With Sunset now being finished with the tutorial, she felt she could now take Cuphead head on and see if it's really as hard as Pinkie keeps making it out to be.
Cuphead stepped out of the Elder Kettle's little home and Sunset was met with a beautifully designed over world.
Sunset stared at her screen in awe. "Woah! This looks beautiful!" Sunset cheered.
"It's just the style of old cartoons," said Rainbow Dash. "I don't see how that could look 'beautiful' compared to video games we have now."
"I guess it's because of the frame-by-frame animations running at 60fps and how it captures almost exactly how the old cartoons looked that make this game as great looking as it is," rambled Pinkie.
"Overdoing it a bit but she does make a great point, Rainbow. I mean, have you seen this game?" Sunset asked.
"Well... no. I haven't..." Rainbow confessed.
Upon hearing that Rainbow Dash hasn't seen anything about this game, it had sparked an idea in Pinkie's overly complicated head.
"Hold on, everybody!" Pinkie shouted.
"Jesus, Pinkie! Don't shout so loud!" Sunset now held her headset away from her head.
"Sorry but Dashie just gave me an idea!"
"Wait, what?" Rainbow wondered.
"After Sunset is done with Cuphead we should totally have a slumber party at my house and let everyone play it on my Xbox," explained Pinkie.
Sunset and Rainbow Dash both thought about it for a minute.
"Huh, that's not a bad idea. It'd be fun to see everyone's reactions," Sunset said.
"I can imagine Twilight making a plan of attack," Rainbow said before laughing.
"Then it's settled. We do this thing the night Sunset finishes the game," said Pinkie Pie.
That surprised Sunset. "That soon? Seriously?"
"Something wrong?" asked Pinkie.
"There's nothing really wrong but-"
Pinkie interrupted her,"Great! Then we have our plan."
Sunset just accepted it and continued wih her game. She travelled through the over world until she came to a wooden bridge. On this bridge sat a little man with an apple for a head.
"Am I able to interact with the NPCs?" asked Sunset.
"Yep, sometimes you'll be given goodies or you'll be told a hint to a secret," Pinkie explained.
Sunset approached the apple man and pressed A to talk to him.
Lines of dialogue appeared once again, "Hey, fellas! Looks like you're in for it now, eh?" Sunset read the dialogue again, "Well, I used to be-"
"Again with the voices?" Rainbow Dash said coldly.
"Shut up." She continued reading, "Anyway. I used to be the same way, always gettin' into trouble... runnin', jumpin', shootin'... But now I prefer just strollin' around and goin' to the pictures! But hey, let me give you a hand! Take this!"
Then three golden coins appeared on her screen, showing that this man had given her some spending money.
"Aww! What a nice guy, giving me some free coins," Sunset smiled. "What am I able to do with this money though?"
"You can spend them in the shop just up ahead," Pinkie answered.
Sunset moved a little further until she saw the shop. It was a small cart with an opened curtain revealing a window. She took a peak at what was inside. Porkrind's Emporium, the shop was called. As she looked inside she was greeted by a large pig man.
"Welcome!" the pig man boomed.
He had caught Sunset by surprise with that voice. "Good God, that's a hell-of-a voice he's got there," Sunset said.
"I know right!" Pinkie sighed dreamily, "I love that pig."
"Huh?" Rainbow raised her eyebrow.
"Uh, nothing."
"Okay... let's see what he's got for sale," Sunset said turning her attention back to the game.
She scanned through the many items that were up for purchase. Most of the items were different shots, the other items were different upgrades for Cuphead. One of the shots was a homing shot. The upside was that it, obviously, targeted enemies. The downside was that it was very weak. Another weapon was a spread shot. The range was short but it was pretty powerful. The last shot that was there was a boomerang shot. The name was self-explanatory and the damage was nothing much different than from her Peashooter.
Now the upgrades, one of them added an additional hit-point to Cuphead's health. Sunset knew that could be very useful when playing. That was until she saw that equipping the additional hit-point would weaken her attack power. The other upgrade was called the Smoke Bomb which would turn Cuphead's dash into an invisible and invincible dash. Now that would be very useful. Her only problem was, what was she going to buy?
"Uh, Pinkie? Do you have any recommendations for Porkrind's?" she asked.
"Hmm, well I'd either choose the Boomerang bullets or the Smoke Bomb," Pinkie answered. "Sure, the Spread shot is powerful but at least you can look in any direction and still be able to hit the boss. And with the Smoke Bomb, you can dodge attacks much easier."
Pinkie had narrowed it down to two items. One she would get great use out of but she would still have a basic finger gun. She had to choose between defence or power. Defence or power?
"Well I think power is what I need," Sunset moved her selection to the Spread shot. "So I'm going with the Spread."
"Suit yourself." Pinkie was pretty surprised Sunset didn't take her advice despite her clearly being a pro Cuphead player.
Just like that, the four coins Sunset had been given were gone. After purchasing her new gun, another item appeared in place of the Spread shot. It was another shot called 'Lobber'; it had good damage, a medium range but a slow rate of fire. She didn't know if she would find much use of the lobber gun. Guess she'll just have to wait and see. She felt happy with her purchase and left Porkrind's Emporium with a new weapon. Porkrind waved her goodbye.
Once she left the shop, Porkrind began talking in even more dialogue. Like before, Sunset read it aloud, trying to imitate the shopkeepers grumbly voice.
"You gots to equip those-"
"Enough with the voices already!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "God, you're being almost as annoying as Pinkie during a sugar rush."
"Hey!" Pinkie took Rainbow's words offensively.
Sunset let out a sad sigh and her smile faded away. "Alright, fine."
Sunset read the rest of Porkrind's dialogue in her head and, as commanded, she pressed Y to load her menu. She could now select her different weapons, a charm (Or character upgrade) and a super attack. Obviously she only had one other item she had other than the standard Peashooter so she equipped her new Spread shot as her secondary weapon.
She explored as much of the area as possible and came by three levels. One of them was indicated as a red target on the ground while the other two were part of the over world but they stood out more with their brighter colours. One was a plain old tree and the other was a vegetable patch.
She selected the target level. The level was called 'Forest Follies' and it was known as a Run & Gun stage.
'Where these the more normal levels Pinkie was talking about?' she thought.
She pressed the select button and began her first level. Once the level loaded, the words Run 'n Gun appeared on screen and the voice of an announcer spoke, "And begin!"
"Alright! Time to finally get into this!" said Sunset now getting her game face on.
"Good luck!" Pinkie and Rainbow said in unison but Rainbow being less enthusiastic.
Cuphead started to run forward. Everything was fine for like, two seconds before he ran into the first enemy; a flower man heading straight for him. The flower man managed to catch Sunset by surprise and the result of that lost her a health point. Cuphead turned back around and shot the bugger to death before running again. But just as he was running again, another two flower men came for Cuphead. One from behind and one from the sky. He dealt with the one behind him and then targeted the floating one. This time he was successful but that surely won't be the case for very long now. Another flower man came jumping over a tree stump just ahead of Cuphead.
"Why are there so many of these flower things?!" Sunset asked.
"When I say this game is hard, I mean it," said Pinkie.
"But this is only the first level!" Sunset was now dealing with a flower army.
"I know." Pinkie's now monotone voice nerved Sunset more.
Cuphead now entered a forest and this was the moment where all hell broke loose. Flower men charged from every side, small mushrooms shot pink clouds (Possibly parrable), purple roses spat out seeds, little blob men ran back and forth and black with yellow polka dotted piranha plant based creatures jumped from bottomless pits in attempt to eat Cuphead. There were now so many enemies that Sunset was having a hard time keeping up with everything on screen and before she knew it, Cuphead had died.
The death screen displayed a message for Sunset. 'Nowhere to run, nowhere to go - this forest is yer foe!' it read.
"Oh yeah? Well I'm not giving up that easily!" Sunset said to her screen.
Spoiler alert: She failed again and again. She was getting a little further every turn but there would always that one thing that would screw her over and ruin her attempt.
She gave it another go and this time she was going to try to pay full attention to everything around her. She killed every enemy in sight and collected some of the five golden coins. When enemies crowded around each side of the screen, Sunset would switch to her Spread shot and eliminate enemies faster than Smash's Sudden Death round.
Unlike her previous attempt, Sunset was doing fairly well. She killed almost every enemy in sight, collected every coin within reach and only lost one health point through all of it. That was until she came by this large machine being operated by a flower man.
"What is this machine?!" Sunset quickly asked.
"Quick! Shoot it! Kill it!" Pinkie answered.
"I'm shootin' it!" Sunset hasn't come as far as this so she was losing her sanity fast.
The machine shot out flying acorns that would crash down on Cuphead whenever he was under them.
Sunset was panicking. She moved Cuphead left and right hoping she would win this way. Instead she got herself hit again, now being left with one HP. Now Sunset was in full panic mode. She was so scared of dying that a drop of sweat ran down her face. She thought this was the end but she actually managed to destroy the machine.
"YES! I FINALLY DID IT!" Sunset victoriously shouted.
Sunset began breathing heavily to calm herself down, since she was now finished. Or so she thought.
"There's still more to the level," said Pinkie.
"God DAMMIT!!" Sunset screamed with fire in her eyes. She didn't care that she was shouting anymore, she just wanted this to end already.
Sunset travelled further to see what still awaited her. The last stretch was filled with piranha plants with the addition of the blob men and one single mushroom. She passed each jump with care, as to not waste her last health point. She made it to the last jump. She took her final leap. And apparently her luck ran out at this moment as a piranha plant came out of nowhere and ended her turn.
Sunset dropped her controller onto the floor with utter disbelief written on her face. She then dropped to her knees and her arms fell to her sides.
"Uh... Sunset?" Rainbow called.
Sunset's fist clenched up and her face turned from disbelief to pure rage.
"MOTHER FU-!"
10 Minutes Later
Sunset tried the last jump once again, this time making sure she timed this right. She jumped, dashed and made it to the end. Sunset was happy that she finally bet the level but her face just wouldn't show it. Instead she let out a long sigh and smiled only slightly.
The ranking screen showed up and gave Sunset her rank.
Time - 02:12
HP Bonus - 1/3
Parry - 0/3
Gold Coins - 5/5
Skill Level - ⭐⭐
-------------------------------
Grade - C
She didn't care about how low her rank was, she was just glad she bet the level. The first level. The first of the many others. Yeah, she wasn't excited for what else she had face against.
Back on the over world, Cuphead jumped up and down victoriously and a wooden bridge appeared, opening up more of Inkwell Isle. Sunset wasn't going to cross the bridge though, not yet at least.
First she wanted to visit Porkrind again to purchase a new charm. She made her way towards the shopping cart and was greeted, once again, by Porkrind. This time she knew what she wanted so she made her purchase and was on her way to next level but not before equipping her new charm, the Smoke Bomb.
Sunset let out another deep sigh. "Okay, Pinkie, what boss do you recommend first?" she asked.
"Will you take my word on it this time?" Pinkie wanted to make sure this time.
"Yes."
"The Root Pack; the boss at the vegetable patch. Most players, including myself, think it's the easiest boss in the game."
Sunset made her way towards the vegetable patch and was going to choose easy mode, but not before Pinkie spoke again.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot, you can't go to the next isle of you beat a boss on easy mode; it has to be on normal mode."
Sunset’s face now showed slight sadness. "Aww what?"
"Yeah... This game pretty much wants the best from you."
"Guess this is why a Cuphead slumber party is a great idea," Rainbow snickered.
Pinkie began laughing, "Ya God damn right it is!"
"Dammit!" Sunset started the boss as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were talking and had already died.
"What happened?" Rainbow asked.
"I died to a freaking crying onion," answered Sunset.
Rainbow began laughing her tomboy ass off. "What?! An onion?"
"Yes, an onion!"
Rainbow laughed harder.
"You think I'm crazy? Wait 'til you play it!"
"No, no. I'm sorry." Her laughing began to calm down. "It's just... An onion..."
"What's your point, Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie asked.
"Uh... Nothing. Just continue."
Like the Run 'n Gun stage, a death quote appeared on screen. It said, 'Hey little guy, it's O.K. if you have to cry.'
Unamused, Sunset tried again. First she faced off against a potato spitting either dirt or worms which are possible to parry. A key feature of the boss fights is that they have a number of phases; the first phase of this boss was the potato, the second was the crying onion and the third and final phase was still unknown to her.
The first phase was easy for Sunset so she managed to beat it without losing a HP. The onion however, it required more quick reactions as it attacks by raining large tear projectiles only a few feet above Cuphead. Some of it's tears can be parried but that's hard enough as it is.
Anyway, back to Sunset.
Sunset made sure her Spread shot was on as it will do much better than her blue pellets of almost nothing. She had too many close calls but she managed to kill the onion still with two HP. The third and final phase appeared to be a carrot with psychic powers. The carrot shot smaller homing carrots to target Sunset which she took out easily with her Spread shot. However, the boss carrot had another attack and that was mind beams being shot out of his head. This only added a little more difficulty to the boss but nothing too much. She kept her focus on the projectiles rather than the boss itself which she thought was a good idea. Sure, it would take longer to kill the boss but she couldn't care less; she just wanted to beat this thing. She jumped, she dashed and she shot her way through the homing carrots, only to find that she was successful on beating the first boss.
"Yes! Second try baby!" Sunset sighed in relief, "Whew. That wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be."
"Yeah, but remember, that was only the first boss... There is a lot worse still to come..." Pinkie's monotone voice returned.
"Pinkie, can you please stop talking like that? It's making me very uncomfortable," said Rainbow Dash.
"Sorry! I'm only trying to add some more seriousness to the story."
"Not like that though, please."
"Okay fine," Pinkie said huffy.
Sunset's rank:
Time - 01:56
HP Bonus - 2/3
Parry - 1/3
Super Meter - 2/6
Skill Level - ⭐⭐
-------------------------------
Grade - B
More of Inkwell Isle opened but there was still one more boss she wanted to kill before she moved onto the new areas.
"You ready for hell, Sunset?" Pinkie asked.
"No. Let's do it," Sunset answered.
Sunset continued her journey over to the next boss named Goopy Le Grande.
"This match will get red hot!" said the announcer guy.
It can only go so well from here on out.
3 Days Later
"Come on! Come on! Almost there!" cheered Pinkie Pie.
It has already been two days since Sunset bought Cuphead and boy, has she been having a hell-of-a time. Her skills had drastically improved and she had a fine set of weapons and had still had the Smoke Bomb equipped, as she found the greatest use out of it.
Currently now, Sunset was facing against the final boss, the Devil himself and Pinkie was there with her to cheer her on. Sunset was on her last legs as she was now left with one HP but the Devil was on his final phase. The only land there was to stand upon was one large casino chip but from time to time, a flaming chip would fall where she stood so she had to somehow jump around it while also avoiding the Devil's tears, which are parrable.
Sunset was focused more than ever now as she was very close to killing the boss.
"Now! Use your super now!" Pinkie shouted.
Sunset jumped off of the platform again and used the five special cards she had been building up. Once she activated Cuphead's super attack, he spun around in the air while a giant beam of milk rained on the Devil. And there it was... The moment she had been waiting for... The announcer guy cheered, 'BRAVO!!!' as the Devil was finally defeated.
"Y-You did it! Sunset, you DID IT!" Pinkie cried.
Sunset laughed while tears of joy streamed down her face. "I DID IT!! HOLY CRAP, I DID IT!!"
Pinkie and Sunset both hugged eachother while they both laughed loudly. The ranking screen showed one final time and gave Sunset her final rank:
Time - 02:46
HP Bonus - 1/3
Parry - 3/3
Super Meter - 6/6
Skill Level - ⭐⭐
-------------------------------
Grade - B+
The final cutscene played and Sunset was now more than happy to read it, "The brothers had triumphed over the demon, forcing him to finally give up. "We shall accept you're surrender, Devil," Cuphead laughed. "But we're not done just yet!""
The page turned and Sunset read on, "And with that, Cuphead and Mugman destroyed all of the soul contracts, releasing Inkwell Isle's residents from eternal servitude to the Devil."
It turned again. ""Gosh, I can't wait to tell everybody!" Cuphead said. The boys set off for home, and at top speed. "C'mon, last one there's a leaky cup!" Mugman teased as they ran.
"Once home, the brothers gathered everyone together. "You're all free from the Devil's debt!" Cuphead announced. "And that fiend won't bother us again!" Mugman added.
"The Elder Kettle was literally brimming with pride as everyone began to cheer: "Let's hear it for Cuphead and Mugman!" "Hip-hip-hurrah!" "Hip-hip-hurrah!"
"As an all day celebration began, the brothers promised to never wander off into trouble again. And they didn't - until the next time! But that is another story..."
The book finally closed with two final words, which Pinkie Pie read, "The End."
The credits finally began rolling and Sunset could finally relax.
"So that was Cuphead. Whaddya think?" Pinkie asked.
Sunset sat up on her couch. "Graphically: this game is beautiful. Bright and vibrant colours and amazing animation," Sunset began. "Difficulty: This game was a bitch to beat. Yeah, I know it was intentional but... holy hell."
"But do you like it?" was the answer Pinkie really wanted.
"Like it? I freaking loved it!" Sunset ended.
"Great! Guess you know what this means?" Pinkie smiled widely.
Sunset looked at her friend confusingly, clearly she didn't know what this meant.
"CUPHEAD SLUMBER PARTY AT MY HOUSE TONIGHT!!" Pinkie very enthusiastically announced.
Sunset had forgotten all about the slumber party. She wasn't entirely happy with the idea of playing a hard as hell game once again on the night she had just beaten it.
"I'll still come but can I at least, y'know, not play it while I'm there?" she asked.
"It's alright, I get it. You're stressed out because the game. The least I can do is give you time to relax and away from it."
"Thanks, Pinkie." She hugged her friend once more.
Pinkie stood up, ready to leave. "Right. So I gotta set things up and tell everyone about the slumber party. See ya there!"
"See you, Pinkie." Sunset waved Pinkie goodbye before she left. She laid back down on her couch, relaxing. 'Everyone's going to have a bad time,' she thought, smiling.