You Found The Grappling Hook

You gotta pledge to Messhof, the man drops games like they're blog posts. You Found The Grappling Hook is so retro, yet so crisp, a re-imagining of the old grapple-hook mechanic done with post-modern irony.

You're a little horned dude running around a blocky cave. You've got a grappling hook. You can use this grappling hook with the same button you use to jump, "X", which blends nicely since you're going to be doing long hangs, swings, and climbs to get around the game's 10 screens. Along the way, you'll find some winged boots that allow you to hover by pushing Z, and a pick-ax that allows you to harvest gold for a high score, using the same button. Once you get that ax, the cave starts to collapse, so you've got a greed/survival dynamic to consider as you escape. This avaricious dilemma is totally appropriate considering that you're playing a creature with golden horns -- Moloch in other words, the demi-god epitome of mechanization and exploitation of natural resources. Or maybe Messhof was riffing Ico, whatever.

This is a game premised on a single mechanic, wearing it on its sleeve, that manages to come up with a clever twist at the end. The ghost's bizarre texts and the completely tangential ending complete the package. Well played Messhof, well played.