There’s a lot I really, truly dig about El Gancho, the grappling hook-based 2D platformer from SidralGames. I like the game’s catchy, synth-y music. The colorful, minimalistic pixel graphics are also definitely my jam. And the gameplay concept is pretty cool. It’s the final product I had a bit of a problem with. But hopefully that’s just me, because this seems like the type of weird little niche game that could totally win over an audience.
In El Gancho, the goal is simple: You play as a dinosaur-looking character and move through levels using your grappling hook to find and collect/save other dinosaur-looking characters. The game is procedurally-generated, so enemies, obstacles, and dinosaurs are never in the same places. You’ll have to scour each level horizontally and vertically to find your dino pals. Again, this is all pretty decent in terms of the game’s main goal.
There’s actually quite a bit of verticality in El Gancho, which makes you put your grappling hook to use pretty much the entire time. The problem I had, however, was that the game’s controls just didn’t feel right. I played the game on my Nintendo Switch, where you use the L button to jump and the R button to shoot your grappling hook to visible ledges and platforms. You can use either the left stick or the D-pad to move, while aiming is done using the right stick.
Admittedly, the use of L to jump feels quite awkward at first, but that’s not even a major problem once you get used to it. The issue is that both the character animations and the input feel off. It never felt like I was able to aim properly at a ledge to shoot my grappling hook. Jumps are floaty and inaccurate, too, leading to missed jumps way too often.
There are also enemies and turrets that can harm you. These are best left avoided, even though you have a gun with limited ammo. Firing your weapon, like jumping, just doesn’t feel precise. In addition, when you jump or swing from your hook, a star-like trail will follow behind you — this can also defeat enemies if it touches them, but it never quite makes much of an impact. It’s really not even worth it to try and beat the baddies.
In addition to the main mode in El Gancho, there’s also a challenge mode that uses preset stages. The goal is similar in all of these, tasking you with reaching the end of the level, but you’ll be faced with specific caveats, like dealing with the same enemies in one stage or being required to reach the end of another without your signature grappling hook. The idea of these challenges is certainly decent, but due to the imprecise controls, these quickly become frustrating, too.
Here’s the kicker, though — for all of its weird, inaccurate, and wonky physics and controls, it totally feels like there’s an audience for El Gancho. It’s almost like something from a bygone era, really. This very well could have fit right in on the NES, or maybe the Commodore 64. As such, I could totally picture a bunch of ‘80s game fans hunched over their screens building an intense love/hate relationship with this game.
Alternatively, I’d personally love to see folks stream some El Gancho gameplay and show me how to really play it. Sadly, I couldn’t get around the handling and controls to ever move around the levels with any sort of grace. But I’m almost certain there are a few players out there who can swing around stages using that grappling hook quickly and efficiently.
So if you’re up for it, and you’re down to master a game that’s far from perfect but that has some really cool art and music, maybe check out El Gancho. Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to recommend this game to anyone other than people who are willing to put in some work to master the fairly janky physics and controls.
