Cuphead review - A cracking good time

Cuphead, StudioMDHR’s boss-brawling platform-shooter, has been a long time coming. Seven years, in fact. We all laugh about games taking ages, or being delayed, but Cuphead is an example of a game having a lengthy gestation period and coming out fantastic.

You play as the titular Cuphead, and if you’re playing local co-op, player two plays his brother Mugman. The brothers cup have fallen afoul of the devil after developing an addiction to gambling. The only way to pay off their debts is to collect the souls of the inhabitants of Inkwell Island, a variety of beings that the game macabrely hints are Cuphead and Mugman’s pals.

To collect these souls, the brothers basically have to shoot the hell out of everyone, kill them, collect their souls and hand them over to the devil. But of course these cheerful pieces of crockery don’t want to be in league with the devil, so they hatch a plan. That plan still involves killing everything in sight, but at least it might have a happy ending.

Inkwell Isle is divided into four separate sections, and to clear each one you have to collect all the soul contracts on that island. This means fighting a series of bosses, which forms the central premise. But to do this, you’ll need upgrades; guns and charms which can be bought with coins.

Collecting those coins mostly revolves around playing the game’s six Run & Gun levels. These are platforming combat challenges that see Cuphead traversing levels filled with regular enemies, traps and obstacles to collect five coins dotted throughout. The Run & Gun levels were later additions to the game, being announced part-way through development, but they are wonderfully designed. Precise controls and clear, colourful visuals make these levels a joy, and my only complaint is I’d like to see more of them since they’re so good. Levels range from treks across treetops to fighting through sinister funfairs, and showcase the wonderful art style.

But it is the bosses where the game really shines, artistically and mechanically. The game utilises its 1930s cartoon style with aplomb, depicting pugilist toads, malicious genies, sexy squid girls and violent vegetables. Part of the pleasure of Cuphead is discovering what weird and wonderful individual is going to show up next. The animations are sublime and energetic, while easy to read cues mean that the style is not only gorgeous, but functionally excellent as well.

Fighting these creatures is a joy. Whether you’re using the default pea shooter, the close range spread shot, or any one of the other four gun types available, fights are varied and energetic. They really possess that sense of ‘this is impossible’ followed by ‘I see how to do this’ and then ‘I’ve nailed this’. If you are struggling on a fight, mixing up your loadout - guns, as well as one of the various charms, including an invincibility dodge or an extra health point - can change the course of the bout dramatically. And when you die, a progress bar shows you how far into the fight you got, and how many phases of the boss are left. It’s a game designed around teaching you how to get better at it, with everything from the character animations to the post-death screen giving you clues on how to develop your skill. Very rarely did I feel like I was making no progress on a boss; even in sections where I was dying in the same place over and over, I could feel my skills - utilising the weapons, learning to time my parries etc - improving. For a game that’s about dying and retrying a lot, progress feels almost constant.

For some of the bosses, Cuphead takes to the skies, flying a plane as he decimates his foes. These levels function as lovely classic shoot ‘em up style fights, usually throwing regular enemies at you alongside the screen-filling bosses. The shmup levels provide even further variety to the already varied boss fights, and serve as yet another love letter to the genres that inspired the game.

There has been a lot of chatter about Cuphead’s difficulty, about it being hardcore, and to an extent it is a difficult game, but it’s also a very accessible one for the run and gun shooter genre. Boss fights have a Simple mode that essentially serve as training modes, letting you get used to some of the easier fight patterns before moving onto Regular. Chances are if you’re super struggling in a Regular fight, changing your loadout is what will help. The game is tough but fair, doing everything it can to help you improve.

For instance, I’m not normally very good at games like this, despite loving Gunstar Heroes, Mega Man, Metal Slug and the like. And yet I was able to see Cuphead through to completion, with my save file currently sitting on 105% (there’s an Expert mode to unlock post-game, as well as a bunch of secrets to find). This is the sign of a game that respects is players, and a developer who genuinely wants you to constantly improve at the game and get to see everything. I feel like playing Cuphead has helped improve my overall skill level in the genre itself, which goes to show how good a job it does at coaching its players.

From the backgrounds to the animations to the bold colours, Cuphead is  a love letter both to classic cartoons and platform-shooters, fine tuned and tweaked so it plays like a dream. It also manages to take a certain much-maligned gaming trope and turn it into something wonderful. Without spoilers, this part actually ended up being one of my favourite sections in the game. You’ll know when you get there.

Cuphead Where to Buy

And you should get there. If you have any interest at all in platformers, 2D shooters or both, Cuphead is an absolute must-play. It is the pinnacle of the genre, and deserves to go down in history as an all-time classic. While I would’ve liked more Run & Gun levels, that’s due to the fact they’re so excellent, rather than the fact six isn’t enough. I hope we get to see a sequel with more of its mayhem. But if we don’t, Cuphead stands alone as one of the most satisfying, enjoyable and well-crafted video games of the year.