History VideoGame / Cuphead

''Cuphead: Don't Deal with the Devil'' is a RunAndGun game developed by Studio MDHR for UsefulNotes/XboxOne, [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows PC]], Platform/{{Steam}}, Website/GOGDotCom, [[Platform/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and Platform/PlayStation4.

''Cuphead: Don't Deal with the Devil'' is a RunAndGun game developed by Studio MDHR for UsefulNotes/XboxOne, [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows PC]], UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, Website/GOGDotCom, [[UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1515.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[AnnouncerChatter Good day for a swell battle!]]'']]

* [[DubNameChange/{{Cuphead}} Dub Name Change]]

A downloadable expansion titled ''The Delicious Last Course''[[note]]Get it? [[FunWithAcronyms DLC]].[[/note]] was announced in 2018; initially scheduled for a 2019 release date, it was pushed back to 2020, then delayed indefinitely due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic before eventually being released on June 30th, 2022. The downloadable content adds an extra island with additional bosses, a new story, and extra playable character in [[PromotedToPlayable the formerly non-playable]] Legendary Chalice, now brought back to life as Ms. Chalice.

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* SceneryPorn: The 1930s cartoon aesthetics, the scenery, the visuals, the backgrounds... they're all just ''absolutely gorgeous''.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Defying this trope will lead to the game's DownerEnding. Playing it straight leads to the GoldenEnding.
* SdrawkcabSpeech: [[spoiler: Viewing the bad ending and returning to the title screen will cause the cheery quartet's audio to be played backwards.]]
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The end of the game proclaims that "Cuphead and Mugman promised to never wander into trouble again... And they didn't — until the next time of course! But that's another story." Likewise, you hear King Dice's laughter after the credits. With the release of the DLC, it looks like we got to see what happened when Cuphead and Mugman wandered into trouble again.]]
* SequentialBoss: Except for King Dice and his court and the King's Leap bosses, every boss has multiple stages to their fight, although [[AntiFrustrationFeatures the number of stages is reduced if you're on Simple Mode]]. In fact, there's enough examples that this game now needs [[SequentialBoss/{{Cuphead}} its own page]].
* ShapedLikeItself: Cuphead has a cup for a head. Mugman is a man whose [[JustForPun mug is a mug]]. The duo is sometimes referred to as "mugs", a StealthPun on "mug" in the metaphorical sense of someone who's been foolishly taken advantage of.
* ShaveAndAHaircut: Played at the end of the track, "Winner Takes All".
* SheatheYourSword: An EasterEgg in "Botanic Panic!": Ollie Bulb (the onion in the second phase) won't actually attack unless you hit him first. If you leave him alone he'll simply leave the fight; instead, a radish pops out during the third phase to make up the difference. Similarly, you can do the same to the pups in Doggone Dogfight, although you still need to bring their health down low, and you'll fight an alternate third phase that lacks the normal phase's InterfaceScrew.
* ShootTheDog: The whole game, really. In order to save their and everyone else's souls, Cuphead and Mugman have to play along with their deal with the Devil, roughing up every unfortunate person who ran up a debt with the fiend and collect their contracts. Even more pronounced in the ''Delicious Last Course'', where you're roughing up random characters who just happen to have the items that Chef Saltbaker needs to make the Wondertart.
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/{{Cuphead}} Listed on a separate page]].
* ShownTheirWork:
** You can tell that the team did their research on the style of old cartoons, right down to the color coordination. And [[https://twitter.com/StudioMDHR/status/906402487049080832/photo/1 lack of]] [[https://twitter.com/StudioMDHR/status/901067313180495872 color consistency]].
** One of the songs in the game's soundtrack, "Floral Fury", was based on Creator/CarmenMiranda's Carnival tunes that composer Kristofer Maddigan was listening to while he was in Brazil with his team of musicians.
* SmokeOut: An early specialty upgrade is a smoke bomb, which lets the boys turn their Dash move into a FlashStep, bypassing everything between its start and end points.
* SpiritualSuccessor:
** To ''VideoGame/SilhouetteMirage'', a similar notoriously difficult 2D Platformer/Shoot 'Em Up hybrid starring a red and blue main character who also uses a FingerGun that shoots energy blasts as their main attack, with quite a bit of religious symbolism in it, really weird and creative bosses as the main meat of the game, a very exaggerated cartoony style, and an animal shopkeeper that you buy different shots and power-ups from using coins found in the levels.
** ''Cuphead'' has some similarities to ''Contra'' as well. And given the doubtful and uncertain future that's been cast over ''Contra'' by Konami's executive meddling, ''Cuphead'' may be the only great-quality game that can take its place in the 2D Run-and-Gun genre.
** And to an extent, ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}''. Both are NintendoHard CuteEmUp games started out on Microsoft platforms[[note]]''Parodius'' started out on UsefulNotes/{{MSX}}, while ''Cuphead'' started out on Xbox One and Windows, both Spiritual Successors to MSX[[/note]], and share some other similarities as well. Also, like ''Contra'', ''Parodius''' future is uncertain given by Konami's executive meddling, so ''Cuphead'' could be a spiritual VideoGameRemake of ''Parodius'' for [[UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames eighth-generation gaming systems]].
* SpreadShot: Cuphead and Mugman can use this as one of their weapons; it has a good spread but limited range. Several bosses in the game also utilize this kind of attack.
* StandardSnippet: "Aviary Action", the boss theme for Wally Warbles, has a tiny section of ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ride of the Valkyries]]'' around a third of the way through.
* StarterVillain: The residents of Inkwell Isle 1. They're tough (except for maybe the Root Pack), but not as tough as bosses get later on. While they get some pretty unusual transformations, most of their initial forms and phases are pretty simple.
* TheStinger: At the end of the credits, [[spoiler:King Dice]] pops in for some parting words:
-->[[spoiler:'''King Dice:''' That's all there is. There isn't any more... [[TheEndOrIsIt or is there?]] Ha ha ha...]]
* StealthPun:
** Chauncey Chantenay of the Root Pack has a ThirdEye he shoots [[EyeBeams laser beams]] from, referencing how carrots are good for eyesight.
** Rumor Honeybottoms attacks with a ''buzz''saw in her final phase. Also, what's a slang term for ''rumor''? "The buzz".
** Just how did this mess begin in the first place? By making a DealWithTheDevil. Why did the characters have to do this? Because they were ''mug'' punters.
** If you know how to activate it, Djimmi will gladly give you extra hearts. A Game Djimmi, if you will.
* StopPokingMe: If you keep talking to the newspaper-hawking cat in ''The Delicious Last Course'', he'll eventually make fun of you by saying, "Extry! Extry! Troublesome Cups Bother Newsie!"
* StorybookOpening: The game opens with a live-action storybook cutscene explaining Cuphead's situation, and closes out the same way. [[spoiler:(In the Good Ending, at least.)]]
* StylisticSuck:
** The game even makes the same coloring mistakes [[https://twitter.com/StudioMDHR/status/901067313180495872 as its inspirations.]]
** The music is deliberately lower quality in-game than on the soundtrack. The audio quality of certain voicelines (especially Porkrind's) is also purposely poor, the same level of quality as in older cartoons.
* SugarBowl: The aptly-named Sugarland from "Sugarland Shimmy", as ruled over by Baroness Von Bon Bon.
* SurpriseCreepy: Most people wouldn't expect a game based on 1930s cartoons to have unsettling imagery. But rather than going for pure character appeal, the developers captured everything that could be considered unsettling about cartoons at the time. Cagney Carnation's NightmareFace attack is especially notable.
* TakeYourTime: Despite the Devil saying Cuphead must collect the soul contracts before the midnight of tomorrow, players can take much time as they want in the game. They can even have a rematch with the beaten debtors!
* TechnicalPacifist: If it can even be called that. The Pacifist achievement requires you to get through the run-n-gun stages without shooting any enemies. Parrying, however, is perfectly fine, even if the objects you parry are actually alive and sentient.
* TheTetrisEffect: Many players record wanting to parry every pink object they see in real life thanks to this game.
* ThreateningShark: Captain Brineybeard can summon one to attack you from behind during his fight.
* ThroatSlittingGesture:
** During the beginning of her boss fight, Baroness Von Bon Bon runs her forefinger alongside her neck, complete with her briefly [[LosingYourHead losing her head]]. She also has [[https://cuphead.fandom.com/wiki/Baroness_Von_Bon_Bon?file=Bandicam_2018-04-12_16-45-34-924.jpg an unused icon]] involving her making the same gesture.
** Cala Maria's first game over card has her sliding her index finger along her neck.
* TokenHuman: Captain Brineybeard, Sally Stageplay, and Dr. Kahl are the only human bosses. Notably, none of them have transformations of their own (though Kahl has a giant robot and Brineybeard's ship turns into a monster). Baroness Von Bon Bon looks human, but can detach her head, throw it as a homing projectile and regrow it, and Hilda Berg seemingly starts off as a human before quickly inhaling and transforming into a blimp as the battle starts.
* {{Toon}}: Every character in the game is this as an homage to the animation from the Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer cartoons back in the 1930s.
* {{Tradesnark}}: Multiple bits of the interface, like the equipment and pause menus, are copyrighted to "[=MDHR, Inc.=]" circa 1930.
* TreeTrunkTour: Treetop Trouble, complete with territorial bugs and birds.
* TurnsRed: Most of the bosses do this, changing their attack patterns and forms drastically as they take damage, usually with separate game over quotes for each form.
* UpdatedRerelease:
** The 1.2 patch (which is the launch version for Switch and [=PS4=]) has new features compared to the base game. You can now choose whether to play as Cuphead or Mugman in single player; the text is fully localized in 11 languages; the mid-story cutscenes are now fully animated rather than being still images as in the original game; there are some extra animations (such as new intro animations for the brothers, an animation for when the Legendary Chalice grants a Super Art, and a curtain call at the end of "Dramatic Fanatic"); and three of the bosses ("Botanic Panic", "Pyramid Peril", and "Dramatic Fanatic") have extra attack phases if certain conditions are met. To wit:
*** "Botanic Panic": If you don't attack Ollie when you get to him, he'll leave of his own accord. But a radish named Horace Radiche will pop up alongside Chauncey, and attack you on the ground while you're dodging Chauncey's homing carrots and psychic blasts.
*** "Pyramid Peril": If you stay shrunk when you reach the Cuppet phase in Djimmi's fight, he'll create a smaller puppet, which skips that phase entirely but adds an extra obstacle during his final phase.
*** "Dramatic Fanatic": During the first phase of Sally's fight, there are some cherub props that can be reached by parrying off the kiss projectiles Sally blows at you. Stand on each of them until they click, and a background chandelier [[SquashedFlat will crush the husband in the background]] to end the first act. The second act replaces the home setting with a nunnery, with a nun throwing rulers at you from the windows. The third act will now have a prop cutout of the husband alongside Sally, and one of the babies that would've dropped bottles on you in the second phase now appear here pushing out "fireballs" toward you to dodge along with the usual attacks. The final phase is largely the same, but now the nun appears in the curtain call instead of the husband.
** ''The Delicious Last Course'' also brought two free updates to the base game. A new ferryman character acts as a WarpWhistle between the Inkwell Isles (as well as Inkwell Isle 4 if the DLC is downloaded), and spinning in place three times on the overworld unlocks Game Djimmi, who maxes out your health on lower difficulties.
* UnlockableDifficultyLevels: An "Expert" difficulty becomes available for all the levels after beating the game once.
* UvulaEscapeRoute:
** Played with. While at no point does it swallow you, the only way to do damage to Captain Brineybeard's ship in its final phase is to shoot its uvula.
** The same applies for when you're SwallowedWhole by Glumstone the Giant in ''The Delicious Last Course'' -- while you're not freed immediately, you have to shoot his uvula to end the fight.
* VagueHitPoints: The bosses have HitPoints, technically, and if a battle is lost, the screen that's displayed shows the boss's LifeMeter, but since you're supposed to hold down the fire button and focus on dodging attacks, the LifeMeter is more meant as a record of how far the player got instead of acting as a useful in-combat piece of information.
* VariableMix:
** As discussed in [[http://www.vgmonline.net/kristofer-maddigan-interview/ this interview]], each music track has several different variations with unique solo sections, which are randomly selected each time you enter a boss.
** Additionally, the songs themselves will play differently depending on the circumstances: pausing the game or opening your inventory will muffle the music, using a Super Move will detune and speed it up, and dying will cause a RecordNeedleScratch followed by [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand the music slowing to a crawl]].
** In the Devil's boss fight, the music transitions between two separate tunes depending on his phase -- "Admission to Perdition" plays during the first phase, "One Hell of a Time" plays during the rest.
** "Baking the Wondertart", the final boss theme for ''The Delicious Last Course'', also transitions between different sections depending on the boss's phase, though it's all part of the same tune.
* VideoGameCaringPotential:
** In Inkwell Isle II, you can help a trio of barbershop pole singers find their fourth member and be rewarded with a song.
** Introduced alongside the Switch version's release, when battling the Root Pack Gang, you can choose not to attack Ollie, who will sigh in relief after a few nervous moments and gladly leave. Horace Radiche will take his place and fight alongside Chauncey, making the end stage harder to play, but [[MercyRewarded it takes less time for Ollie to disappear than it does to be attacked and defeated, giving speedrunners and S-graders a tangible incentive for their kindness]].
** In the second phase of the ''Delicious Last Course's'' "Doggone Dogfight", you can opt to damage the four jetpack puppies enough instead of shooting any of them down. Doing so will cause their mother's airship to take them into safety and lead to a different final phase that [[MercyRewarded lacks the regular version's]] InterfaceScrew.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: In Dramatic Fanatic, [[spoiler:standing on both of the cherubs during the first phase will drop a piece of scenery on top of Sally's husband and make her mourn his loss. He's briefly reincarnated during the third phase, but [[KilledOffForReal doesn't show up afterwards]].]]
* VideoGameDashing: Cuphead and Mugman can both dash in any direction to get out of harm's way. They can also buy various upgrades to improve it, such as one that makes them invisible and invulnerable while dashing. Midair dashes (without or without the smoke-bomb) become downright mandatory in a lot of the later missions, since the game has no DoubleJump feature.
* VillainSong: [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/die-house "Die House"]] is sung by King Dice, TheDragon to the Devil, threatening Cuphead and Mugman and reminding them who's boss. It features many CreepyJazzMusic elements, such as a call-and-response segment, that bring to mind some of the haunting tunes by Music/CabCalloway, who was a big influence on the game's soundtrack.
-->"Don't mess with King Dice! (Don't mess with King Dice!)\\
Don't mess with me! (Don't mess with him!)"
* VisualPun: The game is chock-full of it.
** The bees in Rumor Honeybottoms' boss fight fly in front of cells with tiny office rooms inside. They're office drones, as well as literal "worker bees". A police officer, or in British slang a Bo-''bee'', attacks you during the first phase with self propelled bombs, which could be a reference to ''buzz''-bombs, British slang for V-1 flying bombs. Rumor Honeybottoms also later attacks you with a ''buzz''-saw. While in the form of a ''Bee''-52 bomber.
** One of Wally Warbles' attacks in his final phase sees his head turn into a trash can and spit its contents at you. He's trash talking you.
** A blink-and-miss-it moment, but defeating Baroness Von Bon Bon's cupcake guard will make the cherry on top of him explode. It's a cherry bomb.
* VoiceGrunting: Elder Kettle and the few other characters who speak during gameplay utilize this.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: As another nod to the golden age's trend of having cartoon characters morph into inanimate objects as throwaway visual gags, various characters in this game do the same thing. This time around the trope is ''weaponized'', ranging from Cagney Carnation turning his head into a machine gun to Rumor Honeybottoms morphing into a bomber plane to Beppi shapeshifting into an ''entire carousel''.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Cagney Carnation, for sure. He's the first ground boss to start invoking BulletHell and will force you to pay attention to not only where the attacks come from, but also stay cognizant of his distinct wind-ups and whatever follows; things you'll need to learn if you want to get far in the game. Fittingly, he's the final boss unlocked for the first world.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: If you stall in pursuing [[spoiler:the Devil's skeleton]] down a hole (with the "GO" arrow pointing downward), the walls of fire will close in on you and push you in by burning force. Basically, [[VisualPun they are fire walls]]!
** In a more subtle example of this, during the final phase of the fight against [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker]], two salt pillars steadily close in on you, forcing you to finish off [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker's heart]] and finish the fight as quickly as possible.
* WarmUpBoss: Goopy Le Grande and The Root Pack are the first two bosses available at the start, and both are pretty simple, with Goopy having only telegraphed melee attacks and The Root Pack having easy to dodge projectiles. Also, as the first shoot-em-up boss, Hilda Berg mostly serves to introduce you to the new mechanics. Much like a lot of the other early bosses, her attack tells are fairly easy to read, any gimmicks she throws out are not very difficult to manage. Even when she goes OneWingedAngel in her final phase, the bullet density is nowhere ''near'' as bad as the shoot-em-up bosses are later on.
* WaveMotionGun: Captain Brineybeard's ship unleashes one in its final phase with a MakeMeWannaShout.
* WhamLine: Near the end of ''The Delicious Last Course'', [[spoiler: if the ominous dungeon beneath the bakery and forboding music didn't give it away, Chef Saltbaker clearly spells out his true colors when you meet him inside the dungeon.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Chef Saltbaker:''' A shame I never told you about the most important secret ingredient [to the Wondertart]... ''[moves aside to reveal the unused cup captured]'' ...A living soul! While you suckers were out doing my bidding, I nabbed your little friend here.]]
* WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath:
** Cuphead and Mugman's death animation. In co-op, the surviving player can parry the soul to resurrect them, but they're only revived with [[OneHitPointWonder 1 hit point]], and the soul will float away faster after every subsequent death.
** Parodied during the fight with Sally Stageplay. After beating her second phase, her dress turns into an angel costume and she's pulled offscreen by a pulley.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones:
** One of Hilda Berg's attacks consists of shouting the word "HA" at you.
** The tubas in the Funhouse Frazzle run-n-gun level attack by projecting a loud "BWAAAAA!!!"
** The Yankee Yippers of the Howling Aces attack you by firing the letters B, O, and W at you.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:The credits of the DLC show what community service Chef Saltbaker had to go through with the other bosses -- he had to grow berries with Glumstone and the gnomes, help the Moonshine Mob reform, brush the teeth of Mortimer's whale, serve sphagetti at Esther's saloon, repair the plane of the Bulldog of the Howling Aces, and play checkers with the King of Games.]]
* XRaySparks: Cala Maria suffers this after defeating her first form, courtesy of PsychoElectricEel bite.
* YourSoulIsMine:
** Unusually for this trope, Cuphead and Mugman don't need to directly collect any souls, only needing contracts granting ownership of a person's soul.
** In the DLC, [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker captures one of the cups' souls to use as the final ingredient for his Wondertart]].
[[/folder]]

* Cuphead/TropesNToR
* Cuphead/TropesSToZ

* NewGamePlus: After beating the game once, Expert difficulty is unlocked, which gives the bosses more difficult attack patterns. Expert bosses go up to S rank rather than A+.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The entire plot is Cuphead's own fault; it was him getting greedy at the Devil's casino and ignoring Mugman's warning that led to the brothers becoming servants to the Devil. Given that the owner of the casino is the Devil, notorious for his deception skills in real-life religious mythology, it wouldn't be far-fetched to theorize that he had used supernatural means to rig the brothers' rolls all along.
* NintendoHard: The developers aimed to capture the difficulty of RunAndGun games during the 1980s and 1990s, despite the visuals resembling something from half a century earlier. Even in press demos, very few players cleared some of the bosses' final forms. Indeed, there are no checkpoints in the action and boss stages, and the only free health pick-ups in the whole game are granted on three randomly chosen fights against King Dice's minions. You can, however, purchase an option to start with one or two extra hit points at the cost of slightly or largely decreasing your attack power, respectively. Reflexes, memorization, and careful choice of weapons are absolutely essential to beating this game.
* NoFairCheating: Winning any run and gun stage/boss with the Game Djimmi cheat activated (which maxes your HP count to nine) will bar you from getting a higher ranking than B+, regardless of your performance, preventing you from getting 100% completion. It is also disabled when playing in the expert difficulty, regardless of if you've activated it or not.
* NoNameGiven: Several of the bosses' minions, such as Sally's husband, and Rumor's officer. More end up coming in the DLC, such as the names of the King of Games' Champions, the parents of the Howling Aces, and the members of the Moonshine Mob.
* NonHumanHead: The two protagonists of the game are cups with human-like bodies.
* NonIronicClown: Naturally, there are a few in the AmusementPark-themed Inkwell Isle 2:
** A juggling clown NPC gives you a coin if you can perform a 4x combo with the parry move.
** The anthropomorphic barber poles that make up the barbershop quartet, who are glad to perform for Cuphead and Mugman, resemble clowns due to their white heads and red noses.
** Double subverted with Beppi the Clown. He's one of the game's bosses who made a DealWithTheDevil in the past. [[spoiler:But in the Good ending, when Cuphead and Mugman destroy the bosses' contracts, he joins the bosses in congratulating the two. Like the other bosses, he seems to be not that bad of a guy when he isn't fighting to save his soul.]]
* NoobBridge: Downplayed example. One of the [[FinalBoss Devil's]] attacks is a slap which ''can'' be dodged with a jump and a dash, but it's tricky to pull off. Or the player can simply duck under it. Since ducking is never really required anywhere else in the game, many players forget about the simpler option, at least for a time. This was patched out, however, suggesting it to be an oversight. There are still several other boss attacks throughout the game where ducking is the simple option.
* NPCRoadblock: King Dice acts as this, preventing Cuphead and Mugman from reaching the next area until they've completed the current one. Oddly, though amazingly, he has a VillainSong explicitly for this role.
* ObstructiveForeground: One reason it's considered a NintendoHard game.
* OminousPipeOrgan: The Mausoleum stages combine organ and theremin music, fitting their haunted nature.
* OneHitKill: Averted. Anything that hurts Cuphead and Mugman does 1 [=HP=] of damage, gives MercyInvincibility, and won't do damage when under invincibility, on all difficulty settings.
* OneWingedAngel: All of the bosses have multiple forms, but Hilda Berg takes the cake by turning into a gigantic moon.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** In a game where most characters either have a perpetual smile or, less likely, perpetual frown (excluding when they're beaten of course), seeing [[spoiler:the Devil change from a smile, to a frown, to outright crying as Cuphead/Mugman beat him down gives the final battle a dramatic vibe]].
** Cuphead and Mugman normally strike a confident pose before they square off against a boss, but they instead panic when the Devil taunts them before his battle, showing how much of a threat he is compared to other foes. In the DLC, they and Ms. Chalice also react this way to [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker, once he reveals [[EvilAllAlong his true intentions]] and AxCrazy personality]].
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Grim Matchstick is a large green dragon with EyeBeams and the ability to spit fireballs.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Cala Maria is a giant mermaid with an octopus for hair. When she takes enough damage, electric eels bite and shock her to the point that the tentacles of her octopus hair becomes snakes, turning her into a gorgon.
* Over100PercentCompletion: Completion for Expert mode is counted on top of your completion for Regular mode, so if you beat every boss on both difficulties, it'll go up to 200% complete. The DLC is tracked separately and split 50/50 for the two difficulties, meaning you can bring your total completion up to 200% + 100%.[[note]]If your first clear of a boss is on Expert, the game will also assume you beat it on Regular. It's normally not possible to do this, since Expert unlocks after clearing the game, but if you use a glitch that stores your selected difficulty from a different file, you can start a boss on Expert before unlocking the option.[[/note]]
* PacifistRun: The Run and Gun levels have the top secret "P Rank", only available if Cuphead and Mugman can get through it without shooting anything. [[spoiler:Getting P Rank in all six run-and-gun levels unlocks black-and-white mode and vintage mode, which apply era-appropriate effects to the visuals and audio respectively.]]
* ParryingBullets: Cuphead and Mugman can "parry slap" [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience anything pink]], from bullets to bricks and even each other's hearts, gaining energy, making the player jump higher, and/or doing other unique things (e.g., reviving a fallen partner or moving a level setpiece.)
* PatchworkMap: While the first three Inkwell Isles each have a consistent theme ([[GreenHillZone grassy plains]], {{amusement park}}, [[MetropolisLevel big city]]), Inkwell Isle 4 is more varied; it has a small town, a snowy mountain range, a haunted graveyard, an underground cave, and a western desert.
* ThePawnsGoFirst:
** Baroness Von Bon Bon's fight is like this. The first three phases are each against one of her five minions, chosen at random (cupcake, waffle, jawbreaker, candy corn, gumball machine). Bon Bon herself only starts fighting during the third phase, firing a shotgun at you, and relies mostly on her living castle in the fourth and last one.
** In a more literal sense, the King's Leap tournament starts with the Pawns, who are the easiest of the champions to beat.
* PieEyed: Most characters display this. It naturally comes with the territory when you're emulating early [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation golden age]] animation. The gold coins also have this design.
* PietaPlagiarism: In the Nintendo Switch and Patch 1.2 versions, during Sally Stageplay's third phase, the cardboard cutout of her husband [[spoiler:(if you squished him via FallingChandelierOfDoom)]] parodies the ''Pieta'' by striking a pose similar to that of the "Rest" part of the Statue of the Gods in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (see ShoutOut).
* {{Pirate}}:
** Captain Brineybeard is a giant Brute Pirate, attacking you from atop his ship as [[TheBeastmaster he summons basically everything in the ocean to try and kill you]]. Oh, and the ship and its cargo are alive and trying to do that too.
** There's also a PirateGirl on the overworld who advises you to use different weapons for different bosses.
* PlatformBattle:
** Cagney Carnation's final form does have a floor, but it's covered in thorns, making it just as useless as a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}. You need to hop from platform to platform to avoid his attacks.
** Grim Matchstick's boss fight has you jump on moving cloud platforms in the air.
** Rumor Honeybottoms' boss fight is a RiseToTheChallenge scenario where the giant hive's apartment balconies serve as platforms.
** The Devil's second and later forms take place in an arena with no floor and an ever-decreasing number of floating platforms.
** Glumstone the Giant has a rather similar fight to Cagney in that the platforms are only an option that can be used to dodge certain attacks. His final phase requires the cups to jump from skull to skull, lest they be damaged by Glumstone's digestive acid.
** Doggone Dogfight has you running from side to side on a plane to dodge the bosses' attacks. You control the plane's position by standing on it's sides.
** [[spoiler:The final phase of Chef Saltbaker's battle has you jumping from platform to platform as they sink into a {{bottomless pit|s}}, whilst dodging and hitting his heart.]]
** For the dragonfly miniboss in Treetop Trouble, the boys jump from leaf to leaf being held up by friendly mosquitoes. The dragonfly breathes fire that can burn the platforms, making them unavailable until the mosquito for that leaf fetches another.
** The hot dog miniboss in Funfair Fever fires condiments at the boys, who must make their way across a series of platforms to get close enough and destroy it.
* PlayerElimination: When a player dies during co-op play, their ghost will float up from wherever they died. The surviving player can parry their ghost to revive them, and the dead player is eliminated otherwise.
* PleaseIWillDoAnything: When Cuphead loses his and Mugman's souls in the casino, both brothers get on their knees and beg the Devil if there's anything they can do to save their souls. The Devil agrees to give them a chance, tasking them with collecting the soul contracts of everyone in debt to the Devil in exchange for their lives.
* PostDefeatExplosionChain: Bosses are wracked by repeated explosions after being defeated, although they aren't physically destroyed.
* PowerTrio: As of ''The Delicious Last Course'', Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice form one as the three playable protagonists of the game.
* PragmaticAdaptation:
** While the game otherwise sticks to emulating classic cartoons to a T, the developers made a conscious decision to avoid references to the racial caricatures that often appeared in the cartoons the game is based off of.
** While the animation runs at 24 FPS like the old cartoons it's based on, the actual game underneath the hood runs at 60 FPS, like most games of the modern era.
* ProtagonistTitle: The story revolves around two heroes, but only Cuphead gets top billing ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero most likely because he's the one that gets them both in trouble]]).
* ProtectionMission: The mausoleum levels are this. None of the {{Mooks}} can directly hurt you, but if they reach the urn in the center of the screen [[spoiler:where the Legendary Chalice is imprisoned]], it's an instant Game Over.
* PsychoElectricEel: The second stage of Cala Maria's boss battle begins with two of these zapping[=/=]biting and turning her into a GorgeousGorgon. Loads of these eels proceed to help her until the final stage is triggered.
* RabbitMagician: One of the members of King Dice's Court that can be fought with in the level "All Bets Are Off" is Hopus Pocus, a KillerRabbit that attacks by conjuring up playing card symbols and rabbit skulls.
* RankInflation: You can achieve S-Ranks for defeating [[HarderThanHard Expert]] bosses perfectly, and P-Ranks for a PacifistRun, which in turn raises one's completion well over 100%.
* RecordNeedleScratch: Get killed, and you hear one of these followed by a slower version of that area's background music.
* RegionalRiff: "Pyramid Peril", theme of Djimmi the Great, features a brief modified section of "The Streets of Cairo".
* ResourcefulRodent: Werner Werman fights by using a tank that's been made from various household junk (a tin can, rubber bands, and wood) and he was able to turn a bottlecap into a buzz saw.
* {{Retraux}}: The whole game is inspired by 1930s cartoons. There's even a grain filter and simulated 24 FPS frame-rate to complete the effect. It's taken further with two hidden visual filters: [[spoiler:2-strip (only red and blue hues) for getting many A-grades and then talking to the fork character in Inkwell Isle 3, and black-and-white for completing the pacifist runs]].
* RhymesOnADime: Most of the death quotes, and some of the boss fight scene names that aren't alliterative (Botanic Panic, Dramatic Fanatic, Ruse of an Ooze, etc.).
* RidiculousRepossession: The titular character and his brother Mugman end up being forced to become the repo men for the Devil after losing the bet in TheCasino, and were ordered to repossess all soul contracts of those who made the DealWithTheDevil. Said repossessions involve fighting said debtors, who are not surrendering their contracts without the fight, in a long chain of [[NintendoHard painfully difficult boss fights]].
* RiseToTheChallenge: ''Honeycomb Herald'' requires you to jump up from one platform to another to avoid the rising honey. The same occurs in [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker's]] fight in the ''Delicious Last Course''.
* RollAndMove: The King Dice fight is a BossBonanza set up as an {{homage}} to the ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes'' Dice Palace, this time modeled after a craps game. In this case, the die is spinning in the air on its own, and you parry it to determine how it lands. (The die spins in a consistent pattern, at a consistent speed, so in this case rolling the desired number is a test of skill, not luck.) Depending on how well or poorly you roll, you fight as few as three or as many as nine minibosses before fighting King Dice himself.
* RPGElements: You can collect money in platform stages, allowing you to buy special abilities, charms, bullets, or special attacks.
* RubberHoseLimbs: Most of the characters in ''Cuphead'' have these, as per the game's artistic inspiration. Some emphasize it more than others, depending on how much DerangedAnimation is involved in their battles.
* RunAndGun: The game's genre, of course, taking direct inspiration from ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes''. Ironically, the actual Run and Gun gameplay levels were only added into the game after fans suggested it to fill the game out. The game was originally just going to be one boss after the next.
* RuleOfCool: Some of the bosses' transformations during a fight are really odd, such as the two frogs that turn into a slot machine. But the boss fights are so cool you don't care.
* RuleOfThree: Get hit three times and your character bites it. Averted if you buy a health buddy charm that gives you one or two more hits at the cost of dealing less damage, and the characters can be saved if the surviving partner is quick enough to revive them; however, the window to revive them grows smaller the more deaths they accumulate.
* SceneryPorn: The 1930s cartoon aesthetics, the scenery, the visuals, the backgrounds... they are all just ''absolutely gorgeous''.

[[folder:#-M]]
* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Each file keeps a completion tracker. To get 100%, you have to beat every boss (any rank will do), clear all the run & gun and Mausoleum stages, and collect every coin, including those hidden on the overworld. Beating every boss on Expert [[Over100PercentCompletion adds an extra 100%]] on top of that. The DLC's completion is tracked separately, and only goes up to 100%; it still entails beating all the bosses (on both Normal and Expert) and collecting all the coins.
* ActionDressRip: {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with Sally Stageplay, as she tears away her entire wedding dress before the start of her boss battle to reveal a second dress she's wearing underneath. This outfit then explodes at the end of the second phase to reveal that she's wearing a ''third outfit'', her angel costume.
* ActionGirl:
** Sally Stageplay, Cala Maria, Rumor Honeybottoms, Hilda Berg and Pirouletta fit into this.
** From ''Delicious Last Course'', we have Ms. Chalice, Esther Winchester, the female members of the Howling Aces and Moonshine Mob, and the Queen from the court of the King of Games.
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Due to the long dev time of ''The Delicious Last Course'', Ms. Chalice, Chef Saltbaker, and Glumstone the Giant all appeared in the comics and novels years before the DLC was even released.
* AfterlifeExpress: The Phantom Express gives this vibe, being inhabited by all manner of ghouls, such as a ghost and a giant skeleton. The GameOverMan for the third section claims that the train's only for the dead.
* AirDashing: Both Cuphead and Mugman have the ability to dash in midair, propelling themselves forward after a jump or fall.
* AlliterativeName:
** Many of the bosses (Cagney Carnation, Werner Werman, Sally Stageplay, etc.).
** Many of the boss fight scene names (Fiery Frolic, Pyramid Peril, Honeycomb Herald, etc.).
** All six run-and-gun level names.
* AmbidextrousSprite: Averted with King Dice, since he has separate sprites for facing left and right in his boss fight; played straight with Beppi the Clown, since his face switches colors depending on which side he's facing in his first and third phases.
* AmusementParkOfDoom: Both "Funfair Fever" and "Carnival Kerfuffle". "Funfair Fever" is a Run 'n' Gun level, while in "Carnival Kerfuffle", Beppi will use the amusement park attractions to his advantage. "Funhouse Frazzle" is likely set inside this as well.
* AnAesop:
** When you get yourself into trouble, it's up to you to put in your blood, sweat, and tears to get yourself out of trouble. Also, whenever you decide to gamble, it's important to know when to ''stop''.
** The endings present another one: [[spoiler:Don't condemn others for their sins, for you too are a sinner. Cuphead and Mugman handing over the soul contracts to the Devil rather than saving his debtors results in them becoming evil themselves and becoming loyal minions of the Devil, while saving them results in a happy ending where everyone is freed. Condemning the debtors does ''not'' make you the good guy, showing them mercy does.]]
* AnachronismStew: The game is set in the 1930s, yet one of the bosses in King Dice's game is a monkey with cymbals. You know, a toy that was invented in the 1950s?
* AnimatedAdaptation: ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'' on Netflix is inspired by the game.
* AnimateInanimateObject: Keeping with the 1930s theme, practically all objects in the game have a face. Heck, the two protagonists of the game are [[NonHumanHead cups with bodies]].
* AnimationBump:
** Among the main game bosses, The Devil features much more detailed animation than the rest of the game, with more elaborate shading bringing to mind ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' and its "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence rather than the more traditional rubberhose style.
** ''All'' of ''The Delicious Last Course''[='s=] bosses have smoother and more refined animation than the original game, especially evident with the VictoryFakeout in "Bootlegger Boogie" and the InterfaceScrew in "Doggone Dogfight". [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker]] goes a step further than even the Devil -- ''everything'' is moving in that fight, and the elaborate shading and surreal animation are reminiscent of the Coachman in ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' and the Pink Elephants on Parade sequence in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}''.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** Every boss is guaranteed to use at least three parryable attacks during a fight, typically with at least one per phase. If a boss's phase chooses attacks through an AIRoulette where they aren't guaranteed to provide a parryable attack, and they're about to change phases without having done one, they'll go out of their way to do an attack you can parry right before they change. In Goopy Le Grande's case, as he's the only boss without projectile attacks, he'll summon his three parryable objects between the first two phases (they're his {{Confused Question Mark}}s).
** During the BossBonanza with King Dice in the Dice Tower, you will notice that certain mini-boss battles grant a "Health Up" when you land on them and give you an extra hit, labelled as heart icons on the roulette board. If you time hitting the dice properly to get the right number, you can move to these spaces to get some of your health back. Also, [[https://www.vg247.com/2017/12/02/cuphead-patch-eliminates-mugman-army-creation-fixes-rapid-weapon-swap-damage-glitch/ a patch released for the game]] now ensures that if a player dies during each battle with one of the mini-bosses in co-op mode, they will automatically return to life at the King Dice board with 1 HP once their surviving partner has defeated the mini-boss. Oh, and the "Start Over" square will now trigger only once per attempt.
** As of ''The Delicious Last Course'', if you spin in place three times on the overworld, you'll unlock the Game Djimmi, who grants you extra health until you beat a boss. This gives you a bit of relief if you're stuck on a particular stage.
** If you fight King Dice as Ms. Chalice, the heart cards, which you have to parry over to avoid the attack, will have small pink hearts floating above them to allow her dash parry to get her over the other cards.
* AntiPoopSocking: The game delivers you a message to take a break in song form, delivered by the barbershop pole singers once you find the lost member. The name of the song? [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/a-quick-break A Quick Break.]]
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Some bosses have you do this: in particular, the fights with Cagney Carnation and Cala Maria, who only take damage on their heads, and the final phase of Ribby and Croaks and the Phantom Express, which only take damage when they open up their cores (well, the boiler in the Phantom Express's case).
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Many of the bosses practically tower over the two protagonists.
* AutoScrollingLevel: Several instances:
** All of the airplane boss fights are autoscrolling, as well as some non-airplane bosses, which are Baroness Von Bon Bon's final phase in "Sugarland Shimmy", Grim Matchstick in "Fiery Frolic", Rumor Honeybottoms in "Honeycomb Herald", and the Phantom Express in "Railroad Wrath".
** The latter part of "Rugged Ridge" has you being chased by a giant à la the beginning of the Mecha-Dragon fight in VideoGame/MegaMan2.
** One section in "Perilous Piers" has the player riding on an octopus that has an anchor on its head which you need to parry in order to make it to the end.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The usefulness of health charms (which increase your HP but decrease your attack power) depends entirely on whether or not you're gunning for an A+/S rank, where you have to pull off a NoDamageRun anyway. [[spoiler:They're a godsend if you're going for the [[PacifistRun P-rank]] on Run 'n Gun stages, however.]]
* BadassNormal:
** Captain Brineybeard doesn't transform at all, he fights you by summoning sea creatures. [[spoiler:Then his ''boat'' transforms and punts him into the water, or cargo rooms.]]
** Dr. Kahl. For most of the fight, he pilots his robot without entering the battle personally, and even during the final phase, he sits back and laughs while the robot summons gemstones to fire at you.
** Sally Stageplay's pretty much the one boss in the game that doesn't involve some sort of oversized monster at all. She still manages to put up quite a fight.
** Werner Werman doesn't transform at all, he just uses his can tank [[spoiler:and cat robot]].
** The basic enemies in the Run n' Gun levels lack any transformation or special powers. But they are no less relentless than the bosses themselves.
* BaitAndSwitch: The name of the level being "Doggone ''Dogfight''" and appearing as a biplane on the map may trick players into thinking it's another airplane level, but in reality, it's a standard platform shooter where you shoot at the airborne bosses ''while standing on a plane'' piloted by Canteen Hughes.
* BalloonOfDoom: Beppi the Clown has a stretchy, balloon-like body, most noticeable with his bulbous head. In phase 2 of his battle, his body is attached to a giant helium pump, and his head inflates into a giant balloon tied to his body with a string. The pump also shoots out balloon dog heads that [[FlunkyBoss swarm the arena to attack you]].
* BandLand: The second half of Funhouse Frazzle features oversized musical instruments, microphones, and phonographs in the background, in addition to anthropomorphic tubas that serve as enemies.
* BashBrothers:
** Cuphead and Mugman are a literal example, since they actually ''are'' brothers, taking on all manner of monsters together with nothing but a FingerGun and each other (along with magical charms, super arts, and occasionally airplanes).
** The frog brothers, [[DualBoss Ribby and Croaks]], who can fight the other pair of brothers in co-op.
* BattleIntro: Right before boss battles, Cuphead tightens his shorts, Mugman takes a sip from his own head, an announcer blurts out a snappy battle intro blurb, and the baddies taunt the duo, all while the only words ever needed show up. (The Mausoleum levels start out with the same preparations the boys make, but with a spooky announcer blurting out a creepy blurb (patched version), and no baddies taunting them.)
-->Ready? WALLOP!
* BlackBeadEyes: When Cuphead and Mugman are on the world map.
* BondOneLiner: The bosses' death quotes, [[RhymesOnADime many done in rhyme]].
* BookEnds:
** Minor gameplay example. One of the two bosses the player can choose at the beginning of the game, The Root Pack, has a part where the player fights an onion whose only attack is to cry damaging tears, some of which are pink and can be parried. [[spoiler:The final phase of the Devil fight also has him crying damaging tears as his attack, which are also pink and can be parried.]]
** As the tutorial level shows you, dead players are represented by a soul with a pink heart, which can be parried to revive them. In the DLC, [[spoiler:the final phase of Chef Saltbaker pits you against his heart, which occasionally turns pink and can be parried]].
** The main game opens with a shot of a book opening by itself to give out exposition and ends with the same book closing itself.
** The credits theme for ''The Delicious Last Course'' begins with a reprise of "Don't Deal With the Devil", the title theme, now with modified lyrics about the plot of the DLC.
* BootstrappedTheme: Inverted, surprisingly enough. "[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/junkyard-jive Junkyard Jive]]", the song that plays when fighting Dr. Kahl, may have originally been the main theme song of the game, given that a piano version of it serves as the theme for one of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDZfREYppk game's earliest trailers]].
* BoringButPractical:
** A lot of players stick with the Peashooter (the first shot type you gain), since it has long range, is easy to aim, and does consistent damage.
** There's not really any reason to take off Chaser on the first island due to its "fire and forget" homing properties. It's consistently useful until the third island (when bosses begin to have both more health and phases involving more summoned enemies) and makes certain bosses like Grim Matchstick much easier.
** Smoke Bomb allows you to be invincible during your dash, which is practically necessary for later in the game due to how often you'll be dashing next to bosses in the first place. It is also extremely helpful for earning [[PacifistRun P-ratings]] on Run and Gun stages. It's essentially an optional dodge mechanic,[[note]]the invincibility period is also a tad more generous than most other games[[/note]] with the bonus being that the period that you're invulnerable for being plain as day — as long as you're invisible, you're invincible.
** Two of the power-ups are health upgrades (either one heart or two) at the cost of a tiny bit of power. While [[NoFairCheating you won't get a health bonus if you were hit more than 3 times]], people who don't care about high scores can increase their survivability with more health. The damage debuff is less relevant in the Run 'n' Gun levels, where most enemies don't have much health to begin with.
* BossGame: Most of the stages are boss fights against the Devil's many debtors (think the two ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' arcade games, ''Power Battle'' and ''Power Fighters''), almost all of which have several phases. The developers went for a Guinness World Record of 30+ bosses for a RunAndGun game to beat the world record of 25 set by ''VideoGame/AlienSoldier'' [[labelnote:Final count]]There are 19 boss stages in the game -- with one stage containing 10 sub-bosses within it, for a total of 28 bosses. The DLC adds 12 bosses (6 regular fights, 5 on the King's Leap, and the SecretBoss), bumping it up to 40[[/labelnote]]. It was originally intended to ''only'' be bosses, but fan feedback suggested that they add the run-n-gun levels to fill out the game a bit.
* BossOnlyLevel: Naturally, the game has tons of these, with many boss fights being comparable to ''every battle'' in ''VideoGame/SenkoNoRonde'', but the clearest case goes to Inkwell Hell: an entire BossBonanza world that has the boss fights for King Dice and The Devil, and absolutely nothing else.
* BossRemix:
** "The King's Court" is a more frantic and jazzy remix of "Die House".
** "Baking the Wondertart" is, among other things, a dramatic orchestral remix of [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker's]] {{leitmotif}}.
* BottomlessPits: Present, but instead of being a OneHitKill, they do damage like anything else and then shoot the boys back up to solid ground. They even respect MercyInvincibility.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: The Crackshot effectively functions as this to the base game's Spread and Chaser. If the initial projectile doesn't hit anything, it fires a lower damage projectile at the boss, with the initial projectile having high damage. This mimics the Spread being a close ranged weapon with higher damage, and the Chaser being a homing weapon with less damage.
* BrickJoke: In the intro, it's stated that they found The Devil's casino "on the wrong side of the tracks". In Inkwell Isle 3, you must fight the Phantom Express to get a level crossing to raise, allowing you to get to the casino, meaning that it's ''literally'' on the wrong side of the tracks.
* BringIt:
** Before fighting Cuphead and Mugman, Croaks taunts them via moving his hand towards himself.
** The Knight in the King's Leap portion of the ''Delicious Last Course'' beckons you if you're staying too far away from him. In order to get him to attack and leave himself open, you have to stick close.
* BulletHell: The aerial battles have elements of this.
* ButtMonkey:
** The majority of the bosses get this treatment to various degrees, but Wally Warbles has it the worst out of everyone; you destroy his house, force him to lose all his feathers, beat up his son while you're at it, [[spoiler:then [[GallowsHumor beat him up while two medic birds are carrying him on a stretcher]], and finally, said medics are preparing to eat him after his defeat]].
** Captain Brineybeard gets the short end of the stick as well. Unlike pretty much every other boss, the final phase of his own boss battle isn't even against him, but his ship, which turns into a narwhal and throws him into the ocean.
** Esther Winchester also gets this. She manages to suck herself into her own vacuum gun and [[BalefulPolymorph process herself into a string of sausages]], and then shortly after manages to also accidentally can herself.
* TheCasino: The Devil himself runs one, and it's where the deal that kicks off the plot happens, as well as the location of the penultimate boss fight against King Dice. It even provides the trope image.
* CastOfSnowflakes: Everyone's unique in their own way. No two characters look alike.
* CheckPointStarvation: The bosses and platformer "Run 'n Gun" levels have no checkpoints. Die once, and you must start all over again.
* ClassicCheatCode: If you want to redo the mausoleum fights without making a new save file, stand in front of them and hold down both triggers, or tab + backspace if playing with a keyboard, much like the hidden command to re-enter beaten castle levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''. [[spoiler:This also works for the hidden boss fight in the [=DLC=]]].
* ClippedWingAngel: A handful of bosses become weaker in their final phases rather than stronger:
** Goopy le Grande in his tombstone form has only one attack that is easy to dodge in contrast to his previous forms, that had two attacks: either punching or jumping all over the screen.
** Cagney Carnation turns monstrous and engulfs the ground in thorny vines, restricting you to the floating platforms, but only has two very telegraphed and easy to dodge attacks.
** Cala Maria loses her head and floats inside a cave, being only capable of shooting a petrifying gaze; only the environment can cause any real damage to the player.
** Sally Stageplay doesn't even bother attacking you in her final phase, instead letting her easily jumped-over parasol and some infrequently tossed roses from the audience do the fighting for her.
** Wally Warbles subverts this. He is hospitalized halfway through his boss fight and still fights you while being carried by two paramedic birds. You'd think he would have been weaker after losing all of his feathers, but nope: he is no less dangerous than before with attacks that are still hard to dodge. If he beats you there, he even taunts you about this.
** And most surprising of all, [[spoiler:the Devil as the final boss turns into this. He is reduced to ''crying'' tears in pain and frustration while the arena is reduced to a single platform under his face on which a single chip falls down. Said chip can be dodged without parrying, and these two attacks are the only ones he has at that point]]. That being said, [[spoiler:the Devil can still catch inexperienced players off-guard with these weak attacks, and only having a single platform to work with does complicate matters somewhat]].
** Glumstone the Giant becomes easier as his fight progresses. His first phase has a lot of obstacles to worry about, such as the different projectiles he summons, the gnomes poking out to attack you, and the raising and lowering platforms. In phase 2, there's only the occasional gnome popping out and a bouncing ball on either side of the platform; a bit hectic, but not as tricky. In phase 3, your main concern is keeping the platforms you're standing on afloat, and besides that and a somewhat awkward movement pattern, you've pretty much already won.
** Against the Moonshine Mob, the [[spoiler:mob boss snail attacks you after a VictoryFakeout. He [[WeakBossStrongMinions goes down a lot faster than his minions and only has a single, easy-to-evade attack]], with his only real advantage being the element of surprise.]]
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience:
** Cuphead and Mugman have a "Parry" ability that allows them to [[ParryingBullets swat bullets away]], [[AttackItsWeakPoint stun bosses]], or revive your partner, but it only works on pink objects. However, it will work on ''any'' pink object you encounter even if the color seems incidental, like Baroness Von Bon Bon's peppermint wheels.
** Your bullets and characters are also color-coded. Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice are respectively red, blue, and gold, and each bullet has its own unique color. Similarly, the bosses color-code their own bullets, especially the pink ones.
** The flags marking cleared levels and bosses are color-coded. Getting an A-minus rank or higher changes the red flagpole to gold, and clearing with any rank on Expert changes the silver cup emblazoned on the flag to gold (S ranks replace the cup entirely).
* ConspicuouslyLightPatch: On the world map, the backgrounds are painted with watercolors, while things you can interact with -- like characters, stages, and shops -- are ink-drawn. This is both for the player's benefit and to deliberately invoke the style of old cartoons, where cel-animated objects would stick out over the painted backgrounds.
* ContinuingIsPainful: Not for game overs themselves, but for averting a game over. If you're playing in co-op mode, you can revive your dead partner by parrying their ghost. However, the downside is that your partner is revived at 1 HP, and they fly away faster each time they're downed.
* ConveyorBeltOfDoom: During "All Bets Are Off," you fight Pip and Dot while standing on a spike-studded one that's trying to drag you backwards into a wall of spikes.
* CreatorCameo: Or "Creator ''Logo'' Cameo", actually: Throughout the game, [=StudioMDHR=]'s name appears in the game's StorybookOpening (along with "The Moldenhauer Brothers [Chad and Jared]"), in the Game Over cards ("MDHR Inc. Death"), at the backstage curtain of Sally Stageplay's boss battle ("MDHR [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Asbestos Safety Curtain]]"), and in two pictures in each of the memory match cards (one of them being "[=StudioMDHR=]. Made in {{Canada|Eh}}").
* CreditsGag: According to the launch trailer, the game came out in 1930.[[note]][=MCMXXX=] for those counting at home.[[/note]] Played with in an earlier trailer, where the game was said to come out in 1936... plus 80 years.
* CreepyCircusMusic: The song "[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/coin-op-bop Coin-Op Bop]]" from the soundtrack (the song was written for a minigame that was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cut from the final game]]) is a fast-paced tune that sounds like it was played on a fairground organ. The song starts out cheerful, but eventually switches to a minor key, and then gets faster and much more frantic in tone.
* CymbalBangingMonkey: One of King Dice's bosses in the dice maze, Mr. Chimes, is this.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Playing as Ms. Chalice has a lot of upsides, but also can really mess with your rhythm, between parrying being on a completely different button that also moves you forward, and her double-jump being necessary to ascend up platforms that Cuphead and Mugman can handle with a single jump.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Downplayed, but ''The Delicious Last Course'', while having a much more lighthearted reason for fighting bosses, leans a lot more on BlackComedy tropes than the original game. This is most obvious when fighting Esther Winchester ([[spoiler:who gets roasted alive, turned into living sausages, packaged up, and then seemingly killed off until returning alive in the epilogue]]) and the Rook in King's Leap ([[spoiler:who must literally be fought by parrying the severed heads of his own victims back at him]]). The final boss goes into outright horror territory as well, being even more terrifying than the Devil was in the original game, and the horror elements here are ''not'' played for BlackComedy. [[spoiler:The secret battle with Dream Devil can be very unsettling too, as can the following music shift once you turn the Broken Relic into the Cursed Relic]].
* DarkReprise: In ''The Delicious Last Course'', [[spoiler:the final boss theme, "Baking the Wondertart", is a frantic, ominous mashup of "The Delicious Last Course", "A Far Off Isle", "Caute Cave Mortem", and Chef Saltbaker and Ms. Chalice's [[{{Leitmotif}} leitmotifs]].]]
* DealWithTheDevil: A literal one sets off the whole events of the game. Cuphead and Mugman played a round of Craps against the Devil and lost. He agreed to spare them if they did his bidding by hunting down his other debtors.
* DecadeThemedFilter: The game was made entirely as a {{Retraux}} video game made in the early [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Era]] of animation, in which designs, fashion and even filters remind this era with the first ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'' and ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' cartoons. You can even unlock a filter reminiscent of two-strip Technicolor films, and a DeliberatelyMonochrome filter as well.
* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler:During the final boss battle with the Devil, if you lose during his second phase and onwards, the taunting message that you get shows him holding the lifeless and decrepit heads of Cuphead and Mugman (that theme song at the beginning of the game wasn't kidding).]]
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Getting a "P" rank on all the run-and-gun levels will net you a filter that turns the game monochrome. It actually makes things a bit tougher, since parryable objects are less easily distinguishable without their pink color.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Many aspects of the game are intentionally outdated to reflect the values of the 1930s.
** There's heavy emphasis on how gambling is sinful, most obviously in how the Devil himself runs a casino filled with damned souls playing their lives away. While gambling is still seen as harmful today, during the era this game is set in (when the Great Depression was in full swing and most people in the United States were forced into poverty), it was viewed with even greater criticism, and many cartoons pushed anti-gambling morals.
** In "Clip-Joint Calamity", one prominent fly in the background is smoking with a long cigarette stick. Nowadays, ''no'' self-respecting business would allow smoking indoors. But in the early-to-mid 20th century, smoking in public spaces was common. Likewise, cartoons would sometimes have characters smoke with no negative connotations, mainly due to the lack of public knowledge about the health risks. Mr. Wheezy, one of King Dice's minions, represents smoking as a vice, but only in the context of being related to gambling rather than the act itself.
** Sally Stageplay's show features an asbestos curtain. Asbestos is now seen as an environmental pollutant and major health hazard rather than a fire safety measure.
** The Moonshine Mob is a gang who's being persecuted by the police for bootlegging alcohol, as the game is set during the Prohibition, where brewing and trading alcohol was illegal in the United States.
* DemBones:
** The second phase of the fight with the Phantom Express features a giant conductor skeleton emerging from the train cars.
** One of the bosses in King Dice's gauntlet is a skeletal racing horse. His name is Phear Lap.
** The Devil's skeleton jumps into a hole after the first phase of his boss fight.
* DenialOfDiagonalAttack: Averted — like in ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', it's possible for you to attack diagonally.
* DerangedAnimation: Just like the 1930s cartoons it references, the game's animations are very surreal and unrestricted by realistic physics.
* DevelopersForesight:
** Playing the PC version on the keyboard when you're on the map can show you the simple button commands on speech balloons and screens; but if you plug a UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 controller onto your PC, the speech balloons can now give you the simple [=PS4=] commands ("Square", "Circle", "Triangle", "Cross", etc.).
** Deciding to get behind Djimmi during his first phase will get you skewered by a scimitar.
** The only way to die in the tutorial level is to hack the game to allow friendly fire and kill yourself with a reflected projectile, but if you pull this off, there's a GameOverMan death card with an empty portrait telling the player "[[Franchise/StreetFighter You are not a warrior, you're a beginner]]." Since there's no way to view this in normal gameplay, most likely it was only implemented to keep the game from crashing in the event of a player finding ''some'' way to die there.
** With the addition of Ms. Chalice as DLC, MDHR added [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScrTiJIV0Tc an additional animation]] for players going through the main game as her, in the event that [[spoiler:Chalice chooses to become a willing pawn of the Devil]]; otherwise, the cutscenes are unchanged.
** An EasterEgg/cheat added in ''The Delicious Last Course'' is the Game Djimmi, which grants the player doubled health on lower difficulties when activated. If this is turned on and Djimmi is refought, he'll have special game over dialogue referencing the cheat.
** If you're playing two-player mode and both characters have the Astral Cookie equipped, only one of them is randomly chosen to turn into Ms. Chalice. There will be a [[https://youtu.be/mSYNJRvCizk unique animation]] at the start of a stage where the other player tries to eat their cookie, but fumbles and drops it. If you're doing a flying stage, then the plane itself will swipe the cookie out of their hand and eat it (which does nothing, presumably since planes lack souls).
* DifficultButAwesome:
** The Spread shot does a lot of damage, but requires you to be up close for its highest output.
** The Lobber shot is affected by gravity and travels in an arc. But it's exceptionally powerful, and is extremely useful on slow or stationary enemies. A crafty player can also use it to place traps for enemies approaching on foot.
** By rapidly switching between weapon types, you can have the damage output of both, which can actually skip phases on certain bosses. Of course, that does require coordinating spamming the weapon switch while dealing with everything else around you.
** The Roundabout works like a BattleBoomerang, but increases power and range as it reverses course. To take advantage of this, you need your back turned to the boss as you fire.
** The Smoke Bomb charm makes you invincible while you dash, but it also makes you ''invisible'' — with no visual cue for where your dash will end, it becomes a lot easier to launch yourself off platforms or directly into other enemies. Even so, the invincibility is almost always worth the extra trouble.
** The Super Art in flying battles where the boys transform into a Fat Man-style bomb to ram the boss. Getting hit by anything will cause the bomb to go off early, and getting close enough to easily hit the boss can leave you open to their attacks. The payoff is a massive chunk of damage to the enemy.
** [[spoiler:The Divine Charm is this, as powering it up requires the player to defeat several bosses with their weapons being randomized every time they stop firing and dying in a single hit. Once it's fully powered, it gives the player the effects of several charms at once and doesn't lower their health.]]
* DoWellButNotPerfect: Parrying counts towards your final score, and bosses that only generate pink enemies/obstacles during certain phases of the fight might not have enough time to do so if you lower their health too quickly.
* TheDragon: King Dice, a sleazy-looking guy with a die for a head, is the Devil's right-hand man. He blocks Cuphead and Mugman's way until they've given him enough contracts. It turns out [[spoiler:he made a bet with his boss behind your back, thinking you would never accomplish the feat before the deadline]]. [[spoiler:And for ''good reason'', because he's savvy enough to know that Cuphead and Mugman would ultimately replace him as the Devil's [[NumberTwo right-hand man]]. Show up with the contracts and he battles you.]]
* DualBoss: One stage has you dealing with Ribby and Croaks, two frog bosses wearing boxing gloves.
* EasyModeMockery:
** On top of skipping the final phase(s) of the bosses[[note]]the sole exceptions being The Root Pack, which skips the second phase instead of the last phase, and Dr. Kahl's Robot, which skips both the second and last phases[[/note]], a boss will ''not'' grant their contract when beaten in "Simple" (easy) difficulty. And you need all the contracts to pass through the Die Houses and properly start "All Bets Are Off", the penultimate level before [[FinalBoss The Devil]]; without them, King Dice will turn you away. Additionally, Simple difficulty is removed from the selection when facing either of the Inkwell Hell bosses.
** In a combination with VictoryFakeout, most of the bosses' death animations on Simple Mode merely cue the last phases (and accompanying OneWingedAngel transformations) in Regular Mode and up. Anyone who sticks to Simple is in for a nasty surprise the first time they play Regular...
* ElevatorActionSequence: "Rugged Ridge" has a funicular that goes down while enemies attack you.
* EverythingIsAnInstrument: Sally Stageplay's theme, "Dramatic Fanatic", utilizes the sound of someone ''tap dancing'' along with the regular instruments. There's even a tap dance solo!
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Various animals and people are the things that Cuphead and Mugman have to fight. One of the bosses' InstantGravestone even tries to kill them!
* EvilDebtCollector: The Devil hires Cuphead and Mugman to become his, and get back [[TrappedByGamblingDebts the contracts]] for [[YourSoulIsMine the residents of Inkwell Isle's souls]].
* EvilLaugh:
** Some of the bosses do this, particularly the human ones.
** Rather than taunt you with some sort of punny quip like most of the bosses at the Game Over screen, the last phase of Captain Brineybeard simply laughs at the player.
* EXSpecialAttack: By spending one card of your Super Meter, you can shoot a larger and more powerful version of your current weapon. However, if you have a full meter, the same button will instead activate your Super Art.
* ExactWords:
** The Devil only promises to ''spare'' the boys if they bring the contracts of all the others back. [[spoiler:So, of course, if the boys succeed and fulfill their half of the deal, he enslaves them to be his servants/enforcers.]]
** In ''Delicious Last Course'', [[spoiler:before the cups set off to get the ingredients for the Wondertart, Chef Saltbaker reminds them that "like any good bake, heart and soul is the secret ingredient!" Naturally, he means this ''[[LiteralMetaphor literally]]'', as the Wondertart's secret ingredient is an actual living soul, which he takes from one of the cups, leading into his boss fight.]]
* ExcitedShowTitle: "Botanic Panic!", "Junkyard Jive!", "Aviary Action!", "High Seas Hi-Jinx!", and "All Bets Are Off!"
* ExcusePlot: The creators of the game admit that the plot is just an excuse for the game's [[BossGame string of boss fights]].
* ExpressiveUvula: The final phase of the Captain Brineybeard boss fight involves [[AnimateInanimateObject his ship]] opening its mouth, sending the captain flying. The ship's weak spot is its uvula, which has an angry face which spits fire and an occasional energy beam.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Since the Devil gives the boys until midnight of the next day to bring him the soul contracts, this means that the entire game only takes place within a day or so.
* EyeBeams: Done by Chauncey Chantenay, Grim Matchstick's first phase, and Djimmi the Great's last phase (all in ring form).
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: The Blind Specter on the Phantom Express has eyes in its hands and even fires out eyeballs from them.
* EyelashFluttering:
** Cala Maria's intro in "High Seas Hi-Jinx!" has her adjusting the octopus on her head and playfully batting her eyes with a xylophone "doink-doink!" before preparing to fight.
** In Pip and Dot's battle intro in "All Bets are Off," Dot looks up at Pip and bats her eyelashes (complete with xylophone tinkling sound) as Pip looks down and tips his hat to her.
* FaustianRebellion: [[spoiler:Refusing to hand over the contracts the Devil sent you out to get has you fighting him.]]
* FeatheredFiend: One of the bosses, Wally Warbles, is a giant bird in a birdhouse that uses FeatherFlechettes as an attack.
* FinalExamBoss: The King Dice boss fight in general is not only a glorified version of the fight with The Root Pack (one of the first bosses in the game), but also makes use of every skill and gameplay style you've learned to that point.
* FingerGun:
** Cuphead and Mugman fire bullets by putting their fingers in a gun shape and "firing". Wally Warbles also does this by morphing his ''face'' into a white glove.
** Djimmi the Great also does a literal example when transforming into a puppet of Cuphead, with the tip of the finger opening up to reveal a cannon.
* FirePurifies: In the good ending, [[spoiler:Cuphead and Mugman toss the Soul Contracts into the fiery furnace to incinerate them (since the Soul Contracts indicate that the inhabitants of the Inkwell Isles lost their casino games against the Devil who until now owned their souls, though they skipped out on paying their deals to him and were deep in debt). In destroying the contracts in this way, the boys deliver the grateful inhabitants from eternal servitude to the Devil]].
* FlunkyBoss: A few of the bosses summon waves of minions, including Cagney Carnation, Hilda Berg, and Baroness von Bon Bon.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Mugman was the one who tried to discourage Cuphead from gambling their souls for the Devil's loot, but Cuphead was so blinded by greed that he took the bet and lost.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Billboards for the Devil's Casino can be seen in the "Perilous Piers" Run-N-Gun stage.
* FoulFlower: One boss, Cagney Carnation, is an enormous flower. When Cuphead first encounters him, he gives him an innocent smile, but quickly switches to a wicked SlasherSmile just before the battle begins. Also, his stem has thorns, oddly enough. He looks absolutely demonic in his final phase. Also, the accompanying platforming section has sunflower-like monsters that parachute from the sky.
* FourIsDeath: Fittingly enough, there are four worlds in Inkwell Isles, and the last one is Inkwell Hell, where The Devil is fought.
* FunWithAcronyms:
** The DLC expansion is called "The '''D'''elicious '''L'''ast '''C'''ourse".
** The UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwF67xkNSn8 reveal trailer]] begins as a PSA from the '''M'''inistry of '''D'''rink and '''H'''ealth '''R'''egulation.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
** If you take damage, use an EX move, or activate a Super Art in Werner Werman's boss fight, the ground shakes and everything jumps in the background, including the trophies and the thimble seats.
** Every time you hit Sally Stageplay in her fight, her husband in the background tugs on his hat in horror. If you take a hit, he'll briefly start cheering.
** The last part of Captain Brineybeard's fight involves his ship going OneWingedAngel... which causes the Captain to be amusingly flung upwards. A second or so after that, you can see him landing in the sea in the background.
* FusionDance: Used by Ribby and Croaks during the final phase of their fight, where one swallows the other and they turn into a huge slot machine.
* TheGamblingAddict: Cuphead has a gambling problem, the Devil offering [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame all the treasure in Hell if he wins]] was too tempting to pass up, and having lost ends up getting the protagonists into quite a mess.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Even if you kill Sally Stageplay's husband in her fight and get her soul contract following the secret phase, the husband will still show up in the ending with Sally. Because of that, it could be assumed that he was injured instead of killed.
* GameOverMan: If you lose to a boss, you get a card with the image of said boss mocking you with a pun related to your defeat. To add insult to injury, it also shows how far along you were to defeating them as well. So if you were [[YankTheDogsChain right on the verge of getting that last hit]] before you were taken out, well...
* GenreThrowback: Visually, to rubber-hose cartoons from the first half of the 20th century. Playwise, to NintendoHard RunAndGun[=/=]ShootEmUp games like ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' and ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes''.
* GiantFootOfStomping: When you beat Mr. Wheezy, the giant cigar, King Dice, who had lit Mr. Wheezy with a lighter, will now bring his foot down on him and stamp him out.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: A few of the bosses and background characters. One of the [[BossRush numerous]] bosses that you fight before taking on King Dice himself is a giant cigar. All of King Dice's bosses represent a different form of vice.
* GorgeousGorgon: During the second phase against Cala Maria, her eels suddenly shock her and turn her into a gorgon where her octopus hair eventually turns into a nest of snakes, and she starts using a petrifying gaze attack.
* GravityScrew: You can reverse your gravity by parrying cards with two arrows pointing up and down in Funhouse Frazzle.
* GuideDangIt:
** Unlocking the [[spoiler:Divine Relic]] in ''The Delicious Last Course'' requires one hell of a walkthrough.[[labelnote:Explanation]]First, you have to buy the seemingly useless Broken Relic from Porkrind. Then, you must complete a rather obtuse puzzle to unlock "One Hell of a Dream" and defeat the Angel and Demon with the Broken Relic equipped. This will transform the relic into the Cursed Relic. You must then fight enough bosses with that charm equipped to unlock the Divine Relic. The game tracks your progress through a hidden points system, with 16 points needed to unlock the Divine Relic: beating "All Bets Are Off" is worth 1 point, beating a boss on Inkwell Isle 1, 2, and 3 / 4 are worth 2, 2.5, and 3 points respectively, and finally, beating the [[FinalBoss final bosses]] the Devil and [[spoiler:Chef Saltbaker]] are worth 4 points each.[[/labelnote]]
* HappyCircusMusic:
** Inkwell Isle Two, which is an AmusementPark, has some [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/inkwell-isle-two jaunty orchestral music]].
** The music for the circus level "[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/funfair-fever Funfair Fever]]" is a light ragtime-esque tune on piano and flute.
** "[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/coin-op-bop Coin-Op Bop]]" was written for a minigame in the amusement park area. It sounds like it was played on a fairground organ, and it starts out quite upbeat. However, as the song goes on, it does get faster and eventually switches to a minor key, turning it into CreepyCircusMusic.
* HaveANiceDeath: Whenever you die, the bosses and enemies will give you a taunt that varies depending on what phase they're in.
* HeadSwap: To keep gameplay balanced, Cuphead and Mugman are identical in terms of gameplay, having the same attacks and hitboxes; the only differences are the designs of their heads and color schemes. Miss Chalice is also functionally a head swap of the other two, though her animations are a bit more unique due to her more distinct appearance.
* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: After you complete the first Mausoleum, or buy something from the Emporium for the first time, Porkrind or the Legendary Chalice will explain that you need to equip your new items in the menu.
* AHellOfATime: Hell's Casino looks like a classy joint full of wealthy supernatural entities. The ostentatious luxury and glamour is evident as you battle King Dice. Of course, then you consider that all the spirits here [[IronicHell gambled their money and lives away.]] Lampshaded in the bad ending, where the Devil tells the player they will have one hell of a time. The final battle with the Devil is in fact "One Hell of a Time".
* HelpfulMook:
** One of the few mooks that won't hurt you is a trampoline in the Run'n Gun level Funfair Fever; it'll follow you around and let you bounce over obstacles.
** The octopus on Perilous Piers is this, helping you to get to the end of the stage by breaking rocks that are in the way as long as you keep parrying his head.
** During the Phantom Express fight, some of the winged jack-o-lanterns will move you out of harm's way if you let them. They also continuously drop Candy you can Parry, allowing you to gain your supers quickly.
* HiddenTrack: On the soundtrack, there's a hidden song two minutes after the Closing Credits theme ends: [[spoiler:a ''very'' unpleasant-sounding warm-up for every instrument in the band. In-game, this track plays if Cuphead and Mugman choose to become the Devil's servants]].
* HorizontalScrollingShooter: There are a few stages where you're on a plane or a rail platform.
* HornetHole: "Honeycomb Herald" takes place in a giant beehive, where mindless worker bees attack as they hover by and a pool of bubbling honey is constantly rising. A bomb-planting bee cop and Rumor Honeybottoms, the queen bee intent on eating Cuphead, are the bosses.
* HypnoticEyes: All examples (so far) also fall under EyeBeams above.
* IAmSong: "Die House" is one for King Dice.
* ILied: [[spoiler:You didn't actually think the Devil would keep his word, did you?]]
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Simple fills in for Easy, shortening the battles but not yielding access to the last two bosses. Regular is the normal difficulty, granting access to all the levels and the ending. Expert Mode unlocks after completing the game, which serves as an equivalent to [[{{Undercrank}} Turbo Mode]] from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', while also giving bosses a little more health and in some cases altering their attacks slightly.
* InconsistentColoring: [[https://twitter.com/StudioMDHR/status/901067313180495872 Some coloration is deliberately inconsistent]], as part of the InkblotCartoonStyle, as promotional material for black-and-white cartoon were often colored several different ways. Cuphead's and Mugman's gloves are white in most of the game, but yellow on the Results screens. The same applies to Ms. Chalice -- her gloves are usually white, but her skirt is colored turquoise on the Results screen rather than its usual light blue. And the brothers' shoes are brown in-game, but match their shorts (red or blue) on the covers and promotional art.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: [[spoiler:The Divine Relic, which can only be purchased at Porkrind's if you have the DLC installed. What you have to do is probably, by far, [[ChallengeRun the most challenging task that you've ever done in the game]]: First, you have to purchase it as the Broken Relic. Then, you have to defeat the secret boss, the Dream Devil, which turns it into the Cursed Relic. Equipping the Cursed Relic makes you a OneHitPointWonder, along with your equipment randomly switching whenever you stop firing (though, to compensate for that, you recieve charm buffs that cyle on a timer, which includes getting additional health from successful parries). Finally, you need to defeat at least seven other bosses with the Cursed Relic equipped, which can either come from the DLC or the base game (Not counting the King's Leap bosses). Once you've done all of that hard work, the Cursed Relic finally turns into the Divine Relic, which allows you to freely switch between every weapon you have and activates the positive effect of every charm you have ''at the same time.'' Needless to say, every boss that you've fought before then will be a walk in the park with that Relic.]]
* InkblotCartoonStyle: Its visuals and overall art style are a homage to old cartoons by Fleischer Studios and its contemporaries, and features characters drawn with wide eyes and mouths, round features, simple outfits, and white gloves. In motion, they all have RubberHoseLimbs and uses BriffitsAndSqueans. Several characters visually evoke characters from that era, such as Werner Werman looking very similar to Mortimer Mouse; some reference animation figures from that era, like [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Kahl being named for Milt Kahl]]. The animation was even all hand-drawn on cels!
* InstantGravestone: After Goopy le Grande's second phase is beaten, he gets crushed dead by his own tombstone. Said tombstone is ''his final form''.
* InterfaceSpoiler: If you die on the attack that immediately precedes a boss turning into its next phase, the death screen picture will show the boss as they appear on the next phase, even if you haven't seen it in battle.
* JungleJazz: "Floral Fury" is a Latin jazz-themed piece that serves as the battle theme for [[ToweringFlower Cagney Carnation]].
* {{Kaiserreich}}: Werner Werman of ''Murine Corps'', who wears a Pickelhaube and speaks with an overly-exaggerated German accent in his taunts.
* KaizoTrap:
** Averted; once you win a boss fight, any leftover projectiles and obstacles won't hurt you. However, this also works against you: if you lose a fight with bullets still airborne and they manage to knock out the boss, you still lose since you're the one who died first.
** Played with in Goopy's battle. More than one player has started celebrating prematurely when they see the slime's tombstone crush him, only to be smashed in turn: the battle's not over until it says "A knockout!" The tombstone doesn't even show up in Simple Mode.
** The fight with the Moonshine Mob in the [=DLC=] seemingly ends with a custom "Knockout!" end card... Only for the mob's boss to come out from under the anteater's hat and start shooting projectiles at you. Landing a few shots on him ends the fight proper.
* KillTheCreditor:
** The denizens of Inkwell Isles are none too happy to see Cuphead and Mugman, now under the Devil's employ, arriving to take their contracts (and souls) away, so they initiate an all-out fight.
** Also subverted in the good ending for the player. The duo whale on the Devil [[TheDevilIsALoser until he breaks down in tears and surrenders]]. [[spoiler:They then [[MagicallyBindingContract destroy all the contracts]], [[ReleasingFromThePromise freeing the grateful residents of Inkwell Isles]], who throw their heroes a celebratory party.]]
* KilledOffForReal:
** Explicit for [[spoiler:Goopy Le Grande[[note]]he is replaced by a tombstone in the third phase of his fight[[/note]]]], [[ImpliedTrope heavily suggested]] for [[spoiler:Wally Warbles[[note]]When he's knocked out, he goes limp and his medic birds [[EatTheDog start sprinkling him with salt and pepper]][[/note]]]]. Neither appear in the GrandFinale. However, WordOfGod has since denied this, for [[spoiler:Wally]] at least. In addition, the gruesome fates faced by some bosses in the ''Delicious Last Course'', with them still returning perfectly fine in the epilogue, implies that DeathIsCheap in this universe.
** {{Averted}} with [[spoiler:Werner Werman. He's apparently eaten by a cat before his final phase. But when you beat the cat, its face falls off to reveal that it's really a HumongousMecha with Werner as the pilot]].
** The Root Pack does not appear in the GoldenEnding either, but they aren't explicitly or implicitly killed by Cuphead and/or Mugman in their battle, and Ollie Bulb can in fact specifically be spared and not attacked at all. Most likely they could not show up because [[StationaryBoss they're rooted into the ground]].
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with [[spoiler:Sally Stageplay's husband]]. During the battle, you're given the option of squishing him with a falling light fixture, and the game heavily implies he has died, complete with [[spoiler:Sally]] tearfully mourning him. However, even if you do this, he still shows up in the GoldenEnding, [[UnexplainedRecovery apparently unharmed]].
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In Inkwell Isle Two, you find a trio of Barber Poles moping over the loss of their fourth member. Upon finding him, you will be treated to [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/a-quick-break this little number]].
* {{Leitmotif}}:
** The "Inkwell Theme", an ascending four note figure, can be found in much of the game's music, particularly the overworld themes. It mostly serves as a motif to represent Cuphead and Mugman themselves, and it's most audible at the start of [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/inkwell-isle-one "Inkwell Isle One"]].
** King Dice has [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/die-house "Die House"]], which is remixed into [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/the-kings-court "The King's Court"]], and the Devil has [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/admission-to-perdition "Admission to Perdition"]], which is remixed into [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/one-hell-of-a-time "One Hell of a Time"]] for his second phase and [[spoiler:[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/one-hell-of-a-dream "One Hell of a Dream"]] for the DLC's Dream Devil fight]].
** While it's not a musical phrase, most of the game's songs are connected by their use of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-bar_blues#Variations minor twelve-bar blues]] chord progression.
** The Legendary Chalice, both as herself and Ms. Chalice, is associated heavily with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3SMKJvly0 xylophone.]]
** Chef Saltbaker has [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/chef-saltbaker his self-titled theme]], which is remixed as [[spoiler:[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/baking-the-wondertart "Baking the Wondertart"]] for his boss theme and [[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/a-chef-s-coda "A Chef's Coda"]] for the epilogue]], among other uses.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand:
** The music abruptly stops when you die, accompanied by a RecordNeedleScratch, and all that remains is a slow, muffled version of the tune in the background.
** "Dramatic Fanatic" ends with the music slowing in tempo and pitch until it reaches its conclusion.
** "Admission to Perdition" ends with the music descending into chaos as all of the instruments lose time and sputter into nothing.
* LevelAte: "Sugarland Shimmy" takes place in a land of sweets. It features a fight against Baroness von Bon Bon, the ruler of a living candy castle, and her many confection/pastry-based minions.
* LimitBreak: Filling your energy meter allows you to use a powerful attack. These include a WaveMotionGun of moonshine, an InvincibilityPowerUp, and a muscular ghost which floats around as he whales on the boss.
* LonelyPianoPiece: [[spoiler:"[[https://studiomdhr.bandcamp.com/track/the-end The End]]" is ironically not happy, but heartwrenching. The piano piece that is accompanied by a snare drum plays over the first part of the end credits of the bad ending, followed by complete silence. It's a TearJerker, to say the least.]]
* LongSongShortScene:
** Most of the music tracks last far longer than the battles that accompany them. This is largely by design; as the songs are all live recordings that don't loop, the composer opted to have the music run longer than the gameplay rather than the other way around.
** The most notable example is King Dice's theme. It's the only track in the game with actual singing in it, it goes on for nearly 2 minutes, and the game only uses it for the small room in which King Dice speaks to you briefly to either let you pass or remind you of missing contracts, which can easily be over in about twenty seconds.
** The Elder Kettle's theme is another extreme example; it's one of the longest songs in the game at over five minutes, but only plays in the first room of the game, which you're unlikely to spend more than ten seconds in. It even has an unlockable piano variant alongside the other overworld themes, even though you have no reason to go back there by the time you unlock that option.
* LosingYourHead:
** Cuphead and Mugman do a special animation that includes removing their heads when getting super attacks.
** Baroness von Bon Bon removes and regrows her head several times, and in the game over screen, she's holding her severed head.
** Cala Maria turns to stone and detaches her head in the last phase of her fight.
** Beppi the Clown turns into a balloon and his head separates from his body in the second phase of his fight.
** King Dice's head bounces a bit when he hops up.
** The majority of the King of Games's subjects do this upon defeat. The Bishop even sends his head after you as his main attack.
* TheLostWoods: Forest Follies. Also where you battle Goopy Le Grande.
* ManEatingPlant: Cagney Carnation creates these using seeds that he fires like a machine gun, in both ground and flying variations. Several much larger ones appear in Forest Follies, jumping up from bottomless pits to try to chomp on Cuphead.
* ManaMeter: Landing shots and parrying pink attacks allow you to stack up energy cards. [[note]]The Coffee charm also gradually grants you energy cards over time.[[/note]] You can then either use one card for your bullets' extra ability, or save up five for your LimitBreak.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's never quite explained if the Devil has some actual magical power to force others into slavery through deals and contracts (given how many debtors were able to run away with little to no consequences, and the fact that the boys can in the end refuse to honor their part of the deal, it seems he does not), or, as it is possibly hinted by the bad ending, it all boils to the Devil sending his goons to beat his debtors into submission (which the boys proved to be more than able to do, hence why the Devil offered for them to join him).
* MediumBlending:
** An interesting example comes from the fights against Djimmi the Great and Grim Matchstick, where there's constantly rotating models of Egyptian ruins and a medieval tower, respectively, in the background. Though it may seem out of place at first, it's actually a reference to [[https://youtu.be/WVsw0rb5LpM Fleischer Studios' Tabletop process]], where cels would be placed in front of a scale model to create elaborate 3D backgrounds. The DLC uses similar stop motion backgrounds for the Ms. Chalice tutorial, the King of Games' Castle, and [[spoiler:the backdrop of the Dream Devil fight]].
** As an homage to similar scenes in movies like ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', the opening and closing storybook cutscenes use a book prop that was created and filmed in real life.
** Another example occurs for the Switch version's trailer, a black-and-white ad by the Ministry of Drinks and Health Regulation that has Cuphead and Mugman come out of a bowl after the host pours milk in it.
* MeleeATrois: "Bootlegger Boogie" is a 3 way battle between the cups, the police, and Moonshine Mob.
* MentorArchetype: Cuphead and Mugman have a mentor in the form of a teapot named Elder Kettle. His relation to the two other than their caretaker is left unclear, but he gives them a magical potion that equips them with the skills they need to take on the Devil's other debtors.
* MonstrousScenery: The Tipsy Troop are fought on the table of humongous casino restaurant, where many giant demons and ghosts appear on background as "customers", befitting the nature of TheCasino located in {{Hell}}.
* MultipleEndings: There is a good and bad ending based on [[spoiler:whether or not the brothers agree to hand over the soul contracts to the Devil]].
** Good Ending: [[spoiler:Cuphead and Mugman beat the Devil and burn all the soul contracts, freeing all the bosses from their debts, and are praised as heroes.]]
** Bad Ending: [[spoiler:Cuphead and Mugman hand over the contracts and become the Devil's servants.]]
* MythologyGag: Beating every boss as Ms. Chalice will earn you a secret skin based on her appearance from the ''Cuphead'' novels (e.g., on the cover of ''Literature/CupheadInCarnivalChaos'') -- her light yellow accents are changed to white, and her blue skirt is changed to gold.
[[/folder]]

* Cuphead/TropesAToF
* Cuphead/TropesGToM

!Some {{trope}}s are surely brewing! Ready? WALLOP!:

* HarderThanHard:
** Think Simple and Regular Mode are tough? Expert Mode adds extra health to bosses and rally additional obstacles and/or enemies.
** The unlockable "2-Strip" Mode makes the art more vintage color, at risk of pink parry objects turning orange and a bit more difficult to find.
*** The unlockable "Black & White" Mode takes this UpToEleven, making the art resemble the first ever cartoons but makes the pink objects impossible to find. Just ''try'' finishing a battle on Expert.
** Defeating the secret boss in ''The Delicious Last Course" will turn the purchasable Broken Relic into a Cursed Relic, randomizing your weapons throughout a single battle and starting you off with '''1 HP'''!

** Think Simple and Regular Mode are tough? Expert Mode addS extra health to bosses and rally additional obstacles and/or enemies.

** If you take damage, use an EX move, or activate or Super Art in Werner Werman's boss fight, the ground shakes and everything jumps in the background, including the trophies and the thimble seats.

** If you take damage in Werner Werman's boss fight, the ground shakes and everything jumps in the background, including the trophies and the thimble seats.
** If you take damage in Sally Stageplay's boss fight, Sally's husband will briefly start cheering.

** Your bullets and characters are also color-coded. Cuphead and Mugman are red and blue respectively, Ms. Chalice is light blue, and each bullet has its own unique color. Similarly, the bosses color-code their own bullets, especially the pink ones.

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Each file keeps a completion tracker. To get 100%, you have to beat every boss (any rank will do), clear all the run & gun and Mausoleum stages, and collect every coin, including those hidden on the overworld. Beating every boss on Expert [[Over100PercentCompletion adds an extra 100%]] on top of that. The DLC's completion is tracked similarly, but only entails beating all the bosses (on both Normal and Expert) and getting all the coins.
* ActionDressRip: {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with Sally Stageplay, as she tears away her entire wedding dress before the start of her boss battle to reveal a second dress she's wearing underneath. This outfit then explodes at the end of the second phase to reveal that she's wearing a ''third outfit'', her Angel Costume.

[[folder:A-M]]

** If you're playing two-player mode and both characters have the Astral Cookie equipped, only one of them randomly chosen to turns into Ms. Chalice as there will be a [[https://youtu.be/mSYNJRvCizk unique animation]] at the start of a stage where the other player tries to eat their cookie, but fumbles and drops it. If you're doing a flying stage, then the plane itself will swipe the cookie out of their hand and eat it (which does nothing, presumably since planes lack souls).

** If you're playing two-player mode and both characters have the Astral Cookie equipped, there will be a [[https://youtu.be/mSYNJRvCizk unique animation]] at the start of a stage where the other player tries to eat their cookie, but fumbles and drops it. If you're doing a flying stage, then the plane itself will swipe the cookie out of their hand and eat it (which does nothing, presumably since planes lack souls).

** As discussed in [[http://www.vgmonline.net/kristofer-maddigan-interview/ this interview]], each music track has several different solo sections it can go into. They're randomly selected and transition seamlessly between ensemble sections, meaning a song will never play out the same way twice.

** [[spoiler:The final phase of Chef Saltbaker's battle has you jumping from platform to platform as they sink into a {{BottemlessPit|s}}, whilst dodging and hitting his heart.]]