Cuphead

Released on April 18, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch by Studio MDHR, Cuphead is a hardcore run and gun game, with a 1930's cartoon-inspired aesthetic. 

Cuphead's announcement trailer, featuring incredible, 1930's-cartoon-style animated gameplay, peaked my excitement. My excitement was immediately dashed, however, when Cuphead was announced to be an XBox console exclusive.
I'm a Nintendo guy, and if I cheat on Nintendo, it's only with Sony (don't tell Nintendo!). As a child of the 80's, I loved all the old, frequently syndicated Disney and Max Fleischer (Popeye, Superman) cartoons of the 30's and 40's. I most loved the hand-painted backgrounds--they had this strange magical quality, like you could walk into them, and then wander around, awake for all eternity. I even had this sweet placemat full of anthropomorphic food that I look for on EBay every now and then, but can never find. I still tell any door I'm alone with and about to enter "Open says me," in my best Popeye voice. Cuz, you know, like "Open sesame?" Er...

Uh, Cuphead! Cuphead's here!

Anyway, despite the "console-exclusive" tag, I've had hopes in the two years since its release that Cuphead would have its due on the Switch. After all, plenty of games that were Nintendo exclusives, like Resident Evil 4, soon found themselves on other systems. With the Switch's success, it's time for Nintendo to be on the receiving end. Thankfully, a "Nintendo Direct" earlier this spring proved that Nintendo and Microsoft agree. Cuphead is now one of a couple of once-XBox-exclusives making their way to Nintendo's hybrid wonder..and thankfully, it doesn't disappoint.

Unlike the Devil's Casino craps table.

The aesthetics of Cuphead cannot be praised enough. The game's 1930's/40's cartoon art style is breathtaking and immersive. Anthropomorphic everyday objects populate a seedy, Great Depression-era cartoon world. The game is broken up into three island worlds, one a not-so idyllic countryside, one a wacky circus, and another a seaside city. The level backdrops are beautiful watercolor paintings (sometimes animated), behind flawlessly-animated waves of enemies or massive, imaginatively-designed and flawlessly-animated bosses. Cuphead himself, an anthropomorphic cup, is iconic from the moment he first appears onscreen. Meanwhile, the screen is full of pops and hisses, as if from an old projected film, furthering the atmosphere and immersion. Of course, you don't want to gawk too hard at the graphics...because this game will kill you quickly.

This cute little blue guy most definitely wants to kill you.

Cuphead is difficult. Really difficult. I haven't played a game this challenging since the NES.
Each island is partially composed of a couple of short, traditional run and gun levels, which include some difficult platforming, and seemingly endless waves of diverse enemies. The remainder, and vast majority of each island, is composed of boss fights. Many, many, many, many boss fights.
If there's one thing I didn't realize before getting into Cuphead, it's that the game is mostly dedicated to boss fights. There are nearly 20 of them, and you'll be spending the majority of your 20-30 hours of Cuphead (if you choose to complete it) battling bosses.

The second you imagine roaming around this countryside, ducking under the fence, and gazing up at the stars, one of them comes down and kills you.

If there's another thing I didn't realize before getting into Cuphead, it's that Cuphead is really, really hard. I've played several other games recently that people have touted as difficult, and while those games have had their moments, none of them even once tested my will. I'm not going to lie: several of Cuphead's bosses, while not breaking my will, most certainly bent it very hard. You only get three hits per stage, with no opportunity to get back health. Get hit three times, and you die. And you die. And you die.
You know that thought after dying in a video game for the umpteenth time?
You're never going to beat this part. Just turn it off and play something else.
That definitely popped into my head a couple times. I never followed it to its logical conclusion. I played Cuphead through til the end on the normal difficulty, which is required to fight the game's final boss, the devil, and I saw the final credits.

That's right, buoy, I beat this game!

Ah yes, of course, I haven't yet mentioned the devil.
Cuphead and his buddy, Mugman, seem to have a weakness for gambling. In a storyline befitting the animation style, Cuphead's intro sees Cuphead and Mugman accidentally wandering into the devil's casino, playing him in a game of chance, and losing. Satan tells Cuphead and Mugman he won't take their heads if they'll go gather some souls owed to him throughout the land...and the souls belong to those bosses you end up fighting. That's it for story...Cuphead, focused upon gameplay, doesn't need anything more than that.

Who needs a story when you've got cigar-chomping rancher skeletons watching you battle an anthropomorphic stack of poker chips?

At the service of Cuphead's run and gun gameplay are the necessarily tight controls: a button to make Cuphead (or Mugman, as both are selectable, and both control the same) jump, a button to make him shoot (he snaps his fingers, and energy shoots out), a button to dash, and a button to fire his super beam. There's also a shoulder button that allows Cuphead to stand-still and fire directionally (without it, you can still fire directionally, but if left or right is involved, Cuphead's body will also be moving in that direction). Several of the boss fights put Cuphead in a fighter plane, but the controls during those fights are essentially the same.

I've hated a lot of things in my life--I'm a fighter, not a lover--but not many more than this stupid damn robot.

I never died in Cuphead because the controls let me down, though the tight cluster of buttons on the Switch's Joy-Cons, sometimes ill-matching with my large fingers, did cause me to hit dash when I meant to fire my super, or vice versa, a couple times.
The super meter builds when Cuphead hits enemies with his normal...finger cannon. Land enough hits and a card at the bottom of the screen flips over. At that point, Cuphead can fire a super. However, if you preserve your super, and flip over five cards, you can fire off a devastating attack.
The only other major control element is the parry. When you're in the air, you can bounce off of any pink enemy by tapping jump again. This automatically fills one of your super cards, meaning consistently parrying will give you a lot more chances of firing off your built-up super beam at a boss. And, oh, those bosses.

Look at the stupid face this stupid dragon is making at me. I hate this stupid dragon so stupid much.

Bosses are an exercise in pattern recognition and skill. At first glance, some bosses, with all their various, endless attacks, seem impossible. They're not. You've just got to recognize their pattern, make it to the next section of the fight (most bosses have three or four forms), recognize the pattern there, and so on, all while increasing your skill. You also have to strategize between using your more powerful, short range energy beams, and your slightly weaker long distance beam (switched between with another of the shoulder buttons). None of the bosses have a visible "health meter" per se, but once you've died, you're shown a progress bar that lets you know just how far into the fight you were. This, along with the infinite amount of lives you're given (and you lose nothing when you die), is inspiration to keep trying. Winning takes solid memorization skills, and some lightning quick reflexes, but rest assured, with focus and dedication, Cuphead can be beaten.

Who invited that stupid dragon to this party?

The question must be asked, though: If you're going to build such an immersive, beautiful, fully-realized video game world, why put it at the service of something only hardcore gamers are going to enjoy?
Thankfully, there's an in-game shop where you can buy weapon upgrades and special moves. The shop's accepted currency is coins hidden around the traditional stages. However, many of the "upgrades" have trade-offs that almost make them not worth it, like a damage meter increase that allows you to be hit four times, but also weakens your weapons (though I particularly like the charm that makes your first parry automatic). The game does have an easy mode, but as you have to beat every level on "Normal" mode to reach the end, I didn't even humor it.

Even this stupid candy lady is about to take me out..again.

The brilliant graphics and art-style aren't the only awesome production elements in this game obscured by the difficulty. Cuphead also features an incredible jazz and big band soundtrack that I'm going to have to go back and listen to, because honestly, I was too dialed in trying to not die to pay attention to it.
I wish there was some way to go back and experience Cuphead's world without the threat of death constantly hanging over my head at every millisecond. And while I'm complaining, as awesome as the graphics are, my Switch struggled to process them a couple of times, resulting in a few moments of gameplay lag that killed me. I also died a few times in situations I had no way of avoiding. Some of the bosses switch their attack modes at random, and every now and then, you get trapped in a portion of the screen from which there is no escape.
Also, if you want backup, you can get a friend to tag-along as either Mugman or Cuphead (whoever you're not using), to take on the challenge together, but you better hope they're at least on an equal skill level as you, or they'll just make the game even harder.

I'll take the giant woodpecker. You...run away, I guess?

All that to say, if my largest complaint about your game is "I was too obsessed with beating it to notice how awesome it actually was," your game must be pretty good. The few moments of glitchy framerate and getting stuck in a no-escape death situation are legitimate complaints, but all-told, those moments probably account for 30 seconds out of the nearly 30 hours of Cuphead I played.
This game is awesome. Cuphead was worth the two-year wait--and the incredible thing is, I got to play most of this AAA wonder in my bathtub and at my kitchen table. It's yet another jewel in the Switch's now jewel-heavy crown. I can't wait to see what ends up on the hybrid wonder next.

SCORE: 9.3/10