Cuphead Review
Good day for a swell battle!
Don’t be fooled by the cute designs: these characters have been through absolute hell.
Generally speaking, I consider myself an adequate gamer. Given enough time, there are relatively few games I can’t beat. “Easy” Modes are not for me.
Cuphead made me feel like an incompetent gamer, then a decent gamer, and then a damn-fine gamer. And that journey is what made Cuphead such a damn fine game.
So what is Cuphead all about? Well, the story is about a pair of cartoon cup brothers (Cuphead in red, and Mugman in blue) who gamble their souls away to the Devil and need to collect his soul contracts or go to Hell themselves. That’s right. The cute little faces above are staring down eternal damnation. Welcome to video games.
Visually, the game is all about old-fashioned “rubber hose” animation. This is the kind of early, hand-drawn Disney/Betty Boop animation where cartoon characters are constantly bouncing up and down to remind you that these are the newest thing on the block: moving pictures. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The models are all hand-drawn and it really feels like you’re being placed in control of a classic cartoon.
When I wasn’t constantly worried about dying, I was admiring the backgrounds and expressiveness of each character.
In terms of gameplay, this game is a repeated punch in the face. In each level, you can get hit between three and five times before you die. Bosses have four or more separate stages of fast, crazy attacks to dodge, blast, or parry with split-second timing. You die? You start the fight all over. The fights are only a couple of minutes long each, but they are so dangerous and challenging that you’ll have to go back over and over again to beat them. This game is bonkers difficult. If you want to beat the game, you need to learn the bosses, the power-ups, and the patterns, honing your skills until you get to the glorious Knockout! screen at the end of each fight.
Just remember to avoid the feathers, birds, and exploding eggs. That’s just the first half of the fight, by the way.
The excitement and visuals are bolstered by a phenomenal, jazzy soundtrack. It’s mellow and cheery in between fights and explosive and energetic the second the action kicks off. Check out a recording of just one of the games tracks below.
This game is truly of a work art. It captures the art, heart, and surprising darkness of old-school animation (think the transformation scene in Dumbo), sets it all to a fantastic soundtrack, and puts it all together with a challenge to make even the most experienced gamers sweat. It is hard. You will fail dozens if not hundreds of times before you finish. It’s kind of a shame that the level of difficulty means a lot of people won’t be able to enjoy all the work put into the latter parts of the game. But if you beat the game, and, just to be clear:
This Just in, Calvin Sharpe Beat Cuphead!
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This Just in, Calvin Sharpe Beat Cuphead! 〰️
If you beat this game, the sense of accomplishment is phenomenal. When the Devil himself can’t stop you, it’s hard not to feel like you can take on the world.
Cuphead is an experience like no other, and better yet, an experience about to expand with a new DLC collection this summer. And while it’s not for the faint of heart, Cuphead succeeds at everything it sets out to do. 5 lost souls out of 5.