Cuphead

I read in lot of places that this was like a super-hardcore Super Mario Land, and I was really excited to play it. It really isn't though - just a series of bosses all drawn in beautiful old-timey cartoon style. Rather than being difficult, what's needed here is a lot of patience - die over and over until you have loaded each boss's attack patterns into your muscle-memory, then defeat boss. Then start all over with a new boss. 'Difficulty' is padded out with some fairly cynical time-wasting tactics (the board game style level with mini-bosses springs to mind). The acrobatics and shooting aren't bad, but aren't exactly revolutionary either. I beat the Devil, but didn't get S rank on everything - I'll leave that up to the masochists.

I'm not a fan of shooty games. I ain't never touched a Megaman, Contra, not even modern iterations like Gungeon. The main reason I gave Cuphead a shot (heh) at all is the art style. The game's style is undeniably gorgeous and I'm a sucker for the rubberhose Fleischer age of classic animation. So I figured even I would end up not liking the game much, I'm happy to toss some cash at the animators who worked on this. And turns out I really cannot bring myself to enjoy Cuphead. I played through roughly 60% of the game before I called it quits. I would say overall it's closest to Megaman in terms of gameplay. The many bosses are meant to be beaten in a very specific manner, with next to no deviation possible. You can only take 3 hits and upgrades are very limited and always come at a cost. Your character feels very heavy. Cuphead is a brick that jumps like a brick and moves like a brick. The screen is tiny and gives you almost no wriggle room for maneuvering and dodging. Controls are extremely sensitive. Movement requires brain surgery levels of precision. The utter lack of leeway for mistakes turns the game from fun into a sheer test of pixel precision patience. Missed a single jump by a nanometer? Welp you're dead. Screw you. Lastly, hit boxes are wonky. There's always so much stuff bouncing and wiggling across the screen that it's becomes a challenge of its own to figure out which of this stuff will hurt you and what is just background flavoring. Oh and lastly, the plane missions are just awful. Because the only thing I hate more than shooty games are SHMUPs. Bah. All in all I had a very frustrating time with Cuphead. And for the most part it's because it is simply not my kind of genre. But if you like run&gun fair, you will probably enjoy it a lot more than I did.

Cuphead is extremely difficult. Unlike any other game I played, the player character cannot heal at all. Completing levels requires hundreds of attempts; you need to learn enemy attack patterns and avoid them almost perfectly. I completed about half of the game until I realized, that the excessive grind required to beat it is anything but enjoyable. The visuals alone aren’t enough to motivate me to finish it.

You'll die a lot, you'll curse a lot, you'll rage quit a lot and you'll have lots of fun in the process. Of course there are tons of games that are WAAAY easier than this one, but none of them will be as rewarding. Plus, the soundtrack is one of the best things you'll hear in your life. Go buy it. It is THAT awesome.

The “Overview” sums up the game pretty well. I really like both the art style and the soundtracks. The pacing of the game is very intense and fits well with short bursts of playtime. Cuphead is not about memorizing everything because attacks don’t always come in the same pattern, so you’re force to develop your reflexes. Usually, you can anticipate the next attack by a short “wind up”. I’m a bit bad at this type of games, so I found it quite difficult, but this made beating levels even more rewarding. Rating: Mugman is the Luigi of “Cuphead”. *Editors' Pick* http://pixelloot.com