Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines

For me, I struggled to enjoy this all while knowing that me as a child would have loved to have had this as a core game to come back to again and again to explore and master, and it comes down to time. The main issue that rubbed me the wrong way was that the game seems built around exploration and discovering hidden areas and items - the main collectable for progressing the game is either earned through completing a challenge or through exploration, but due to the way the levels are built and the limited scope of the camera, I felt punished for exploring, not rewarded. Often while exploring you will unintentionally cross a point of no return, even while knowing there were other paths on that previous part of the level that you would still like to explore. These range from one-way platforms that you can't jump back through, to screen transitions that can't be walked back from, to cannons that lock you into them if you clip into them while platforming. These cannons will often shoot you off screen and onto the next one, or through one of the above mentioned one-way platforms. You don't have to intentionally press a button to enter one, so you will often get locked into them unintentionally, and there is no button to -exit- the cannon. The only option is to fire yourself forward or restart from the last check point. You are also often faced with the dilemma of blindly jumping off screen or down a pit, or scaling up a wall, to see if there is something hidden there, which will occasionally work out but more often result in the loss of health or the loss of progress. One other nit-pick with the game wasting your time is that you are allowed to hold a button to skip the dialogue that kicks off each boss fight, but then -still- have to sit there for another 7-10 seconds each time waiting while the bosses name is slowly plastered on the screen. All of this is fine if you have loads of time to replay levels over and over again, learning them, memorizing them, figuring out where areas could be that you haven't explored yet, because the gameplay is fun and the mechanics are reasonably tight. But for me, the above issues made the constant sacrifice of my limited time to engage with the game on its terms too high a cost. [spoiler]The final boss for the main story line was also a massive disappointment, with there being two phases, the first of which requires none of the skills and abilities and powerups that you've learned throughout the game, and instead boils down to hurry up and wait. You walk/jump/swing left/right, avoid obstacles, and slowly whittle down the boss health bar as you wait for the game to dole out the item you need to attack the boss rather than being able to do it directly. After finally beating them, you then have a much more complicated phase with platforming, attack pattern memorization, and a bottomless pit below you to punish you for any mistakes. After three attempts and feeling my life trickle away on the first phase while having zero enjoyment or challenge, I turned on the infinite life accessibility option, walked my way through both phases, and then immediately quit for good once I found out that to actually complete-complete the game I was expected to collect every single level macguffin that I'd missed but been allowed to progress without.[/spoiler]

Rating as positive because there is a lot of fun to be had with this game, but if there was a "mixed" I probably would do that. The Pablo levels are extremely fun. The music and artwork that has gone into this game is fantastic. Level designs are often creative (admittedly sometimes to their detriment), and the interactions you can have with the NPCs in the stages are cute and funny. This game has a lot of charm to it and clearly had a lot of love poured into it, and when I'm having fun, its a lot of fun. However, Luna, in my opinion, is a bit of a mess. She feels cluttered to control, and her levels just don't do it for me. I particularly did not like "laser danger", but its a pretty global sentiment. I don't enjoy the multitasking expected of me to juggle an awkward moveset that feels like it actively works against me at times. Hence why I said I would probably leave a "mixed" review, as she takes up half of the game. I also think that the grapple and Luna's gun could do with a little more assistance from the game. I lot of parts that require timed grapple sendouts or shots from the gun feel really unforgiving, and a lot of the time I just feel more frustrated and even baffled that my attempt didn't connect. More fine tuning could go a long way for the gamefeel, I think. Overall, if you like 2D platformers that offer a decent challenge, and/or grapple hook gameplay, this is probably a solid buy. Just be prepared for speed bumps and slight annoyances mixed in.

Nice game, good to see that sequel polishes gameplay further. Sadly, on keyboard controls can be clunky at times. Personally, I think more innocent and carefree atmosphere of the first game felt better.

An improvement from the first game in every way. Better art, more varied gameplay and level design, and you can't skip entire worlds anymore. There's even skins now!

全実績済みです。 グラップルを使った操作が特徴的な、プラットフォーマーアクションです。 前作と大きく異なることとしては、自キャラが2人いることと、グラップル以外のアクションがいくつか追加されている点があります。 ゲームの難易度としては、ある程度ゲームをやっている人ならクリアに苦労することはない程度だと思います。 タイムアタックもありますが、最高ランクのタイムもかなり緩めに設定されています。 ●その他 ・ゲーム開始時にも出てきますが、PADでの操作がおすすめです。 ・言語を日本語設定時に一部の文字が文字化けしていて、言語設定の影響かはわかりませんが一部のテキストが画面外にはみ出て読めない部分があります。(ゲーム進行に影響はないです) ・ゲーム内コインを消費して自キャラの最大体力を上げることができますが、最後のボスを最大体力を一切増やさずに倒すという実績があるので、実績を集めている人は注意してください。 ・ステージ内にいるアヒルを見つけるという隠し要素がありますが、一部のステージはかなりわかりにくいところにあるので、実績を集めている人は適宜ガイドを参照すると良いと思います。 ・グラップルを上手く使うとかなりスピードが出るので、タイムアタックのリーダーボードとかがあったらおもしろかったかもと思います。 総評としてはかなりおすすめできるゲームです。

Eh, Luna sucks, and the game isn't really played enough to justify the level editor, just go play the first one.

This one is a mixed review for me, especially as someone who really enjoyed the original Grapple Dog to 100% completion. The grappling in this game feels heavier and less snappy than its predecessor. While you can rebind the grapple and talk buttons (my preference is Y to grapple and X to talk), unfortunately on controller Y is permanently bound to restart time trial levels, and as someone who likes to hold down the button to grapple it has been inconvenient to have to restart due to this oversight. I also didn't initially care for Luna's controls, but over time I got used to them as well. The level design, while good and honestly better than the original game, unfortunately to me was less memorable than it. Some of the featured level designs (like the desert one and Catsablanca) honestly feel underutilized compared to ones like Monkeytropolis or Stormrise. I would have loved to see something like the final main level of the original game, where Pablo and Luna are running through every dimension trying to save the multiverse, instead of two levels in He[strike]ll[/strike]kk and then the final boss. The boss fights, which were the best part of the original game imo, were just okay; many of which honestly seemed repetitive and bland compared to the original. In the original there was a dinosaur chase boss, a flying dragon boss, Nul's fight at the end (which was peak); here it's just "here's an enclosed arena with a boss, go fight it" - what really set me off was that Vyr's fight, the final boss mind you, was heavily anticlimactic. In addition, you can soft lock the game in the level editor by testing a level with nothing in it. Considering the fact that the ending of the first game basically sets this one up, if you want to continue with the story of the original game go ahead and get this - otherwise, just play the original.

A sequel that improves on it's predecessor in EVERY way. I have my issues with the original, but this one fixes all of that. Tight and solid level design; Incredible fun mechanics (I adore the elemental items); great visuals; and a bopping soundtracks. I can only really criticize that playing as Luna with her gun is sometimes difficult due when trying to both platform and shoot. As she plays like a twin-stick shooter, both aiming, firing, and platforming can be a dexterous and reflex challenge. Regardless, this is absolutely worth your time and money.