Game Review: Cuphead

As someone who devotes a lot of time to playing video games, I’m always out for a different kind of experience. Playing a lot of games breeds familiarity with a lot of genres and formulas. While there’s nothing wrong with similar aspects and designs, it does leave you with a clear appreciation when a game comes along and chooses to do its own thing as opposed to what everyone else is doing. Those are the kind of experiences I yearn for, in which a game invites you to step into its world and endure an experience unlike any other. Being unique is difficult because it’s always a risk that the gameplay or style you are presenting isn’t going to be received all that well. There’s a reason there’s a new Call of Duty game or football game every year, because publishers and developers know they have capitalized on an audience for those genres. It takes a lot of bravery to put everything into an idea you know may not be successful, but to do so anyway because you believe in it solely with every bit of passion at your disposal. That’s why it gives me great pleasure to talk about a run and gun title by the name of Cuphead.

 
Chad and Jared Moldenhauer are two brothers from Canada who had a clear appreciation for the rubber hose style of animation of the 1930’s. Growing up watching old cartoons in their youth, the stylistic and intriguing visual stories told by companies like Disney, Fleischer, MGM and Warner Bros clearly left lasting impression on the brothers; so much so in fact, that they wanted to work together to make a video game inspired by their love for it. The tale of Cuphead’s development started all the way back in 2010 when the brothers experimented with early design prototypes using Microsoft XNA and then switching in 2014 to Unity engine. This was a clear passion project for the brothers and they utilized every resource at their disposal to ensure Cuphead lived up to their vision, with Chad taking up the role of hand-drawing all of the games animations and backgrounds while Jared worked on the design end. When it was clear the vision behind Cuphead was bigger than the pair could handle on their own, the brothers decided to bank on the game even more by remortgaging their houses and hiring a bunch of new staff to open up their own dedicated studio called Studio MDHR.

It's with great pleasure then to confirm upon it’s release, Cuphead became an instant success, selling more than a million copies in the first two weeks when it released on Xbox in September 2017. The last touted sale statistic was when it was finally released on PlayStation 4 in July 2020 the series had already reached 6 million total sales. Critically the game was also well praised by media outlets, holding a critical average of 88 on OpenCritic as of today. With the high sales and critical praise, the game also was nominated and collected a number of awards during the video game award season, notably winning 3 out of the 5 categories they were nominated for during the 2017 Game Awards show. It’s fair to say to this very day Cuphead has become a self-sustaining entity not just in video games but in other media, having a 3-season animated show on Netflix loosely adapted from the main game, as well as a bunch of comics and board games associated to it as well.

 
Cuphead’s story follows two brothers, Cuphead and Mugman who reside on Inkwell Isle. One day during a fun-seeking adventure, they visit the Devil’s Casino and are enticed into gambling on a Craps game by the casino’s manager King Dice. Soon enough the Devil appears and offers to provide them all the money from the Casino if they win on their next roll but if they lose, they will sacrifice their souls to the Devil. Disillusioned by his prior winning streak, Cuphead foolishly agrees and ends up rolling a snake eyes and loses. While begging for mercy from the Devil, the brothers are offered a way out by working for the Devil in collecting the souls of all of his debtors across all of Inkwell Isle’s islands in return for keeping their own souls. Reluctantly agreeing for the time being, the brothers are advised by their parental figure Elder Kettle to do as the Devil bids while he tries to think of an out for them. With the aid of a potion to give them an edge over his debtors, the two brothers set forth on their quest to collect the souls and try to outsmart the Devil himself.

 
The narrative behind Cuphead is mostly for setup. There’s no major story beats or developments as you progress through the game, apart from a small segway into the Devil and King Dice’s perspective on the two brothers halfway through their journey. While there’s not much narrative development in the story, it has to be said how solid a premise this story holds, especially in comparison to the early cartoons this takes inspiration from. It’s well known how trippy and bold the old rubber style cartoons were in their approach to telling tight, yet digestible stories. It’s arguable that even in those cartoons, the story was always just a setup to explore the wider ideas of the animation’s capability behind it. That’s what Cuphead does in this case also, its narrative setting offers the player a clear reason why they are off to fight a number of larger-than-life characters in frantic boss fights, it’s simple yet effective in putting the player right into the main formula and letting them proceed from there. That’s not to say there’s no flavour or addition to the world you explore. You’ll come to meet a lot of characters in the overworld, one of such who is Ms.Chalice who is a spirit you free from an urn who is out to find a way to return to her mortal form. Like her, there’s a bunch of supporting characters in the game that along with the games main bosses and enemies really help give this game a much-appreciated level of personality.

 
The main foundation of the gameplay behind Cuphead is run and gun. The Moldenhauer brothers touted a keen inspiration from classic retro games like Contra when it came to designing the basis of the gameplay for Cuphead. As you can imagine, that familiar aspect is in its underlining difficulty. Cuphead is very much alike to old retro games because it’s a game which puts great emphasis on its challenge and difficulty. From the very starting boss, you’re made well aware this isn’t a game which is going to hold your hand in any capacity. I know for many the difficulty is often seen as a point of contention, when the games general design and promotion feels inviting for anyone to come and appreciate, it’s often disheartening to see the game put up such a high barrier for entry. My counter argument to that point is that was how it was often established back in the days of the games the brothers used to play. Games like Contra never cared what pre-conceptions you had when coming into it; the game made it a point to challenge you with a great level of difficulty to overcome. Was it fair? Maybe not, but that was the fun behind constantly trying over and over to get better and overcome the level or boss. That is the design philosophy the brothers grew up on, so it’s their right to embed it into the game they’ve spent years designing.

The basic controls of Cuphead is you use the directional analogue sticks to move either Cuphead, Mugman and Ms.Chalice around the screen. You’ll use your primary buttons to fire your projectiles, dash and use your super abilities to deal extra damage. All throughout the game you’ll collect coins and be offered the ability to buy additional charms or potions which can shift your play style and give you new projectile abilities. There are two level formats in which you’ll be utilizing these controls and abilities. The first of which is the Run & Gun levels, where you’re tasked with platforming and shooting your way through a horizontal level in which enemies and projectiles will try to hinder your progress. These levels put great emphasis on continuous movement and response as you cannot see what enemy waits for you on the other end of the screen as you progress, so it requires you to be very reactive. The other and arguably bigger format is the boss fights. This game consists of more than 31 boss fights if you consider the Delicious Last Course DLC. Each and every boss is unique in their own right, with their own visual design and combat approach. Each fight will consist of a number of phases in which the boss will try to end you with their own attacks which they will shift up as the fight proceeds. These attacks are fast and need to be mapped out if you have any hope of beating them. While a majority of the fights consist of the standard ground-based gameplay, there’s an extra variation to these fights with the plane segments in which you take to the skies in an aeroplane to fight a boss on the move.

The boss fights are easily the best aspect of this game. Studio MDHR nailed every single aspect of the boss design to make these encounters feel memorable for a lot of different reasons. The one unifying aspect that links them all together is their difficulty. These bosses will really push you to your limits when it comes to throwing everything at you and asking you to react with almost pinpoint precision. I can’t tell you how many times I died over and over in this game. While admittingly frustrating, I never for one minute felt the game was being unfair with me, it wanted to test me and show me I was capable of adapting at every juncture and it was true. Like Dark Souls, there’s no better a feeling then the euphoric bliss than runs over your brain when you see that Knockout title pop up when you finally put down a boss who was giving you major grief. The fact that there’s so many bosses and not one of them feels familiar to the other testifies to the pure creative scope of this development team’s ability to imbue this game with such a consistent sense of variety.

What really cements Cuphead as a truly unique experience though is its overall design. Every single aspect of the games animation and visuals feels fully realized. The fact that every single animation was hand drawn and then imported into the game is all you need to know to realize how special this game is. The game knew exactly how it needed to present itself to show its appreciation for the old-style cartoons it was emulating. The biggest reflection of this quality for me though is in the boss fights themselves. Each and every boss you encounter and the levels they are placed in is beautifully animated in a way which gives off a unique impression to appreciate. It’s hard to stay focused half the time because you’ll just be enamored by the pure spectacle happening right in front of you with how these encounters are rendered and constantly change. Cuphead kept this art style and approach consistent all throughout and it helps give a proper identity to the game and it’s DLC which will help keep it timeless for many years to come.

Accompanying the games fantastic art style is also it’s fabulous soundtrack. Many people know how much I appreciate a good video game soundtrack. The game’s music is just as integral as the game’s other functions in my opinion as it helps embed the game with the style and tone it requires. Cuphead’s soundtrack is no word of a lie, one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve listened to in a very long time. Kristofer Maddigan and his musical team deserve every bit of praise I can afford because this game is a musical symphony on every conceivable level. Every level and boss have a track which feels just as integral as it’s core gameplay for delivering a memorable experience. The way they are able to emulate the classical 1930’s style of music while delivering a consistent variation in tone and genre with the use of jazz, big band and ragtime music is absolutely flawless. The base game and DLC soundtracks are now a proud member of my Spotify playlist going forward.

Cuphead is a truly one-of-a-kind experience. What the Moldenhauer brothers and the development team at Studio MDHR pulled off here is almost inconceivable. They took a deep-rooted aspiration, worked at it time after time and in return, provided us with an experience which is every bit as unique and engaging as they wanted. Its difficult gameplay may be an arguable element for some, but for me it’s an intrinsic element to the games DNA that defines it just as much as visuals or it’s soundtrack. I hate that it took me all this time to get around to Cuphead, but in retrospect I’m glad I played it now at a juncture in my life where I could really identify and appreciate so much of what it sets out to do