Ah, the good ol’ days.During a recent Morgan Stanley speaking event, Warner Bros. That is, if you have the stomach and the patience for a title that truly harkens back to a time when games didn’t care whether or not you had fun, and in fact seemed hellbent on the destruction of your emotional well-being. But the controls are so spot on that you won’t mind the slow grind toward victory. It’s also hard as nails, so challenging in parts that it can seem virtually impossible to progress. It’s captivating, gorgeous, and pushes video game visuals in a direction that I never thought possible. Similarly, the overworld map music sounds like it was ripped straight out of Main Street, U.S.A.Ĭan I recommend Cuphead ? Absolutely, but before taking the plunge, know exactly what you’re getting into. Who cares about beating a boss when the drum solo is so on point? And I’ll be damned if Disneyland’s Dapper Dans didn’t record the title screen tune. And the original jazz soundtrack? Don’t even get me started. When I’m not dying at the hands of malevolent candy corn or anthropomorphic acorns, I’m usually walking off ledges as I stare obsessively at all the painstaking animation. To see the game in action is almost a religious experience, and amplify that ten-fold if you have any fondness for classic cartoons from Disney and the like. Mega difficulty aside, Cuphead is one of the coolest looking and sounding games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, hands down. Now that I think about it, It feels a lot like Contra III: The Alien Wars on SNES, only if you just fought that giant turtle and the Terminator skeleton on repeat with no continues and no extra lives. When you really break it down, It’s about gradually getting farther with each pass, steadily increasing your skill set and your memorization of the game’s endless patterns until a level almost seems to complete itself. While the difficulty never seems cheap, the amount of concentration it demands can be exhausting, and I find myself needing breaks after slaving away at particularly trying stages, sometimes for an hour or more at a time. Otherwise I get overwhelmed, frustrated and dangerously close to rage-quitting (okay, it’s happened a few times, so sue me). In that sense, I can say that-at least for me- Cuphead is a game that I can only play in controlled spurts. For most of these baddies, which span the gamut from crazy carnation to a clown that makes way too many balloon animals, you’ll need skill, fast reflexes and above all else, gallons of patience. You need to study these giant enemies extremely closely their attacks, their mannerisms, even the sounds they make all play a part in figuring out how to make them fall. These aren’t encounters that you can just waltz into and clear with ease on your first go (though I did beat one particular boss on my virgin try, a feat I humbly chock up to the planets aligning). As such, you need to beat them down so they’ll pay up, and making them submit is tough. Or one-on-dozens, as many battles actually turn into.Įssentially, Cuphead and beverage-holding companion Mugman have lost a bet with the Devil and are now stuck collecting Soul Contracts from various debtors. In fact, minus the occasional standard run-and-gun segment, horizontal shooting stretch or unique bonus round, it’s all an elaborately rage-inducing succession of one-on-one fights. For those who haven’t been following Cuphead’s development, the game is structured a little unconventionally, probably a bit different than you were expecting, in that there’s a very strong focus on boss battles. But I’m already getting a little ahead of myself, so let’s back up real quick. Just how hard am I talking, though? I suspect even the first several levels in this beautiful game will give most competent players a solid run for their money, especially if they’re choosing not to opt for the included easy mode. But before you ask: Yes, I got through the tutorial just fine, thank you very much, but it’s after the short and now-infamous how-to area when the war for old-timey victory truly begins.
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