Grapple Caves

Grapple Caves is a physics adventure about one rope and a lot of dark. Fire the hook at the rock or at an anchor ring, the line pulls taut and you swing on a proper pendulum: reel in to climb, reel out to drop lower, and let go at the top of the arc to carry all that momentum across the gap. On solid ground you walk and hop, and your lantern lights the rock around you while the crystals glow in the distance.

Twelve hand-built caverns run across three biomes, from the purple Amethyst Hollows through the lava and steam of the Ember Depths to the Frost Vaults, where ice won't hold a hook. Bats knock you off your rope, geysers boost you up to high ledges, stalactites drop and shatter when you pass underneath, and moving platforms can be ridden or hooked. Deeper down come rope-cutting blades, magnet rocks that tug you through the air and wind tunnels that push you along. A lantern halfway through every cavern is your checkpoint, so a slip costs seconds, not the whole run.

Each cavern is a quick run of a minute or two with three stars to earn: every crystal, no falls and a time under par. Caverns unlock in order, and time trial lets you race a ghost of your best run, or the guide's line if you have not set one yet. Take it slow and relax with the echoing cave sounds, or chase a high score across all twelve. Mouse, keyboard or touch, and your progress is kept in your browser.