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]

Terrible. Had to refund. Changes all of the good physics of the first game. Would not recommend, play the first game.

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.

Competent and welcome sequel with interesting gameplay ideas that doesn't make it just "more of the same". If anything I miss some elements of the first. The Pablo levels felt easier than the previous game, with less moments where you can use the grapple's momentum physics to skip ahead. Levels seem tuned to not let you do that anymore and more focused on the platforming using the new abilities. So in a way it was refreshing because it forced me to engage with the levels on their terms, but it also makes the momentum, one of the strenghts of the first game, moot. The grapple kinda takes a backseat on equal footing to other mechanics, so when you don't have any powerup it can feel a bit dull for someone who played the first game. Luna's moveset is a bit convoluted, your thumb can either stay on the right stick to aim, or stay on the buttons to jump/dash. For the most part the level design doesn't require you to transition from one to the other too fast. However some secrets do and you'll need to swap quickly for time trials too. Snapping the stick down to shoot downwards to slow my fall would often result in an "up" input for one frame and ruin my jump. Thankfully I could change my deadzone settings on my 8bitdo controller but I think the dev could fix that so it rejects that bounce-back input. Also the levels where you're supposed to dash through lasers felt at odds with the speedrun aspects of the game. Since the dash recharges slower than the pacing of the lasers, meaning you have to sit still for a split second which breaks the flow. I enjoyed the story, even if the theme felt heavy-handed the dialogue was snappy and jokes made me smile many times. I'm so glad it didn't turn into a "Revenge Bad" plot. Small nitpick: I really wish the transitions didn't fade into pure white screen every single time. Playing on a big TV is blinding and it comes off as visually cheap. For 100% completion there's a bigger emphasis on exploration but the mechanics and camera doesn't really work in your favor. Trying to go off-course while stalling gravity gets old, yet that's what you need to do for a few collectibles so I had to try to abuse this everywhere or risk missing something. I also had to grind replaying levels after completing all achievements just to buy every cosmetic from the shop, so the hook pricing could be reduced a tiny bit. They could all be 10 fruits cheaper, there's so many nobody is going to use them all, it just felt like padding. Overall mixed feelings, it's a flawed game that I'd still recommend.

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.

A nice sequel! I'm looking forward to what's next for Joseph 😄

Great 2D platformer. Even better than the first. Loved all the new additions. But its weird that you still can't backtrack in levels. Other than that, its a solid 9/10.

GRAPPLE DOGS: COSMIC CANINES As the sequel to Grapple Dog from 2022, Cosmic Canines had a tough act to follow up on. Besides some minor problems with gameplay, Grapple Dog was a remarkably solid platformer that more than stood amongst it's indie peers as a pretty solid title. Thankfully, Cosmic Canines steps up to the challenge and smashes it beyond all reasonable doubt. GAMEPLAY Super fast and snappy, showing VERY clear improvements from the original game. Momentum is no longer tied to consistent movement, making for much more reasonable traversal and WAY more interesting Time Trial runs. The addition of Luna and the powerups serve to add refreshing shake-ups to the formula whilst blending in well with the rest of the player's kit, making sure that nothing feels out of place. PRESENTATION The art work is as stunning as ever, each level and character popping with vibrant and expressive detail. The music is a major step up, even with the original's killer jams, with the sheer amount of high quality tracks peppered throughout the game. REPLAYABILITY/COMPLETIONISM The game consistently rewards players who go the extra mile for collectibles and challenges. Alternate skins for characters, alternate skins for the player hooks and a BEVY of super fun side missions serve to make for a fun trip for 100% CONCLUSION While the original Grapple Dog is fantastic in it's own right, Cosmic Canines serves to take a massive step for the series with a massive layer of polish. I have no problem saying that this has become one of my favorite indie games ever. FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

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!

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