188 times. 188 times I died while playing Cuphead across the game's 19 bosses, six run 'n' gun stages, and three mausoleum trials before finally beating it on Normal. Never across any of those deaths, though, did I ever become frustrated or angry. I only desired to dig my heels in deeper, and my addiction for that game only grew as each subsequent boss or level offered up a tempting new challenge. Cuphead's mix of brilliant presentation, simple to learn but difficult to master gameplay, and ever-increasing difficulty has cemented it for me personally as a personal bet on the entire year contender.
Cuphead tells the tale of two plucky protagonists named Cuphead and Mugman. While exploring their house of Inkwell Isle, they stumble into the Devil's Casino and therefore are getting the time of their young lives. In fact, they do very well at Craps the Devil himself is dependant on watch the boys play-and then means they are an offer they cannot refuse. If Cuphead wins around the next roll, he and Mugman can get all the casino's riches; if he loses, however, their souls become the property from the Devil. Cuphead give in to the temptation, and of course the roll comes up snake eyes. While pleading for his or her very souls, the Devil sees potential in Cuphead and Mugman, and-more importantly to him-an opportunity. He offers the boys one further chance: function as his debt collectors and collect the souls of everybody else that owes him on Inkwell Isle, and he'll let them free. Easy right?
Stylistically, Cuphead is a truly gorgeous game. Its visuals harken back to the 1930s cartoons of Fleischer Studios (originally known as Inkwell Studios within the 1920s and paid homage using the name of the world, Inkwell Isle), who were best known for Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons. You will find little scratch marks on each “frame”, similar to you would see during the past on original animation cels. This classic look originated from the truth that everything in Cuphead was similarly hand drawn after which scanned into computers. It's no wonder then the game was delayed so long, especially when it shifted from primarily being a boss rush title to include some run 'n' gun segments, but the wait continues to be worth it.
Cuphead's music similarly draws its inspiration from almost A century ago. Big band orchestras play fitting themes for each boss and section of Inkwell Isle. More haunting themes fill your ears against ghost trains, while more carnival-driven fare pumps using your speakers against crazed clowns. (The most popular theme is King Dice's, who can serve as the gatekeeper between each section of the Isle.) There's even a barbershop quartet that is happy to shortly serenade Cuphead and Mugman if you can place the band together again in the game's overworld.
Where Cuphead excels even more than its art motif, though, is within its gameplay. As somebody who cut his teeth on games like Mega Man and Contra growing up, I immediately felt at home within the run 'n' gun style Cuphead offers up-even if it still leans more heavily around the boss rush aspects of its original premise (whether on the floor or even in the air). Each boss has multiple forms, and there's definitely a trial-and-error aspect to everything as you learn how the bosses move and attack. There is however still a genuine test of skill here which makes it even more enticing. While each boss has a certain number of attacks-and there are several patterns apparent with each-there can also be always some randomness, too, forcing you to definitely still think on your feet.
A perfect example of this comes very early on using the Ribbit Brothers, one of the game's first bosses. Although their first two forms are rather straightforward, their final form generally is that of a slot machine which will attack you three different ways-but there's no way of telling what this way will be until the wheels on their own face stop spinning. This is the first, but far from the final, example of Cuphead forcing you to adjust to what it throws at you in the moment, going beyond simple pattern recognition.
And if you feel the game's co-op feature (in which a second player controls Mugman) can make things easier, you would be mistaken. It seems sensible that a boss's health scales upward with two characters on screen, so both players need to be on their own game to try to get past each boss. One neat feature if a person character dies, though, is there is a last opportunity to save them where you can parry (pressing the jump button again at the perfect time) off the ghost of the fallen comrade to provide them one health point back. However, I'm saying this from experience: be careful when selecting your co-op partner. If all you're doing is jumping in it in order to save their life, it gets old quick.
Cuphead also succeeds in giving the gamer agency enough to find their own way of beating bosses. Even though you start the sport with the straightforward Peashooter, you can buy weapons and powers from coins found usually in hard to reach places within the game's six run 'n' gun stages from Porkrind the Pig's store to expand Cuphead and Mugman's arsenals. Personally, i found multiplication Shot-which fires short-range projectiles in three directions, sort of like a shotgun-to be the most popular, but there's also homing shots, bouncing shots, as well as shots that fire in one direction and then change like a boomerang to sail back how they came. You can also get special boosts at Porkrind's, like coffee that will continuously fill your special meter, or extra health that comes at the sacrifice of attack power. Mixing, matching, and finding your favorite combinations to fit your play style is crucial to beating Cuphead, but it's also part of the fun.
One of my most pleasant surprises using the game, though, came in the form of the Mausoleum challenges. You will find three haunted mausoleums on Inkwell Isle, and also the best way to bust all of the ghosts inside is to use the parry move ahead each of the pink poltergeists. It is a fantastic way to really perfect this important move that you'll need later against the game's hardest bosses, and clearing each mausoleum gives you one of three special moves (like temporary invincibility) which are only available when your special meter is completely full. I just wish there were a few more of those round the island, because much more than the six run 'n' gun stages, they were a really fun change of pace given no shooting was involved whatsoever.
The only issue I ever had with Cuphead was that there were a few small glitches. Over my 188 lives, there have been exactly two instances (about 1.1% of times) in which a boss would freeze up in the form that it was in. That allowed me to just wail away because it didn't attack me for some reason until it shifted to its next phase, unless it was already in the final phase-at which point it simply died. It had been a weird hiccup if this happened without a doubt, and I have no idea no matter what caused it. I'm certain I'd likely have a few more deaths, too, had this not occurred twice, however it never really took from the fun of the game, nor made it happen affect my score against each boss negatively. Consider you unlock Expert mode after beating the sport on normal, I'd ample reason to return to try to beat each boss properly anyway.
Cuphead is an absolute gem of the game. My playthrough on normal only took about 8 hours to complete, there is however replayability with looking to get high scores on each boss and coming back to check out the 3 difficulty levels. The gameplay is incredibly tight, and every boss offers up new stuff whose addictiveness is only trumped with that feeling of accomplishment when you beat it. The art style is completely magnificent, and the world is filled with little secrets that will have you searching every nook and cranny. There might be a glitch here or there, however they are never something so frustrating that will make you need to turn the game off. Actually, I may never turn Cuphead off, period. It has been quite a long time since I've had this much fun having a game, as well as in my book, Cuphead is an instant classic.
