Cuphead (2017)

My first ever digital drawing! I just recently got a tablet and a pen and the first thing I doodled was Cuphead, for some reason. It's not even him, it's more like... Bowlboy or something. Posting this here so I can one day look back at how far I've come if I ever learn how to draw, like, Dixit cards or something.

I love this game, even if it is hard as balls. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though I will say I'm the only person I know who has actually beaten it. I also only know one other person who's played it, but that's beside the point. I have all but one achievement in this game, the last one being beat the game on expert which I have little desire to do at this point.

It feels obvious to say that Cuphead nails its aesthetic perfectly. I love watching the behind the scenes videos and seeing how much effort went into making this game traditionally. The animation is mesmerizing and the jazz soundtrack slaps.

My only complaint is that I wish this game was a bit more accessible. Or at the very least allow the game to be beaten on simple mode. It feels like an intentional slap in the face to include it and then not provide the option for the King Dice and Devil fights. I consider myself to be a competent platformer and I struggled with a lot of the stages in this game. I can't even imagine how challenging it would be for my family members. I feel like they should've fully implemented a simple mode and just make regular mode be a requirement for achievements or something so more people could enjoy this amazing game at a difficulty that is challenging but doable for them the way that regular mode was for me.

As for the DLC, all I really have to say is that I love Ms. Chalice and I thoroughly enjoyed the King's Landing.

NOTE: this includes the Delicious Last Course DLC.

Cuphead is a mix of potent, sometimes frustrating run and gun challenge with a healthy amount of options and some of the most stylish bosses ever to grace the genre.

The story is split into two parts - the first one, originally Don't Deal With the Devil, has two children with cup-shaped heads making a deal with the devil after losing a big gamble. Going from island to island, they battle bosses and obtain their soul contracts to return to him before one big last battle. As for Delicious Last Course, a mysterious chef is willing to create a dessert to help restore the body of an ally they happen across in their adventures, Ms. Chalice.

This means one to two player bouts with an additional option to play as Ms. Chalice - along with two types of equippable shots the kids have a charm they can equip for special effects, one that activates Ms. Chalice as a separate mode with added gameplay perks. Other than running and gunning the main mechanic for skilled play is a parry, which is either a flip or a dash that can nullify certain bullets/activate gameplay elements when timed correctly. Adding on that is a super meter that goes up during consistent damage to enemies or parry successes, meaning a good set of parries means a faster array of super moves. Items can be a little unbalanced at first (see: the smoke bomb that adds an invincible dash) but with Ms. Chalice available and an array of other challenges/bosses the player will want to switch up their moveset in case they have trouble.

And what trouble! For quick and repeatable stages the player will likely need to practice big time as bosses and regular enemies will make quick work of the player - randomly generated platforms can mean unlucky runs, various phases will switch up and provide a variety of unique challenges, and run and gun segments will get switched up with tricky horizontally scrolling shooters. This gets compounded upon with a unique board game style challenge near the end and DLC bosses that will already push the limit on an already challenging game.

This allows for the animations and sound design to shine, though - the biggest lure for players is a surreal and wacky art style based on 30s cartoons derived from all sorts of old greats (Fleischer Studios, Disney, MGM, Warner Bros, etc) with buttery smooth animations and plays on perspective that will easily be one of the most gorgeous 2D games out there. The jazz age inspiration can also be seen in the soundtrack, as a full jazz ensemble will add enough pizazz to fill in any fight with style.

Cuphead's only setback will be its random generation for design - in most cases the mix of attacks that can result will be fairly satisfying but bosses with a number of platforms in various RNG patterns will mean success is a gamble. Still, it's a small price to pay for one of the most engaging and rewarding run and guns I've seen this decade. If you've already played the main game long ago, come back for a Delicious Last Course too!

I never beat this game when it came out because the fight against the dragon with the clouds destroyed my soul and made me unable to feel happiness ever again. But I think now that I’ve recently beaten similar stuff like Alien Soldier, and seen the below impressive video, I am actually wanting to give it another shot soon… It was preeeeeetty amazing.

I’m 75% through the game and have exclusively been playing co-op with my 9-year-old son. He’s so much better at video games than me. He easily holds his own and often has to revive me multiple times during a fight. We often have to take breaks and talk about how losing makes us feel. And getting a Knockout! feels all the better with a buddy.

Oh, and the game is great too.

Welp, appears I'm once again remaining in the "this isn't as good as you all say it is" seat when it comes to the Cuphead DLC. While it's more of the same - and I already A ranked all the bosses aside from the final, and more on that in a second because it's important to my overall point - it's impressive the commitment to flawed design choices they insisted on keeping even while spending 5 years making additional content for the game.

The original game, despite definitely loving it, has a serious series of issues that plague it so badly that I refuse to consider it one of the best games of all time, as so many others seem comfortable doing, and those issues continue through this, especially in the final boss, which is outright impossible to visually comprehend. Cuphead has always had a problem with having simply too many moving pieces at any given time on certain bosses, and this is the worst offender of them all when it comes to that. And while it was a problem in the base game that could, more or less, be overcome (I did get A rank on everything and beat it on Expert after all), here it's actually detrimental to the game proper.

I don't know how else to say it, so I'll put it bluntly. When fighting the final boss, there's so much visual clutter and unnecessary movement that I actually legitimately cannot see MYSELF on the screen, let alone pay attention to anything else. Normally I'd be bummed about thusly never beating it and, thusly, being locked off from the remaining achievements as a result, but the thing is, I've already proven to myself via my Expert A rank run that I'm not the problem. The game is the problem. They STILL refuse to accept that there's no way a human being that isn't somehow spliced with a spider and thus has eight eyes can follow all that movement at once. The problem is on Cuphead, not me.

And this isn't the same as struggling against something hard like, say, The Devil, for instance. Yes the Devil is challenging, but it's the same as most of the game. Patterns. There's not too much going on on the screen there, and once you know the patterns and are quick enough, it's a breeze really. This is just outright bullshittery that takes away something that would otherwise be considered remotely "challenging" and replaces it with something more akin to "outright unfair and impossible to visually comprehend."

So yeah, the DLC is as good as the base game, and all the new bosses, guns and whatnot are great. But the problems that keep it from being a truly great game still mar it, and it seems like the developers will never even recognize it, sad to say.

...all that being said, I kinda wanna splice myself with a spider now and have eight eyes. That sounds cool as shit.

This is my third time starting Cuphead. I was planning to play it to completion "eventually", but I was always discouraged by the pressumed difficulty. "The Dark Souls of platforming games", they said.

That was bullshit.

This time, I had to complete it for real because I got a review code for the DLC and I just can't give it a fair pass without knowing the bricks this expansion is built on. I thought I was gonna end finishing in about a month or even two.

It took me three days. One more for the DLC.

I loved Cuphead. I already knew I was gonna like the animation stylized after cartoons of the 1930's to 50's, but I adored the difficulty curve and encounter designs too. I thought the DLC was gonna be more of the same and I was OK with that, but it actually surprised me with new and fun ways of using the same mechanics. Also, Ms. Chalice and the new weapons are fun and are kind of a new easy mode that doesn't erase what makes the bosses engagins.

You can read my full "impressions" of the DLC in GamerFocus. Its in spanish. As usual.

If the tales about the extreme difficulty of this game kept you from playing it, give it a chance. Its absolutely manageable. A few bosses have weird patterns and there are a few time you have to rely on luck, but that's kinda part of the fun.

I started it and enjoyed the animation and the art in general. The premise didn't do anything for me and the game just wasn't fun.

I only made it about 20% through the game (according to the save file) but I just have no desire to go back for more.

It's not a bad game. It's hard, but i think that's by design.

I'm glad that this game is out there and I'm sure it's someone's cup of tea....it's just not mine.

~David.

I found this game to be so charming and original. The style alone makes it memorable and unique. I have read about the amount of work done in this game and it shows with the animations and enemy types. Outside of the style the game also excels at gameplay that feels smooth and responsive, no bugs at all. Every time I died in this game, and boy did I die a lot, I knew why and how to improve from it. The gun and run stages were insanely difficult, the number of times I had to do those stages was way higher than boss fights! That leads me to my biggest struggle with this game, I suck! I died so much and it started to get to me, but that is not the game's fault. Overall, this is a great platformer, but if you aren't good you will struggle, this game is hard!

My boyfriend made me play this with him as Mugman and i cannot count how many times i swore in public, knocked my fists on the table, steam almost came out of my nose and i wanted to slam my head on the wall to end it all.

It was frustrating as hell. But the beautiful handdrawn artwork in traditional cartoon style, very cool yet eccentric character designs, tricky gameplays and my boyfriends encouragement for the nth time made me keep playing. Without a doubt, this game is for players with skill - prokikoys as Id like to call em! With some luck somehow, definitely not my skill, through the crazy flower, helicopter lady, idiot monkey, rapey cigar, king dice, we made it till the end! Woohoo! It was one of the most fulfilling games i have ever played even though i sucked big time.

Was it worth it? Heck yes! Would I want to play it again? Nyahahaha No way. Or ask me again in a few years.

Who needs "I Am Jesus Christ" when Cuphead already exists? Cuphead: the game that sees you overcoming the devil for yourself and your friend. It doesn't get more judeo-christian than that!

Cuphead is an excellent game that lacks features. You do (essentially) one thing: beat bosses. Sure, you're sometimes in a plane, and sure, you're sometimes in a not great platformer. But I'm not even going to waste time talking about anything but bosses. Ridiculously well animated and crafted with precision play in mind, the bosses are exceptional. I'm very excited for the Cuphead DLC that is hopefully coming next year just so I can dig in to maybe 10 more bosses?

The game oozes 1930s Max Fleischer and backs it up with killer sound design (I love the shop keeper) and bullet hell combat... But that's it.

I had some nitpicky notes (the load times are long on Switch, it isn't always clear what you can parry off of), but the real crime is that is all. I beat this game in maybe 6 hours and had a good time but like a worn out improviser, I found myself asking "what else?"

Regardless, I am very excited for the sequel where we defeat Super Beelzebub! That will certainly be Relevant's game of the year (2025)!

CUPHEAD is a hard game for me to review on a number of levels, and I hope to explain why as succinctly as possible. Please bear with me. First of all, I should let it be known right off the bat that I was excited for this game way back in 2013 when I first started hearing news and seeing early screenshots of it. I have always loved the old animation styles, and thought this was an extremely neat concept for a video game, so yes, from the get go, I was instantly attracted to the title. Because I don't own an Xbox One, I had to purchase the game on Steam, which is fine. It runs beautifully, all that jazz. However, after beating the 1st two worlds, I started to notice cracks in the mugs.

First of all, I'm just going to put this out there, this is by far the most playable unplayable game I've ever touched. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, most reviews call this one of the toughest games they've ever played. I think a lot of those reviews are coming from people who're being introduced to the side scrolling platforming genre for the first time in a mainstream way, as it sort of fell out of style for many years. Lots of others, like myself, who grew up playing side scrolling platformers, might feel differently. To be honest, I have gotten Bs on every level, on the regular setting, and nothing has felt too challenging, and this is because for a good portion of the game, it held itself to a singular belief: Accessibility.

Cuphead is interesting because it's teaching people that if you die, it's your fault. You messed up. There are patterns, and you didn't follow those patterns, and thus you failed. But I began to notice towards the end of the 2nd world that the developers started to break ties with the accessibility concept. Halfway through one of the boss battles, I noticed that the 2nd part of the battle had no pattern, and yet the end part of the battle had a pattern again. Now, one could've made the argument that their idea was to introduce the concept of patterns and then slowly phase them out throughout the game, creating more chaos and randomness and making it actually about skill instead of just following the patterns given to you to attain victory, and I would've agreed with that, EXCEPT, one would expect they would've phased those out throughout the entire game. They wouldn't have started phasing it out in a single boss battle, halfway through said battle, and then reintroduced a pattern again at the end of that exact same battle. That isn't what they're doing, and by the 3rd world, they've all but basically turned the game to being about luck.

Yes I recommend Cuphead, but with some severe asterisks attached, because there are some crucial, just barely glaring flaws that stop it from being simply a challenging game and turn it into a "youtube rage video" experience, because I guess hits and notoriety is better than simple word of mouth because the product itself is great. The game is total style over substance, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially here, because they nailed the style while still making a totally enjoyable title, but I cannot simply say something is worth it without pointing out the problems it has as well. I'm sorry. That's not a review. That's just kissing ass. You have to take the good with the bad, and thankfully, despite the problems, Cuphead is mostly good, and very little bad, but that very little bad can become quickly irritating.

Cuphead was worth the wait, it was worth playing through, but there's just some things holding me back from completely loving it. I am glad I played it, and I would totally tell others to play it as well, but to be aware of these things, because once they sneak up on you the way they did to me, it made what started as an enjoyable experience become downright frustrating and not fun. In fact, a good portion of the third world and the ending was pretty much not enjoyable at all. All the good bits were still there, the music was still great, art design, it played well enough, but the sudden spike in difficulty with no warning whatsoever and the complete and utter near disappearance on patterns give or take a battle here and there made the last sections of the game wholly unrewarding.

Please don't think I'm bashing Cuphead, because I'm not. I'm just trying to give an unbiased review. I did like it, a LOT. But there were things I also disliked a LOT about it. But thankfully, as I said, the things I liked far outweighed the things I didn't, as irritating as they might've been. So yeah, buy the game, play the game, and hopefully enjoy the latter half more than I did. I am happy, I have to admit, to see this style of gameplay come back into vogue on such a big level and I hope we get more things like this. The brightness of the world these characters inhabited was so much better to look at than the grey, drab appearance of basically everything else out there these days, and there was a "story" as much as there was a story in any old Genesis title. It was there, but it wasn't at the absolute forefront. It just gave access to a pretty enjoyable title.

Cuphead, for all its chips and broken handles, was definitely worth playing. I'm just glad I'll probably never have to play it again.

I love cartoons. Disney, Looney Tunes, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Hannah Barbera, Pixar, Dreamworks, Ghibli; pretty much everything.

I want to be an animator and hope one day the opportunity will arise where I can make my dream a reality. My love for animation brings me to observe today's modern landscape of animated features and video games and I have noticed a trend: Computer animation has all but taken over.

Games and movies these days are always made using 3-D computer-generated graphics. It wasn't always this way. Before Pixar introduced its software technology capable of producing 3-D images and animation, most of animated media was done with 2-D hand-drawn animation.

This style is nearly extinct in Western animation. This year a video game produced by a small studio titled "Cuphead" has taken the internet by storm. It captivated audiences with its absurd level of difficulty and addictive and rewarding gameplay. It captivated me with what was the first and only example of hand-drawn 2-D animation in a video game that harkens back to the 1930s; when animation was just hitting its stride as mainstream entertainment.

It makes me a little bit emotional and hopeful that 2-D animation may return to the big screen in the future.

Cuphead's visuals are energetic and full of charm. Each character has next to no dialogue yet how they move and the expressions they make fill them to the brim with personality. The game manages to stay consistent with its 1930s art style while also keeping a vast diversity among its designs, each one unique and imaginative.

Cuphead and Mugman are simple in design but ultimately are distinguished and easy to recognize as they take inspiration from Mickey Mouse, but combined with the animation, successfully come to life with a roaring expression of their own identity. I can easily see these two on a tee-shirt; they are cute, full of charm, and really marketable.

The same goes for the rest of the varied and memorable cast. The game is worth the price of admission just to see the art in motion and the gorgeously stunning backdrops that accompany the masterfully crafted chaos on screen.

Everyone knows that film doesn't just tell its story through visuals but also through music to establish mood and invoke emotion. Cuphead as a game has its #1 priority set to "emulate the 1930s" so it makes all too much sense to have the soundtrack a bombastic blend of jazz and swing performed with live instruments.

Music was important to those who worked on this game, as much as the animation and they created some of the most toe-tappingly mesmerizing pieces I have ever heard in a game. Every song puts me in a state of hypnosis, I can't stop myself from whistling, humming, and rocking back and forth in my seat.

It annoys my family to say the least. What makes it worse for them is that I played Cuphead with my younger brother so he is humming too. "Die House" is the closest I have ever experienced to a Disney villain song in a video game and I sing it every day.

Alright, let's say you are not convinced that Cuphead is worth your time, that you have crossed eyes and a tin ear and can't appreciate the art and music from Cuphead. Well, luckily the game is actually good as a game. Cuphead is a run-and-gun platformer in the same vein as Contra and Metal Slug except the focus is on boss battles.

This fits into the story of the game, which is simple: Cuphead and Mugman are children who wander into the Devil's casino and gamble away their souls. In order to save themselves, they must collect the soul contracts of those who owe the Devil. These debtors to the Devil are the aforementioned bosses.

To beat them you just shoot them while dodging their attacks. Some attacks and enemies are pink, which means they can be parried, which is done by pressing the jump button when in the air.

A successful parry grants the player some of their special meter which allows them to perform a special attack, which does big damage. The special meter is also filled by dealing damage and when it's full the player can unleash an ultimate move.

There are 3 ultimate moves that can be unlocked by beating Mausoleum sections in the game. In the Mausoleum you must defeat waves of pink ghosts that can only be put down by parrying them.

Sometimes boss stages have you in an airplane and the level becomes a side-scrolling bullet hell shoot-em-up.

There are also the optional Run and Gun stages that have coins for the player to collect.

Coins are hidden throughout the overworld and can be unlocked by completing certain tasks. Coins can be spent on Charms which add a special effect like increased health or you can buy new weapons that have their own specials. These upgrades are super useful, especially in a game as hard as this one.

The news articles and Youtube videos are all correct in their reports: CUPHEAD IS A HARD GAME. You will die over and over and over and over and over. If you play this game with a pal (or bro) the game is even more difficult because the boss' health increases. One of the coolest and cruelest features is when you die on a stage or boss fight, the game tells you how close you were to winning.

This is the game's way of indirectly encouraging you: "Look how close you were, you for sure can make it next time!" or teasing you: "Hah! You didn't even make it past the boss' first stage! Better luck next time, loser!" When you do win you are given a grade based on how long it took you to win, your health remaining, your amount of parries, and amount of super used.

This adds to replayability quite a bit, as well as getting the P or Pacifist grade when you beat a stage without firing a single shot, which unlocks Black and White mode. Another stat that affects your grade is Skill which is based off whether you beat the stage on Simple, Regular or Expert (which unlocks after you beat the game I believe). This is where a lot of people have a problem with Cuphead: Simple mode is useless. Why? You do not receive a soul contract upon defeating a boss in simple mode and therefore cannot progress through the game.

The Simple mode provides only practice and early shortcut unlocks to access some other parts of the world. This has sparked controversy in the gaming community: Is Cuphead A Bad Game For Locking Content From Less Skilled Players Or Is Cuphead Great Because It Forces Players To Improve Before Progressing? It is an interesting discussion and I can see arguments for both sides and I would have to say I agree more so with the latter statement.

WARNING! INCOMING RANT!

Cuphead provides a challenge in a way that requires the player to spend a longer than average amount of time memorizing level layouts, enemy placements, and boss attack patterns. This is exactly why Cuphead is so often compared to Dark Souls: they both ask players to put in the same kind of work to progress.

If you are somebody who is not willing to learn and improve while playing Cuphead, then look at it this way: Cuphead was put together over a span of years by a small group of passionate individuals who suffered financial and emotional hardship in order to pursue their dream of creating a video game from their hearts.

Years of grueling work to deliver this game to you, inviting you to experience what their passion and determination yielded. No, you should not have your money back, you should either move on to something else or don't buy the game in the first place. This should be the same with any game and it is no different for Cuphead.

RANT OVER.

The challenge presented in Cuphead is fair; it is honestly just like every other game. Practice makes perfect, you die, you learn, you get better and you win. The difficulty only makes it that much more satisfying to win and no, the game is not cheap or unfair... for the most part. The game is extremely fun and addictive and winning causes side effects such as: Euphoria, Insane Laughter and or Yelling, Breaking Embarrassing Dance Moves, Fist Pumping, and Crying With Joy...

But the game has one glaring problem: IT IS BUGGY AS HELL. I lost my save twice due to a bug that causes the save you were the last playing to be deleted if you shut down your computer when the game is completely frozen.

The game was lagging extensively and freezing when I had my DS4 tool enabled (which shouldn't happen, it works fine with other games). There are also bugs that cause you to get hit for no reason, especially in the final boss fight. As of typing none of these bugs have been fixed which sucks, but it's fine, you should really just remember to backup up your saves manually.

With that out of the way all I can say is that Cuphead was a blast to watch, hear and play. The creativity, imagination, and passion behind all of it are enough to warrant a purchase but in addition to challenging, fluid, and rewarding gameplay further reinforces Cuphead as a milestone in modern gaming. Reminding us of the entertainment of the past while entertaining us now in the present. This game also brought me in my brother together for some of our happiest and saddest (really, back up your saves) memories we will remember for a long time.