Cuphead- a 30's-styled, Contra-inspired Run-and-gun indie game

Quite a lot and it's even worse for smaller studios like Team Cherry, the guys whom is made Hollow Knight which is also all hand drawn (and a platformer but with metroidvania stuff as the main focus).

edited 10th Jun '18 7:47:36 PM by Wispy

I wonder if introducing a new character means that the DLC will have three-player....

Will I be able to switch my main character at will?

This is kinda odd how the DLC is set in 1938, while the game itself is set in 1930.

the salt maker. now THAT's a fitting name if that's a tough boss.

Finally got around to playing this game: doing it bit by bit. Love how each of the bosses feel like one step higher on the climb, with each teaching you a little more. Just finished the second island, and it was hectic but I got used to another mechanic with each battle: Bon Bon got me used to moving around skillfully while also dealing damage. After not really using it against Hilda and Djimmi, Wally forced me to start using the airplane shrink mode.

And Beppi taught me that conveyor belts suck (not that I didn't already know that) and that sometimes hazards will spawn directly where you are - deal with it.

After hearing about him and seeing people play him, I walked into Grim Matchstick expecting to have the worst time of my life, but he was cake next to Beppi (Curse that clown. Curse him doubly). I didn't even use the Lobber (Charge and Chaser). Everyone always seemed to rage about his second stage, but I found it the easiest part of the fight. Same with Wally Jr, actually.

Off to Isle 3, and hopefully the survival of my controller!

Makes sense. That allows them to reference the next "era" of animation styles and figure after largely referencing Fleischer Studios and the cradle of blockbuster animated star power in the base game (the game is mostly 1930 to, like, 1936, with some rare later references). So we should probably expect to see some Tex Avery and Bob Clampett references, maybe even some refs to Snow White and the other early Disney features, etc.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 21st 2018 at 12:04:32 PM

Now you can run and gun on the run! Cuphead is getting a switch port next month!

Just when you think it was impossible...

Anyway, we have a side-by-side graphics comparison between the Switch and Xbox One versions. Essentially, if the Xbox One version was a 90's videocassette of classic shorts from the 30's, then the Switch is looking like the digitally remastered disc version of that cassette released 20-30 years later.

In other words, colors look more prominent in the Switch version.

On the downside, the loading screens are noticeably longer in the Switch version.

EDIT: Another update: you'd think Studio MDHR asked Microsoft if they could do the Switch version, but according to a member of Easy Allies, it was the other way around.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Mar 22nd 2019 at 12:56:22 PM

oh looks like the switch port wasnt everything we had in store...

• More languages
• A toggle to play Mugman in solo play
• new battle intros for both cuphead and mugman
• animated cutscenes
• various amounts of new art and animation bonuses
• bug fixes and tweaks

Oh, neat. I've only seen Cuphead in Let's Play form, but I always thought it was weird that it didn't have animated cutscenes, given... y'know.

Also, methinks I'll pick up the Switch version. Can any of y'all who've played it tell me what to expect? I've heard it's very hard, but is it "Tear your hair out and stomp on your controller" hard, or "You'll know what to expect if you remember gaming in the eighties and nineties" hard?

Its good old fashioned trial and error difficulty. If you're good at recognizing patterns and have good reflexes you should be fine.

You'll die a lot until you become familiar with the boss patterns. It's nothing insurmountable but it IS a very challenging game.

The 80s and 90s gaming comment is pretty spot on.

There's only one boss that's full-on unfair to me (Dr. Kahl's Robot), due to a combination of "ridiculous pattern" and the fact that it's an airplane level (thus you won't be able to use some of your more useful items like Smoke Bomb or your favorite projectile). Of course, I grew up in the 80s and my view of Nintendo Hard is a bit colored by remembering the quarter munchers of my youth.

That said, a good chunk of the game is pattern recognition as well as requiring precise reflexes (well, Smoke Bombs and Parry Sugar can mitigate that on various levels), so I can see it throwing quite a few for a loop.

Oddly the hardest part of the game wasn't the bosses, it was the freakin pier level.

Okay, it sounds like I can probably handle it. I'd hate to put yet another game on my "Probably never going to finish" pile. Especially one that looks this neato.

I know I haven't even played the game yet, but gosh, I am just so taken by the style! I hope to see more from these characters in the future. What would you guys want to see?

^^ I would argue Rugged Ridge is harder than Perilous Piers. But not by much.

So after reading this I now have an explanation for why my Xbox today is giving me a big update for Cuphead.

All kinds of new things just dropped. Now I know how I'm spending at least part of Saturday.

Apparently there's a way to change Djimmi's final phase now.

So I bought this game yesterday for a car trip and it's really fun! Haven't gotten far, but the difficulty isn't too punishing considering that bosses and levels aren't that long.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 22nd 2019 at 11:39:10 AM

I suspected a delay since we didnt get an E3 trailer, but im atill hyped!

Netflix is doing an animated series.

I already started a thread here.

Quite suddenly, over a year later, I remembered that I never actually finished Cuphead and - in order to right to ghastly wrong - have taken to doing the rest of island three.

Forgot just how fun this game was. I mentally categorized it as "a hard game" for when I want a difficult experience, when in the moment it's honestly more fun than hard (though it is super hard even so).

Looking at the last few bosses with fresh eyes, I really like how each of them has a specific philosophy that the fight is built around.

• Werner Werman is more simple, with not-so flashy, repetitive attacks that are still relatively difficult to avoid with the mobility options available, and gets you by getting you so into that groove that you overlook what's going on around those attacks. Ultimately, that fight is more about observation than anything else, which I figure is why people call it easier than the others.
• Meanwhile, Sally Stageplay is all about progression. The basic format of the fight only changes once and then goes back, but beyond that every stage is more or less the same. But each new stage adds something more on screen, and something else more on screen, and then a new tricky element, until you're juggling a ton of things. On the flip side, this fight is definitely easier than the others specifically because it's a progression - the player learns to master this fight as they go.
• Cala Maria was... interesting. The first stage felt like a grinder meant to lose the player at least one life and thus get them nervous before moving on. The latter two stages are 'significantly easier and both run on the same idea of controlling what you're about to head into before it happens (since if you freeze without doing that you could get hit), after the first stage has taught you that it's all about quick, wild avoidance instead. Which is pretty clever.
• The Phantom Express (like Werner) actually has really simple attacks that aren't too difficult, and instead (like Cala) relies on making on the player constnatly panic about where they are, since it can move you itself if you're not careful. The last stage flips it by relying mainly on the fact that it's projectiles are really difficult to see.
• King Dice and all his minions are about repetition. Which makes them - individually - easier than most of the other bosses, but the fact that they're a gauntlet instead makes it all about memorization.

Haven't fought the devil yet.

This is all old news at this point, but honestly the reason I find Cuphead more fun than hard is because of those philosophies. Rather than the typical shoot-em-up which just relies on repetitively filling the entire screen with crazy crap and forcing the player through precise, instant reactions, each level of Cuphead feels like it challenges something different about the player while keeping the same general idea. Imo, Cuphead does for shoot-em-up what Mario does for platforming.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 23rd 2020 at 11:15:59 AM

I finished the game recently myself. Some miscellaneous thoughts:

The Charge weapon is amazing and I wish I'd realized how useful it is earlier on. Makes most fights much more manageable.

I don't get why everyone thinks Grim Matchstick is so hard. I found him relatively simple, all things considered. Baroness and especially Djimmi took me much longer to beat. I actually wasn't able to get past Djimmi when playing on my current PC because the game crashes while trying to load his stage (I assume because the rotating background effect is too much for my 10 year old CPU to handle), I had to use my brother's while he was visiting to actually get through it and the rest of the game.

Dr. Kahl's robot though, definitely agree about that one. I was able to adjust to the pattern in the final phase eventually but it's very overwhelming at first. Also has the best music in the game.

Cala Maria took me a while and I found her unreasonable until I realized the water the seahorse blows doesn't actually damage you, it just pushes you upward.

King Dice I honestly found kind of tedious, I like how the fight works from a thematic standpoint but the gauntlet nature of it just makes it exhausting, and it doesn't help that the fight with King Dice himself requires some tight parrying to not get damaged by the cards. I managed to get through it with the special that makes you invulnerable for a short time.

By contrast, I found the devil relatively simple other than his snake attack. I have no idea how you're supposed to avoid it if you don't use the Smoke Bomb and it's just kind of obnoxious.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Jan 24th 2020 at 9:04:55 AM

Well, since this thread has been bumped, Cuphead’s a Mii costume for Super Smash Bros.