Game Review 2
Cuphead is a run and gun game that came out in 2017. This game focuses heavily on boss battles with a few run and gun levels. This game took a while to develop so it’s time to see how the game turned out. Cuphead is about Cuphead and his brother Mugman. They make a deal with the devil and are now in his debt. In order to keep their souls they go on a mission to collect boss’s soul contracts for the devil.
Now we can’t talk about Cuphead without mentioning it’s visuals. Cuphead is entirely hand drawn just like cartoons back in the 1900s. Think Tom and Jerry and the old Mickey Mouse cartoons. This gives the game a nostalgic look while also still looking really impressive by today’s standards. Most cartoons aren’t hand drawn anymore as it takes an absurd amount of time and effort which is why it’s so impressive to see this in a video game. It’s fair to say this is probably the reason the game took so long to develop. Either way the design is amazing and the animation looks super smooth and satisfying. It really feels like you’re playing through an old cartoon. The characters are goofy and even though most don’t appear outside boss battles they still have so much personality. It’s impressive how much personality can be shown just through boss battles and designs. The music in the game is also great. It’s mostly big band music and is not only catchy but also helps sell the fact that you’re basically playing a cartoon. The music would fit right into an old cartoon and is just in general really impressive music. Now I haven’t gotten into the gameplay yet but I needed to talk about the aesthetic of the game first as it’s incredibly impressive and sets the game’s tone.
Gameplay wise the game is very solid. You can move around, fire shots from your fingertips, dash, and parry pretty much anything that’s pink. The controls feel very tight and I always felt like I had control over the character. This is very good because the game doesn’t pull any punches. The game is definitely difficult but the controls are good enough that it never felt like it was the game’s fault I died. This helped encourage me to improve and each time you fight a boss you can feel yourself getting better. When you die it even shows you how far you got in the level. You can also buy different items from the shop with coins you get in the run and gun levels. These items can help with certain bosses so figuring out which items are best for which boss can help as well. The boss fights while hard are always super fun and creative. You never know what kind of boss you’re going to face next. Most if not all the boss’s are references to old cartoons but some are very obscure so don’t expect to get all the references. What’s cool though is that you don’t need to get the references to appreciate the bosses because they are all different and unique from what they are referencing. For example one boss is obviously a Tom and Jerry reference but the mouse is a German mouse that fights with contraptions. In this boss’s final stage a cat like Tom eats the mouse and you have to fight the cat only to realize that the mouse was controlling the cat as it was one of it’s contraptions. This boss is definitely a reference to Tom and Jerry but it’s also its own unique character that you can enjoy without any knowledge of Tom and Jerry. This is just one example but there are so many other creative bosses like a mermaid that turns into medusa, a clown that turns into carnival rides and a pirate and his living ship. There aren’t that many run and gun levels compared to the boss fights and while the boss fights are the highlight of the game the run and gun levels are still well designed and a nice break from the bosses.
Honestly the only negative thing I can think of about this game is that it can be pretty difficult so if you don’t have the patience then this might not be the game for you. I’d say to not try to play too much of the game in one go as you can definitely get burnt out by the difficulty. If you have the patience though and are up to the challenge then this game is definitely worth a shot.
