![]() Progression is fairly straightforward – beating each of the bosses in a world allows access to the next world and its accompanying battles. ![]() Every foe has at least one attack that’s a real pig to dodge, but it’s fun to figure out these patterns and escape unscathed. Of course, the entire point is that you won’t be able to do that from the get-go there isn’t a battle in the game that we managed to clear first time. There are 19 bosses – each of them creative, clever and memorable – but each boss doesn’t last more than a couple of minutes when you play it right. It’s all wonderfully well balanced and you’ll never be prohibitively far from your next unlock, allowing you to tailor your play style in a satisfyingly broad way. These perks are purchased from an in-game store using coins that you can find hidden in the game world, particularly in the occasional run n’ gun stages which eschew the boss battles for brilliantly designed enemy gauntlets. A weaker homing shot, for example, lets you focus on dodging while whittling down enemy health – or you could equip a short-range burst shot that does high damage, but requires you to get right in the face of danger. The classic game feel is very apparent – there’s even a world map! – but it’s complemented by more modern quality-of-life features as well as the now-thankfully-standard infinite lives, you’ll be able to equip playing cards that give upgrades for Cuphead’s shots. ![]() Anyway can pick up and play it, but few will see the ending. ![]() Dodge the boss’ attacks, parry the pink bullets, build up super shots and fire them. All are brilliantly explained in a simple, effective tutorial, and then you’re straight into the fray. The meat and potatoes of Cuphead are its tight, precise movement, accurate shooting and the marvellous mid-air parry mechanic. What’s the story? Some trifling nonsense about Cuphead and Mugman collecting souls for the Devil. The boss rush style complements its visual strength beautifully – almost every level being a unique boss battle simply means almost every level is unique, as effectively painstaking in their design as the marvellous characters trying to chip away your all-too-limited lives. The gloriously detailed animation isn’t a distraction from flawed gameplay Cuphead would be brilliant fun even if it were grey, untextured polygons. All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game).One of the most accessible, appealing games ever created on pure visual spectacle – and they applied it to one of the most demanding play styles imaginable. It’s all the more surprising, then, that Cuphead is a shockingly difficult run n’ gun shooter very much in the vein of Contra, with all the twitch reflexes, memorisation and repetition inherent to that genre. With visuals as beautifully attractive as this, the world was Cuphead’s oyster. It’s beholden to the aesthetics of 1930s cartoons, sure, but that’s it. Studio MDHR’s Cuphead is one of them, a game that feels like a singular, focused vision come to life – as though it jumped out of its creator’s imaginations without compromise and without having to be made to fit a framework. There are very few games that so completely achieve what they set out to be.
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