Cuphead: Quickie Review · 6:59pm Jun 6th, 2019

Okay, I want to do a review of this game... but I can't exactly do that since I haven't played the entire game, so I can't really do that.

But I do want to give you my thoughts on what I have played so far because, well... I want to.

So here's a quickie review of Cuphead!

Cuphead, basically, is a run-and-gun type of game. The main plot focuses on our main leads; Cuphead and his pal Mugman, who accidentally make a deal with the devil, and they have to collect the souls of all the Devil's debtors. From there, it's a quest to take on all of his debtors, retrieve the contracts, and be freed from his deal.

That's the basic premise. Short, but easy to follow.

And I want to get the first thing, the absolute BEST thing about this game out of the way... The animation. The entire game's animation, is styled like the 1930s cartoons. And it. Is. GLORIOUS.

I'll admit, I didn't watch much 30s cartoons, but I did watch a lot of Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons cartoons, which are pretty much childhood nostalgia for me. And that was something that attracted me to this game, the animation. And that is the absolute best thing about this game. It's not to say there aren't any other great things, but this is arguably the best. The animation is so beautiful... Every frame, every second on screen, feels like an actual cartoon from the 30s, 40s, 50s, all of them. I don't know how they did the animation, but if they did all this animation on pencil and paper... then bravo to them. If they didn't, I still give the makers a bravo, because they made it look amazing. Everyone moves so fluidly and smooth, it makes you feel like you're watching an actual cartoon.

And even the storybook at the beginning gives that vibe as well, even the bits of dialogue written all have that feel as well.

Music. Music is A+. A+, right here. All of the music in this game is so jazzy, it too gives that feeling like it came from that decade. And A whole lot of that music is downright catchy, heck, even the two songs (there might be more, I do not recall) in this game are catchy too!

Die House has to be my favorite song, and it is so jazzy I love it. And it's funny thinking that it's actually sung by a woman... no seriously, it's a woman singing it. She can really lower her pipes for that.

Don't mess with King Dice (Don't mess with King Dice)
Don't mess with me (Don't mess with him)
Don't mess with King Dice (Don't Mess with King Dice)
Don't mess with me

Damn that's catchy.

So yeah, sound design is all locked down.

But now comes to the crucial part; the gameplay. And this is one of the things that I think almost everybody knows about it. It's HARD. I mean VERY HARD.

There's enemies flying everywhere that you need to avoid, there's obstacles included, it's a lot to keep track of. And the boss fights, this game is full of boss fights, and let me tell you, they're not as easy. And this is gonna happen, you're going to die. A lot. Thankfully this game does not punish you.

You can visit Porkrind's Emporium, and there you can get some extra abilities called 'Supers' which can help you face the enemies and the boss fights.

There are times in the game where you can see these Pink glowing objects which are helpful and can boost up your Super meter, giving you an extra boost of firepower when take on the bosses and the enemies ahead of you. Though like with any other weapon, I highly recommend you use them wisely and only when you absolutely need them.

And actually, lets talk about the bosses. There's gonna be a lot of bosses, and they will be difficult. However, like any boss fight, there's always a way to be able to take them down. Once you figure out their pattern, it becomes easier to take them down. A bit. You still need to be careful when dealing with them, but it will make it slightly easier to decipher their next move. And the animations for them, holy crap are amazing.

But I think what makes this work even more is how insanely creative the bosses are.

Every boss is different. Each one has their own character, their own style, their own animation. And they look gorgeous just like the rest of this game.

And I guess the last thing I got to say is... it doesn't feel repetitive. Well, at least to me. It's a run-and-gun, so there is a lot of that. And that's most of what I got to say.

Now I probably can't exactly give a fair judgement on this game as a whole as I haven't finished it, or gone far. I'm critiquing this game on what I've played so far and from what I've seen. And from what I've seen, I think this is a pretty solid game. And best of all, the one I bought was only $20. That's an amazing price for such a high quality game. And for everything else in this game, it's amazing. If you're not a fan of run-and-gun games, you probably won't like it, but if you do like those games, you'll probably get a kick out of this. ESPECIALLY for the old timey-cartoon animation and feel to it.

That's why I'm giving Cuphead, a 9 out of 10. It's fun, it's creative, it's beautiful to look at, give it a play.

... also give yourself breaks in between playing, don't want to be ragey if you get defeated for the 20th time in a row