As you go you’ll find the challenge increases but stays, aside from a few later-game exceptions, consistently fair.Ĭuphead’s bosses are really quite hard to beat.

In others you’ll want to keep your distance, depending on the kind of moves that particular boss is prone to doling out. Some bosses will be better fought with short-range, high-damage attacks. You unlock new abilities fairly rapidly, allowing for further customisation and on-the-fly experimentation in the fights you’re having most trouble with. The only way to really make headway is to utilise your combination of two main weapons, a super attack and a bonus power to figure out the best way to defeat a boss. There are no mid-level checkpoints either. You have no way to regain health mid-fight and just three pips of life before you die. It’s up to you to properly learn the ropes – and by God will it take some learning – in order to get through unscathed. Telepathic carrot-firing vegetable creatures frog boxers who transform into coin-shooting slot machines or a giant bird in bizarre armour developer Studio MDHR consistently breaks its own design moulds as it rolls out one unique boss after another, all of which offer up their own idiosyncrasies. They’re some of the most distinct in recent memory. Levels come in three forms – run’n’gun left-to-right platforming, bullet-hell style flight bosses and pure platforming fights. The bosses and levels are best left discovered on your own, of course, thanks to some excellent and inventive designs and unexpected transitions that surprise both visually and mechanically. Studio MDHR have created a rich cartoon world. That unflinching authenticity seeps into every part of Cuphead, from its menus to its music from its character names – shout out to Porkrind the shop keeper – to their voice work. Its characters, too, are a work of art, offering up some of the most visually distinct creatures you will see in video games. The film grain crackles and its watercolour backgrounds pop with an obsessive attention to detail that never lets up. As a homage to the early days of animated cartoons, Cuphead is about as authentic as you get. It’s rich in tone, near pitch perfect in its balancing and it’s dedicated to teaching you the best way to succeed – all while you desperately sway between bashing your head against a wall and screaming in victorious elation.īosses are the central spectacle here – ultra-paced, wonderfully designed, concentrated encounters that punctuate its run-time – but the immediate appeal is its inimitable art style. While Cuphead is decidedly painful, committed to beating you over the head with death after death in its 1930s-style animated world, it’s also meticulously crafted. We can report, its difficulty has not been overstated – but punishment isn’t everything it has to offer. You may have heard that this game is hard.

Cuphead games