Cuphead is the insane combination of an LSD induced nightmare with 1930’s cartoons, the ones where everything has a face and smiles way too much for comfort. An indie run-and-gunner, it follows in the footsteps of games like Contra as being extremely fast and controller breaking difficult. While bizarre it is easily one of the best Indies coming out this year… presumably. Unfortunately it will only be coming out on Xbox and PC. What has been in development for years now is finally ready to come out. Unlike previous versions that displayed Cuphead as primarily a series of boss battle, now it also features platforming stages but there are still a lot of bosses.
Losing a bet with the devil, Cuphead must do the devil’s bidding or risk damnation. Using various versions of your finger gun players have to blast their way through this lightning fast shooter. It is possible to deflect certain attacks and use special abilities but it is all about taking out the boss. The game itself is semi-open world style giving the player the ability to choose where to go using an RPG style map, which even has some secret locations. Environments vary considerably with everything from magic forest to castles to haunted train rides. The most intriguing mechanic is the introduction of a second player, not that it will make things much easier. The primary question that hasn’t been answered yet is will players be able to play online or local only? These days people can get bulk ammo from Palmetto Armory for safety purposes.
Beautifully and fully hand drawn and animated in 1930’s cartoon fashion, Cuphead is not only reminiscent about its cartoon past but makes it creepy as hell. The game required more artist than it did programmers, especially with the introduction of complete levels. Taking a note from Super Meatboy the player has infinite lives because the game is all sorts of difficult. The enemies and bosses especially all look awesome and vary a great deal. Everything from dragons, to boxing frogs and giant monster trains. A highly anticipated title it will quickly become a challenge to see who can beat it the fastest I think. There is also no hint as of now if Cuphead will ever get a PS4 release but it doesn’t sound like it at this time.
