colorful pixelated world. Characters fill the background, and sometimes you’ll dash through daffodils or see birds flying around. These small interactions add depth to the bright lights and popping visuals. They’ve designed a stellar world, with many different types of dimensions to explore
Each level has fruits you can collect to unlock new outfits, grappling hooks, and increase the health of Luna and Pablo. You can purchase these at Toni’s Shop. My favorite costume so far is the retro pixel version of Pablo, with a close second being the all-white "Not a Bug" costume
Funky Rocking Fun
I truly loved the first Grapple Dog soundtrack and was listening to it a lot even before trying out the game. That is the same for this game.
The soundtrack by Jazz Mickle keeps the energy high, complementing the fast-paced gameplay. Each new area’s music fits perfectly with its environment. An early level has a funky song “Enter Grapplers” that feels like it was ripped right out of Jet Set Radio, while a fire level song “Bonefield” has a sinister rock riff to match its darker tones. My favorite parts were the music levels scattered throughout the world. The visuals in these levels are flat and basic, but there’s a metronome at the top triggering the 4/4 beat, with platforms and walls appearing in sync with each new beat. It also features one of the funkiest songs in the game “Figure It Out”. This game has it all when it comes to musical influences. It’s a fantastic new soundtrack that adds to Jazz Mickle’s growing catalog of amazing gaming soundtracks.
Say Hi To Luna
Oh, and to answer the question from earlier—yes, you can indeed pet the dogs. Pablo gets all twinkly-eyed, but Luna doesn’t seem to appreciate it as much.
Luna is from the dimension you’ve landed in. Unlike Pablo, she doesn’t bounce as much but has a dash ability that lets her move side to side and angle upward. The biggest difference between them is that Luna has a gun. It sounds and feels great, and it’s tons of fun to blast away enemies and break crates, with upgrades available in different levels.
The addition of Luna, with her unique abilities, adds depth to the gameplay.
A Solid Platformer
It took me roughly five hours to beat the main game, and I finished with 30% completion according to my save file. After beating the main story, a whole new area unlocks, allowing you to return to your dimension. This is where the completionists come in—you can collect more gems and unlock plenty of costumes and grapples, making the replay ability high. I had a ton of fun and almost played the whole game in one sitting. I'm excited to collect more gems and see how the team gets back home after this review
Grapple Dogs is a fun, action-packed game that’s a must-play for fans of tight platformers and cosmic adventures! With this second iteration of the Grapple Dogs franchise, I’m excited to see more from this world and where Pablo and Luna will go next. Super Rare Originals has done a great job bringing many great indie games to light this year like Go Mecha Ball and Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, and Completely Stretchy and Uncomfortably Sticky coming later this year. A solid collection of originals.
🎮Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines | Steam
🗓️Release Date | Out Now!
🎶Jazz Mickle | Bandcamp | Website
Thanks for reading my review of Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines! Thanks to Dead Good Media for providing the key for the review.
The demo was great. It just never made AIIG because I had covered a side-scroller very recently!
Never heard of Grapple Dogs at all! Sounds interesting, though, and that soundtrack goes hard. Thanks for the review!