Enchanted Portals is a Cuphead-like game that was developed by Xixo Games Studio, and was released on September 6th of 2023.
It starts off with two wizards in training named Bobby and Penny, who use a spell book that can create portals to unknown realms, taking them on a wild adventure to find the book and their way home.
Tropes:
- Aliens Steal Cattle: Inverted, as you fight a Meatsack Robot cow in a spaceship. The cow is leading the aliens. Played straighter when you see two photographs during her third phase, one of a cow labeled "Mom" and one of one of the Little Green Men labeled "Dad", implying her mom was abducted by her dad.
- Art Shift: The second phase of the Meowitch boss changes the game from an Inkblot Cartoon Style to a more Tim Burton-inspired one.
- Happens again during the final battle, when the spellbook transforms into a giant tree, causing the game's artstyle to shift into a vaguely 2000s/2010s cartoon artstyle reminiscent of Scaredy Squirrel, in addition to the player character also turning into a squirrel. The spellbook then transforms into a giant wizard for the third phase. During this, everyone present takes on a more Animesque look.
- Big Boo's Haunt: World 1 is a world that screams Halloween, there’s bats, ghosts, spiders, haunted houses, there’s even a witch that’s this world’s boss.
- Evil All Along: The spellbook turns out to be the Big Bad of the game and attempts to kill the heroes as the final boss.
- Expressive Health Bar: The expressions of the heroes are changed from happy to weary as they get weakened by hits.
- Excuse Plot: Two wizards in training open a portal that they get sucked into and must chase down the tome that opened it. There isn’t much else to the plot, not even any justification for all of the inhabitants of the portal worlds trying to kill you.
- The Fighting Narcissist: Rocky. He is a good fighter, and also really loves looking at himself.
- Flying Books: One book is a cheeky soul that tends to flee whenever he sees the two apprentices. It's also the main antagonist of the game.
- Fountain of Youth: Technically, a Fountain of Time, as it can take Rocky back from The '50s, to the Roman era, and then the Stone Age. At the end, he gets knocked into the fountain and reverts to an egg.
- Funny Octopus: After a fight with Haarmit, you’ll encounter an octopus that wears a top hat and a monocle. If that wasn’t enough, he has an item in each of his 8 arms.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: None of the boss characters get any characterization and just attack the duo for no particular reason. The Tome also has no reason given for trying to kill our heroes other than maybe trying to escape the library.
- Giant Enemy Crab: One of the bosses you’ll face is a giant crab named Haarmit, who has claws and knows how to use 'em. The crab also has a ship on top of it.
- Hell Hound: One of the bosses you’ll face is a three headed dog with a different breed for each head. It's actually called Cerberus.
- Interface Spoiler: If you get a Game Over, it shows the living book escaping and laughing at the protagonists. This cements the book as the main villain even long before the final battle.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Some enemies can't be killed. The ghostly maids are the earliest and most dangerous example.
- Jungle Japes: The 1st level of World 3 is set in a jungle where you can swing on vines to get across a river that’s filled with crocodiles. Or so it would be, if the mechanic hasn't been scrapped in the final game.
- Kaizo Trap: You and a boss can die at the exact same time. It will show your victory cutscene and then game over. Subverted, as you still pass the stage.
- Mickey Mousing: Attempted with the composer boss, who plays his shockwave-inducing piano in time with the music... except that the attacks actually don't sync up with the music, making it look jarring.
- Mirror Boss: The final phase of the final boss is a giant wizard that can use all three elements, just like you.
- One-Winged Angel: Just like in Cuphead, bosses will transform during their fights to turn the tables.
- Sequential Boss: Most bosses have at least two phases, with only exceptions being the Conductor and Cerberus.
- Sequel Hook: The game ends with the Tome telling an elder book a (made up) version of events painting the Duo as the bad guys, with the implication that the older book will seek retribution.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the bosses is a rooster named Rocky.
- In her initial form, the Princess is a dead ringer for Peach.
- The Cerberus boss has a shiba inu as one of its heads. This head will often make the same face as the Doge meme.
- In the intro to the Cerberus boss fight, the house in the background has a pizza on the roof.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The World 4 boss theme is a slow-paced regal song, incredibly unfitting for a boss fight, even if the boss is a princess and the pace is slow at first.
- Space Zone: World 2 is in a UFO that has tech beyond imagination, and aliens either in a UFO or a laser cage.
- Under the Sea: After the first phase of the World 3 boss, the protagonists are knocked into the ocean and magically transform themselves into merfolk to fight the rest of the battle underwater.
- Visual Pun: The second world has a stage in a digital world, where you fight literal viruses and Trojan Horses.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Meowitch is the first boss, and she doesn't shy away from showing that all bosses have multiple phases with patterns that need good reflexes and memory.
