Cuphead Review (Switch)

  From time to time indie-game developers will come on to the scene with projects that are unique and full of passion.  They take an old concept and add on their own flair to make it something that is easily distinguishable from the rest.  Sometimes they like to make the game pretty fucking hard too.  Cuphead, designed by Jared Moldenhauer and developed by Studio MDHR, is a game of passion and absolute frustration.  But frustrating in a mostly good way.

Hold B

  Cuphead is a platformer and shooter where you play as a character with a cup or a mug for their head, that lost a bet with the devil, and now you must collect contracts of others who did the same.  The levels consist mostly of boss fights that have unique mechanics. There are some levels in between that are more platformer based and used to get coins to buy weapons.

  Weapons are the type of munition the heroes fire from their fingers.  There are definitely times where you can see some advantages to others but I found my self using the auto-fire and just holding B while I dodged.  While it is the weakest weapon, you are constantly causing damage, which will move the fight along.  I also really only used the dash ability as it just seemed too powerful not use compared to the others, which I can't even remember what they do. 

  To say some of these boss fights are challenging is an understatement.  This is a game where patience is king and you will need to be patient and learn the different patterns to all the bosses.  What makes this game even more unique then it's art style that calls back to old cartoons is that even the same boss fight will rarely be the same twice.  They have move sets buts each move set can be random and sometimes even varies exactly where the attack will come from.  This mechanic is cool because the game feels less repetitive but also pretty damn frustrating as it can really mess with your pattern when fighting.  The same "safe" spot might not be there in the next fight.

Only a Few Gripes

  There are two things in these games that will hold me back from saying it was perfect, even though it was damn near.  First were the stages where RNG was just fucking unfair.  There is a level where you are fighting a dragon and you need to jump from clouds that spawn in an RNG fashion that move across the screen.  There were multiple times where the game created what looked to me to be all but impossible to dodge scenarios, where you had no choice but to get hit.  With only three hit points this was a big eye roll for me.

  The second gripe has more to do with the Switch pro controller then the game.  There were several times I found myself moving a direction, letting go of the stick, and then my character flipping back the other direction to either fire into the nothingness or turn back into an enemies shot.  Very frustrating at times in a game that is already so unforgiving.

  I do have to say that most of my gripes are small and pale in comparison to the snappy writing, the great artwork, unique and challenging bosses, and a great soundtrack.  It's not too short and not too long of a game either.  I put in a good 20 hours (according to the semi-broken Nintendo game timer)

, which is twice the time for people on How Long To Beat but I hit 100% and a lot of people are full of shit on that site. 

  Overall the game was pretty fantastic an, if you are sitting on the fence, its definitely a game to go in on.  Just know that the challenge level is pretty high.  There are easy modes for the bosses although I never used that option because I felt regular was reasonable.  If you can handle that you will die a lot, and the game takes some practice, you are in for a unique, fun, and definitely rewarding experience.  I would highly recommend Cuphead.  

TL:DR;

Cuphead was a fantastic hard indie game that plays pretty well on the Switch that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a challenge.