Cuphead is a game that as soon as you see it for the first time, you can't take your eyes off of it. The first glimpse of it's fluid Walt Disney and Max Fleischer inspired animation in motion leaves you wanting to see more of it and for years all we had were glimpses. This look that couldn't be beat, coupled with the the knowledge that it was intended to be a game comprised largely of boss fights caused some concern that the game couldn't live up to the lofty expectations that we were placing on it year after year. Now, finally, it is safe to say that those fears were over nothing, as Cuphead is everything that was advertised. It is beautiful, it is a boss fight game, and it is brutally difficult.
Titular hero Cuphead and his fantastically named brother Mugman have run afoul of the devil himself playing craps in his casino and now must collect the contracts for the souls of the other residents of Inkwell Isle who also owe the devil, or their own souls will be forfeit. This set-up leads you into three 'worlds' of increasingly tougher bouts with the colourful denizens of the island, as well as some scattered platforming "run and gun" levels. Yes, after the initial consternation at the idea of a game with nothing but boss fights, there were some more traditional 2D platformer levels included in the final game, but they hardly make or break the it one way or the other. Honestly, if the game had come out without these six stages, I wouldn't think any less of it, nor would I believe too many people now think significantly higher of it because of them (but that's just me guessing).
No, while those levels are fine, the real fun of Cuphead is all in the spectacle of the boss fights. With a total of seventeen, not counting the finale, that may not seem like a lot of content, but that's before you realize it may take countless tries to beat some of these guys. Cuphead is not for the faint of heart, it is a crushingly difficult game at times. There were moments - especially near the end - where I genuinely wondered if I would even be able to see it through. You have a jump, a dash, and you start with a basic peashooter of a projectile attack that shoots in a straight line in whatever direction you're aiming. As you progress and collect the coins scattered in the run and gun levels, you'll have access to a shop where you can purchase more types of weapons - of which you can equip two at a time - as well as charms, passive buffs you can equip one of at a time like making your dash invincible, giving you an extra hit point, or causing your meter to fill faster. Speaking of the meter, you have a five section 'super meter' of sorts which can be spent for better attacks. Using one section of your meter will allow you to do one better attack, with each of the six weapons having their own version, whereas building the meter up to it's max of five will allow you to use your equipped Super Move. While there are only three of these in the game, they can be invaluable in certain situations. I personally never looked back once I acquired the invincibility Super, allowing for a brief few precious seconds completely impervious to damage.
In addition to the running, jumping, and shooting, there is also a parry system where you can press the jump button again on any pink object in the game to parry it and avoid damage, as well as gain meter. This is necessary in several of the fights as well, as many had aspects where you had to interact with some part of them or the world via parrying to succeed. The meter building and parrying mechanics lend a touch of fighting game thinking to the overall difficulty of the game, although both actions are simple to pull off with only the touch of a button. As well, on the subject of buttons, you're almost assuredly going to want to re-bind your controls. The default settings had almost all the moves on the face buttons of the controller in a weird way, which make things significantly more difficult and aggravating. For me, the layout that worked best was to have jump, dash, and super on the A, X, and B buttons of the Xbox 360 controller I was using respectively, with swap weapons on LB, aim on LT and shoot on RT. This allowed me to be able to jump and dash, as well as switch weapons, all without ever ceasing to attack.
Not all of the levels are platforming boss battles or side-scrollers, however. There are also a couple levels each world that are styled like a side-scrolling shoot 'em up where you are flying in a plane that can only fire forward, and with your dash replaced by an ability to make yourself smaller and faster. These levels were just as fun, mind you, they simply serve to change up what you're doing throughout the game and to allow for even more crazy set-pieces and bosses to fight.
The charm and style of Cuphead is truly unparalleled, which helps whenever I felt like hurling my controller out the nearby window in frustration. Many of the boss fights involved multiple types of projectiles simultaneously creating a 'bullet hell' scenario that was always incredibly stressful. The weapon that seeks out enemies was a favorite of mine even if it was one of the weakest in the game because I often found it was more imperative that I simply try and survive rather than deal the most damage. Also worth noting, there were a few different points where the game bugged up on me. One of them was just an annoyance (the fight continued after I had died without bringing me to the retry screen forcing me to restart the application), one time it broke in my favor (a boss during the boss rush at the end fell off the screen somehow and it credited me with a win) and one of them was just the most soul crushing thing ever (that same boss on another attempt failed to trigger the next phase and was stuck in a perpetual state of invincibility where I could do nothing). That boss rush at the end really has me of two minds. On the one hand, it's one of the most inventive and clever boss rush ideas I've ever seen, but on the other hand, if I hadn't beaten that when I did, I was probably on the verge of tears it was so heart-breakingly hard.
One of the most double-edged things that Cuphead does is give you a scale showing how far into the level you were when you died. It's helpful for letting you know what sections you're getting stuck at and how long they are, which can be essential for planning how to use your meter. However, it's also incredibly cruel sometimes to show you how close you were when it just wasn't quite enough. You never have to linger on your own failure long though, it's one button away from getting right back into it and trying again. There is another easier difficulty which reduces the phases of the bosses and the obstacles therein, but you need to beat them on the regular difficulty to obtain the contracts, so this is more for practice than an actual way to progress. It can be useful to beat a boss on simple and come back to it later though.
Small gripes and petulant pouting about the amount of times I yelled "Why? Why would you do this to me?!" at my monitor aside, Cuphead is something special. Even just watching it evokes a strange nostalgia, and the era it's trying to emulate was decades before my birth. The gameplay is just crisp and tight and responsive in a way that feels right. StudioMDHR have created a game that is stern, but fair, with a look and a sound that cannot be equalled by anything else out there today. It's kind of a shame that the game is so difficult that some people may want to see more of it and not be able to, but for the people that were waiting years for this knowing full-well what it is, it didn't disappoint in the slightest. If anything, it exceeded those high expectations, and has placed this team on the map in a way that I will wait on bated breath for whatever their next idea may be.