Cuphead Review: You Will Want Seconds

<p>I have been a huge gamer for a large amount of my 38 years on this planet&comma; and as I pass through generation and generation of consoles I have been finding myself more and more jaded&period; I saw that companies were just reskinning older games and selling them yearly just to make a buck&period; The industry actually had me worried that it was losing its creativity and soon the creative and financial bubble would burst again for the genre&period; Then I heard about <em>Cuphead<&sol;em>&comma; a hand drawn masterpiece that mimics cartoons of old to near perfection&period; I simply could not believe that such an original and well made game was coming to the Xbox One and it was coming with a lot of fanfare&period; Seems like I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the only one who felt that mainstream games were getting stale and redundant&period; It is nice to see that Studio MDHR had some gumption to create and release an amazing title such as this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130060" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130060" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130060" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;30022551&sol;cuphead1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"359" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130060" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Cuphead<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Studio MDHR&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What sets Cuphead&comma; and if you have a friend Mugman&comma; on this epic adventure is told in the form of an old pulp comic book&period; You flip through pages to find out that while living with Elder Kettle&comma; they decided to wander far from home and ended up on the wrong side of the tracks&period; They end up at The Devil&&num;8217&semi;s Casino where they find themselves on a hot streak&comma; winning roll after roll&period; Soon the owner makes and appearance and offers them a very special wager&period; The Devil offers Cuphead the casino if he wins another roll&semi; if he loses both Cuphead and Mugman&&num;8217&semi;s souls are forfeit&period; Without thinking and only seeing dollar signs Cuphead rolls a snake eyes and seals he and his pal&&num;8217&semi;s fate&period; They beg the Devil for another option and he gives them one&comma; should they get the souls to all the people who have hidden and run from the Devil&comma; they may be spared&period; They rush back home and Elder Kettle tells them find all the souls for the Devil in Inkwell Isle so that they have a chance to be free and to save their souls&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is boss battle to boss battle with occasional &&num;8220&semi;run and gun&&num;8221&semi; sections that allow you to gather coins&period; These coins grant you access to better and more powerful shots that Cuphead shoots&period; You can also buy powerful secondary weapons and health upgrades&comma; which you will need&period; I upgraded that as soon as I could and some of these bosses wiped the floor with me until I memorized their moves and got into a rhythm&period; Inkwell Isle has many hidden areas that can also benefit Cuphead on his journey&period; Scour the world map as much as you can for areas that allow you to interact with and you may find yourself something special or find a secret boss fight&period; I meandered into a haunted mausoleum by accident and after figuring out how to win&comma; I received an insanely powerful secondary weapon power up&period; This power up saved me some frustration at the very tail end of a boss fight and helped me claim my second soul in the first world in the game&period; There are three worlds and the finale for you to jump&comma; shoot and dodge your way through&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130065" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130065" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130065" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;30024437&sol;fef96211206193be1514cc6e8e868829&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130065" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Cuphead<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Studio MDHR&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>For how tough the game is though&comma; the controls do not hamper you at all&semi; they are smooth when placed on the correct buttons and if timed correctly can save your butt many times over&period; A is jump and when you jump and press Y you can leap over longer jumps&period; Y also is a quick dodge which you will need to master for certain bosses&comma; especially when they are jumping all over the screen&period; X is shoot and if you&&num;8217&semi;re like me&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll just hold that button down for rapid fire to cause maximum damage as fast as you can&period; When you are in a bind press B&period; If you have your playing cards filled up next to your life meter&comma; you will shoot a devastating barrage of ammo at your foe&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re bad at this game&comma; you can always try &&num;8220&semi;Simple&&num;8221&semi; mode&comma; but even that puts up a challenge&period; Play it like it should be played and even though you may die a lot&comma; it is so much more rewarding&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What made me instantly interested in this game was the look of the game&period; I grew up watching the old Max Fleischer <em>Superman<&sol;em> cartoons&semi; I&&num;8217&semi;m actually pretty sure I still have the VHS tapes lying around my house somewhere&period; These visuals really are not seen anymore&comma; now that the majority of cartoons are made on a computer and the hand drawn beauty is lost to us&period; Studio MDHR decided to bring it back and bring it back in a big way&period; Everything is painstakingly hand drawn&semi; the details are gorgeous and I never saw a repeated NPC or boss as I played&period; That is dedication and a love for the art style of the 30&&num;8217&semi;s and 40&&num;8217&semi;s&period; The music and score is also amazing and feels like it was pulled right off the radio during the middle of The Great Depression&period; I actually did not start the game right away&semi; I sat and listened to the wonderful <em>Cuphead<&sol;em> theme that draws you right into this game before you&&num;8217&semi;ve even had a chance to play it&period; I read somewhere that there is a soundtrack that I can purchase&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m going to seek this out because they did a wonderful job with the score as well&period;  For some reason&comma; the music and art style gives me nostalgic feels even though I was born almost 40 years after we celebrated 1940&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130075" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130075" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130075" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;30031936&sol;Cuphead3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"327" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130075" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Cuphead&comma; <&sol;em>Studio MDHR&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is a title that everyone needs to own&excl; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I can be any more clear&comma; this game gave us high expectations and knocked them out of the park&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of the old NES <em>Mega Man<&sol;em> games&comma; then you will love this shooter&period; If the classic art style and music is your bag then get the game and enjoy it on &&num;8220&semi;Simple&&num;8221&semi; mode&semi; you won&&num;8217&semi;t experience everything it has to offer&comma; but you can enjoy the atmosphere and tunes&period; The only couple negatives that I saw were the annoying long load times at points and the crushing difficulty&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think a casual gamer would be able to enjoy this title too much&comma; which is sad&period; I think this needs to be played by every core&sol;hardcore gamer so that they can learn or appreciate how to make an amazing game with care&comma; determination and love and give the gaming community something they&&num;8217&semi;ve never seen&period; <em>Cuphead<&sol;em> is a masterpiece and I look forward to what Studio MDHR has up their sleeves for us in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;