I played the first Grapple Dog game about a month ago, and was really excited to see the new one coming out so soon. It did everything I wanted out of a sequel to the game and then some, easily making it both an awesome follow-up and...probably just one of my favorite games of all time now?

Things I love:

• The platforming is what the game sells itself on obviously, and it delivers. I feel like it has the best of both worlds when it comes to both more precision based platformers and more momentum based platformers. Lining up your shot (grapple or gun) is really satisfying because you tend to move at a really specific speed with really straightforward jump arcs. But then getting the perfect swing is when the magic happens, whether you're trying to reach somewhere specific and out of the way, or trying to get a massive burst of speed by flinging off at just the right time. Both characters have a ton of fun tools that play around this dynamic, and in different ways.
  
  
• The game does something I absolutely love, which is that it makes the games different challenges unique in a cool way that inspires me to do them all. The grapple itself and all the different tools you get with each character play extremely well for both exploration and gaining speed, and it makes combing over the stages for collectibles and going for time trials nearly feel like two totally different games. For example, those bursts of speed you can get from a perfect grapple aren't something you're normally going to want to do while combing a stage, so getting the gold on time trials really gives that side of the mechanic a chance to shine.
  
  
• The writing is always either funny or wholesome in a way that makes the entire adventure ridiculously charming. There's optional conversations in each stage, and you're going to want to do all of them just because the main characters and everyone you talk to are always fun. (Bonus points for making the main characters react so different to the same NPCs)
  
  
• On a related note, the story is more than you would expect from a game with a name like Grapple Dogs. It's very character driven, so on top of getting a ton of great moments from a lot of lovable characters, the game digs into themes of questioning what the "right" thing to do is through the lens of different characters trying to deal with the same problem from a different perspective. It can even get heavy at times, but nothing ever feels tonally out of place.
  
  
• The graphics and music sell themselves lol. While I was playing through, I kept calling the the graphics "GBA/DS coded" and the music "Hideki Naganuma coded" (the devs at least aren't shy about the latter being the case). That said, the soundtrack has more variety than I expected. When its not extremely funky, its either really cool and serious guitar, or really comfy/ethereal music that almost reminds me of old PC game soundtracks.
  
  
• If you played the first game, it solves the number one major issue I had with it. The first game often lacked variety - you were stuck with the same music and stage theme for stages on end, especially if you were trying to 100% things before moving on. That, and the gameplay only evolved so much over the course of the game, outside of usually minor environment gimmicks and platforming difficulty. As a sequel, this game improves on all of that. Way more music with more variety, constantly jumping stage themes, and not only is the new main character Luna an amazing and fun change of pace, but Pablo having a lot of new abilities adds the perfect amount of variety (which is especially good because they're literally all super fun).

Minor complaints that shouldn't be a dealbreaker, but I still feel are worth pointing out:

• As fun as it is to 100% the game, I feel the collectibles are one thing the first game handled a bit better. Both had a natural radar to them: The fruit (which were needed in the first game for extra gems in stages, similar to Crash 4) were a good test of focusing on the paths they made, and missing gems could be found because they're checked off in order (ie, if you found the last two gems, the first will be grayed out, meaning you look in the first third of the level). While this game handles the gems the same way, the chests and bands being standalone collectibles means combing a stage from top to bottom for the one thing without really knowing if you're wasting your time looking in the wrong place.
  
  
• I could see Luna's gameplay style being a little overwhelming to more casual players. The comparison I liked to make is that Pablo was the Nero to Luna's Dante: She can make you feel ridiculously powerful and cool when you get used to stringing her stuff together, but sometimes you've gotta really dance around that controller to make it happen. Meanwhile, Pablo is a fair bit more straightforward to just zip around and platform with.
  
  
• I also agree with some reviews that mention how gamebreaking Luna's movement can be at times. Extremely fun? Absolutely. With good timing, you can string together near infinite height while iframing yourself across the stage. but this does inherently take away some of the tighter, simpler designed ideas Pablo is forced to deal with by being more grounded...including the grapple itself, which I could see being a major downside to her playstyle to some. That said, I still really adored her more unique playstyle and thought her tools were really cool to work with, and it does help that you're forced to slow down if you're trying to collect everything, since her movement DOES make exploration really fun.

Overall, please buy this game. If you saw the any single moment of platforming in the trailers that looked really satisfying to pull off, I promise it feels even more satisfying when you're actually doing it. The game had me constantly stopping and saying "oh hell yeah that felt cool", all while being in a super charming package with a cool sense of style from top to bottom. Even the small negatives I had with the game weren't anywhere near close enough to stop me from feeling like I wanted to do every single challenge the game had to offer.

A superb sequel to a hugely overlooked masterful platformer, Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canynes is more of the smooth platforming goodness from the original game, with sugar on top.
Luna, the new character, feels significantly different enough from Pablo to justify her existence (in fact, she might be a bit OP even, in comparison to Pablo) and her gunplay is surprisingly fun.

More of this please!

This will be updated when I complete the game.

I was a pretty outspoken fan of the first Grapple Dog, and I treated the game a bit like a joke, because I found it to be surprisingly well constructed, especially in level design. This stood in harsh contrast to what I expected, so I was pleasantly surprised to say they least.

When I heard about the sequel, I immediately knew I was all in.

The game... DOES deliver.
So far I've really enjoyed the new game. The new mechanics are really fun. Although, I find all the new dashing and traversal powers to muddy the simplicity and actual GRAPPLING from the first game. For this reason I actually look forward to Pablo's (original grapple dog) stages more so then the new character Luna, even though Pablo gets a lot of new abilities.

I think some of the greatest stages in both games are the challenge stages, which I would love to see a lot more of, when things feel a little more "bite-Sizeable," the game really sings.

I also appreciate the hidden band secrets, but I feel the elimination of fruit completion for a "finishing" of a stage was an odd choice, as it feels like exploration to find the fruits is WAY less rewarding.

So far, I really do enjoy the game, and the physics upgrade is MASSIVE to really enjoying the platforming.
This comes HIGHLY recommended, especially for the price point they released at.

Tons of character, great style, top design, and has tight and intuitive platforming.

Give it a go.