''Cuphead'' is a
run-and-gun video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed and published by Studio MDHR. The game follows the titular Cuphead who, in a
deal with the Devil
A deal with the Devil (also called a Faustian bargain or Mephistophelian bargain) is a cultural motif exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, as well as being elemental to many Christian traditions. According to ...
after losing a game at the Devil's casino, is sent on a quest to repossess the souls of runaway debtors as payment for Cuphead's loss. In the game, up to two players control Cuphead and/or his brother Mugman to fight through several levels and
boss fight
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
s; the game does not have a rigid narrative structure. As the game progresses, the protagonist acquires more power and abilities, eventually threatening the Devil himself. Players, however, can only equip a limited number of these abilities at a given time.
The game's creators, brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, took inspiration from the
rubber hose style of the
golden age of American animation and the
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
qualities of works of
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
,
Fleischer Studios,
Warner Bros. Cartoons,
MGM Cartoon Studio
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to ac ...
and
Walter Lantz Productions
Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios.
The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...
. Reminiscent of the '30s aesthetics and
Jazz Age, the game is noted for its animation and soundtrack: all in-game assets used hand-drawn animation with deliberate human imperfections, and the soundtrack was written for and recorded with a full jazz ensemble.
''Cuphead'' had a preview at
E3 2014 and was released in 2017 as a
timed-exclusive for
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
's
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, with ports to other systems subsequently added. The game was a commercial success, selling two million copies within two weeks of release and six million in two years. ''Cuphead'' received widespread critical acclaim, with praises for its art style, gameplay, soundtrack, and difficulty; the latter was singled out for scrutiny, with multiple outlets naming ''Cuphead'' one of the hardest video games ever created. The game won several awards, including three
Game Awards
The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, ...
, three
D.I.C.E. Awards, and a
British Academy Games Award. A
DLC expansion, entitled ''Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course'', was released on June 30, 2022. A
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
animated series based on the game, ''
The Cuphead Show!
''The Cuphead Show!'' is an animated slapstick comedy streaming television series developed by Dave Wasson for Netflix, loosely based on the 2017 Canadian video game ''Cuphead'' by Studio MDHR. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, the creators of ''Cu ...
'', premiered in February 2022.
Gameplay
''Cuphead''s gameplay is centered on continual
boss fight
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
s, interspersed with
run-and-gun levels. Each is housed in one of four worlds, with the final fight against the Devil. Each boss fight includes a simple, normal, and expert difficulty mode (with the exception of the final two bosses, which lack a simple mode). Defeating a boss on normal mode is required to progress through the game and unlocks expert mode for that particular level. Most boss battles take place on land, although some involve player characters piloting
aeroplanes and play like a side-scrolling
shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
. The game includes
role-playing
Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...
elements and a branching
level sequence.
Player characters have
infinite lives
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
, maintaining all equipment between deaths.
Equippable weapons and special abilities, referred to as Charms, can be purchased from Porkrind's Emporium, an in-game shop, using coins found in levels and the overworld. Player characters can use a slapping parry attack on objects marked in pink to various effects, the most important of them being a super meter charge that enables more powerful attacks. The super meter is represented by a row of five playing cards, and can also be charged through attacking or Charm effects. An enhanced attack can be executed at the cost of one card, with its particular form determined by the currently equipped weapon. The most powerful strikes, or Super Arts, require the Super Meter to be fully charged and will completely drain it upon use. Three Super Arts are available, one in each of the first three worlds; to earn each one, the player must enter a
mausoleum and parry a horde of ghosts to stop them from reaching an urn at the center of the screen.
After completing a level, the players are ranked with a grade based on performance, determined by the time taken to complete the level, damage taken, number of parried attacks, and the number of times part of the super meter was used, in addition to the level difficulty. The levels are accessible through a top-down perspective
overworld
An overworld (sometimes referred to as a hub world) is, in a broad sense, commonly an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other vide ...
with its own secret areas.
The game has a two-player local
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...
mode,
in which either player character can return to the game after being killed if the other one parries his soul before it rises off the screen. Cuphead's brother, Mugman, acts as an alternative skin and potential co-op partner within the game. The
DLC expansion, ''Delicious Last Course'', adds a new area with its own campaign, including new bosses, weapons, and Charms; a third playable character is also added, Ms. Chalice, who replaces either Cuphead or Mugman when equipped with the Astral Cookie Charm. Ms. Chalice has her own unique set of moves, including a double jump, an invincible roll maneuver, and a parry dash.
Plot
''Don't Deal With the Devil''
On Inkwell Isle, Cuphead and his brother, Mugman, are two fun-loving children who live under the watchful eye of Elder Kettle. Despite Elder Kettle's warnings, the brothers wander off to the Devil's Casino and begin playing
craps
Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street ...
. When they go on a winning streak, the Devil appears and
makes a deal, offering to give them all the money in the casino if they win the next roll and threatening to take their souls if they lose. Cuphead accepts the offer and loses by rolling
snake eyes. As he and Mugman beg for mercy, the Devil offers them another deal: if they can collect the "soul contracts" from his runaway debtors by midnight the next day, the brothers will be spared. Cuphead and Mugman return to Elder Kettle, who gives them a magic potion that allows them to fire blasts of energy from their fingers, but also warns them that the debtors may not turn in their soul contracts willingly.
The brothers travel around the neighboring Inkwell Isles, fighting the debtors in order to obtain their contracts. As they enter the second Isle, Elder Kettle notices that the duo are getting stronger from their battles, and urges them to "do the right thing" when they meet the Devil. After Cuphead and Mugman enter the third Isle, King Dice, the casino's manager, reports the cup brothers' progress to the Devil. King Dice soon becomes suspicious that they are up to something, to which the Devil replies that there is nothing to worry about; if they were to try anything, he would be waiting for them.
The brothers soon collect all the soul contracts and return to the Devil's Casino. King Dice stops them, saying that their success has caused him to lose a bet and has the duo battle his minions as well as himself. After defeating King Dice, the brothers confront the Devil. If the player chooses to turn over the contracts, Cuphead and Mugman are transformed into the Devil's demonic lackeys and the game ends. If they refuse, the Devil becomes furious at the brothers for not upholding their end of the bargain and attacks them. Cuphead and Mugman defeat the Devil, burn the contracts, and return home. Learning that they have nothing to fear from the Devil anymore, the former debtors honor the brothers for their heroic actions.
''The Delicious Last Course''
After freeing a spirit known as the Legendary Chalice from one of the main game's mausoleums, Cuphead and Mugman receive a summons from her to visit a distant fourth Inkwell Isle. Once they arrive, Chalice demonstrates an "Astral Cookie" which allows her to trade places with the brother who eats it, turning him into a ghost and temporarily bringing her back to life as Ms. Chalice. The cookie's inventor, Chef Saltbaker, unveils his recipe for a special dessert known as the Wondertart, which has the power to give Chalice her own permanent body. Saltbaker notes that its required ingredients are held by several antagonistic inhabitants of the Island, and the brothers set out to collect them with Chalice's help.
Once they return to the bakery with the ingredients, Saltbaker reveals that the Wondertart requires a living soul baked into it to work, and that he intends to use the Wondertart for himself and conquer the astral plane. To this end, he has captured the soul of one
protagonist, who may be any character not in play upon reaching the bakery, and further plans to kill the other two cups to resume his scheme. The remaining two engage Saltbaker in battle and defeat him, resulting in the destruction of the bakery and leaving no way to finish the Wondertart. Unwilling to let anyone else give up their soul for her benefit, Chalice decides to remain a ghost and continue searching for a way to return to life, while still offering to assist Cuphead and Mugman as needed via the Astral Cookie. In the epilogue, Saltbaker is arrested for his crimes and sentenced to community service. Saltbaker makes amends for his actions, and rebuilds his bakery, now a changed person much to everyone's joy.
Development
![StudioMDHR GDC 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/StudioMDHR_GDC_2018.jpeg)
''Cuphead'' is the first game by Studio MDHR, a Canadian
indie game development
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...
studio founded by brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. The brothers wound up remortgaging their house to finish the game.
The game was written by
Evan Skolnick; additional animation work was contributed by Jake Clark, with programming led by Tony Coculuzzi.
Its development began in 2010 using the
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...
game engine, and it was developed from the brothers' homes in
Oakville, Ontario
Oakville is a town in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton. At its 2021 census population of 213,759, it is Ontario's largest town. Oakville is part of the Greater Toronto Area, one of the ...
and
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city populatio ...
, respectively.
It was inspired by cartoons from the early days of
golden age of American animation such as Disney and Fleischer Studios, along with cartoonists
Ub Iwerks
Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), known as Ub Iwerks ( ), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentiou ...
,
Grim Natwick
Myron "Grim" Natwick (' Nordveig; August 16, 1890 – October 7, 1990) was an American artist, animator, and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studios' most popular character, Betty Boop.
Background
Born in Wis ...
, and
Willard Bowsky
Willard Gustav Bowsky (September 26, 1907 – November 27, 1944) was an American animator best known for his work at Fleischer Studios in New York City and Miami, Florida, where he worked on cartoons featuring Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor, ...
.
Chad Moldenhauer called Fleischer Studios "the
magnetic north
The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed t ...
of his art style", and particularly sought to mimic their "subversive and surrealist" elements.
The Moldenhauers watched many early golden-age cartoons in their youth, which Chad Moldenhauer describes as happenstance, based on gifts and
VHS compilations. Among other siblings in their Regina, Saskatchewan childhood home, the two shared
aesthetic taste
In aesthetics, the concept of taste has been the interest of philosophers such as Plato, Hume, and Kant.
In his aesthetic philosophy, Kant denies any standard of a good taste, which would be the taste of the majority or any social group. For K ...
and interest in gameplay. They attempted a game in the style of ''Cuphead'' in 2000, but lacked the tools to continue. The brothers decided to try again following the success of the
indie game ''
Super Meat Boy'', which was released in 2010. The character that became Cuphead descended from a 1936 Japanese propaganda animated film featuring a character with a teacup for a head. The Moldenhauers emulated the animation because they found it strange, and "right away it stuck".
Before settling on him as the main character, the brothers had created around one hundred fifty different character designs, including a
kappa wearing a
tophat and characters with a plate or fork for a head.
Their animation techniques are similar to those of these cartoons.
Chad Moldenhauer, who had previously worked in graphic design, hand-drew the animations and painted the backgrounds using
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
, colorizing them in
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...
. The gameplay's
frame rate is 60 frames per second, while the animation runs at 24 per second, which is the standard in American film. Chad Moldenhauer saw the deliberately included human imperfections of their art design as a reaction to the perfectionism of modern
pixel art
Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers and arcade video g ...
. Jared Moldenhauer worked on other aspects of the game, and they discussed gameplay design together. Their studio hired a Romanian developer, a Brooklyn animator, and an Ontario jazz musician for the project. They sought to use recording processes vintage to that era.
The score was composed by Kristofer Maddigan and consists of fifty one tracks performed by
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
musicians.
The Moldenhauers described ''Cuphead'' as having a difficult, "
retro game" core for its emphasis on gameplay over plot.
''Kill Screen'' described the developers as "obsessed" with run-and-gun fundamentals of "animations and exploits and
hitbox
Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. Collision detection is a classic issue of computational geometry and has applications in various computing fields, primarily in computer gr ...
es".
They made multiple revisions to many gameplay elements, including how gameplay actions feel at the edges of platforms and how long players are disabled after receiving damage.
They planned multiple
difficulty levels and chose to abandon a typical
damsel in distress plot for one where Cuphead perpetually creates trouble for himself.
The developers planned to surpass the
Guinness World Record for number of boss battles in a run-and-gun game by having more than 30, compared to the record's 25 in ''
Alien Soldier
''Alien Soldier'' is a side-scrolling run and gun video game developed by Treasure and published by Sega for the Mega Drive. Retail copies were released in Japan and PAL territories while in North America it was only available exclusively via ...
''.
The game's implementation and visual design, combined with the limited number of staff, was Studio MDHR's biggest challenge, and as such the Moldenhauers went to great lengths to complete the game, even remortgaging their house in order to finance it.
Release
Though the game was shown during the Xbox press event of
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 to audience approval, it was not available to play and was estimated to be 40 percent complete. It was expected to be extended via
expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...
s
with 10 to 15 bosses each,
similar to how ''
Sonic & Knuckles
is a 1994 platform game developed and published by Sega. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna in their quests to save Angel Island; Sonic tries to prevent Doctor Robotnik from relaunching his orbital weapon, the Death Egg ...
'' added atop the ''Sonic'' series.
''Cuphead'' was released on September 29, 2017 for
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and it supports
Xbox Play Anywhere
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An ...
.
King Features Syndicate has the licensing rights to merchandise and assorted paraphernalia.
Downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
for the game, ''The Delicious Last Course'', which adds a new island, boss encounters, and a third playable character (Ms. Chalice), was revealed at
E3 2018
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) was the 24th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...
for release in 2019. However, the new content was pushed back into 2020 to avoid putting too much pressure and
crunch time on the development team. It was further delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and was eventually released on June 30, 2022.
A port of ''Cuphead'' for
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
was released on October 19, 2018, and advertised with an animated short titled ''Crisp Apples''.
A port for the
Nintendo Switch was released on April 18, 2019. This was made possible when Microsoft approached the development team about it. A
PlayStation 4 port was released on July 28, 2020.
In June 2019, a port for
Tesla, Inc.
Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...
's
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
-based operating system for some of its cars was announced by Tesla CEO
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
, who expressed his appreciation of the game. It was released in September 2019 as part of Tesla's software version 10, though only the first level was playable.
Reception
Ben Kuchera of ''
Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...
'' wrote that ''Cuphead'' was one of the five most interesting reveals at Microsoft's E3 2014 press conference, even though he knew little about the game apart from its aesthetic. He said it "stood out immediately" and that everyone in the website's press room viscerally reacted to the trailer.
''Cuphead'' won the ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' Best Xbox One game at E3 award in 2015,
and "Best Indie Game" at the
Gamescom
Gamescom (stylized as gamescom) is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 2018, it has been organised by ''game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche'' (English: Associ ...
2015 Awards. It was nominated as "Best Independent Game" at the
E3 2016
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 (E3 2016) was the 22nd E3, during which several hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily re ...
Game Critics Awards
The Game Critics Awards are a set of annual awards held after the E3 video game conference since 1998. The awards are given to products displayed at E3 with the title Best of E3 of their category.
Format
The nominees and winners of the awards a ...
.
''Cuphead'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
.
Its difficulty was noted by several media outlets. ''
Destructoid
''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022.
History
...
s Brett Makedonski welcomed the high difficulty, which he noted as "tough but fair". Based on "exhaustive" pattern recognition, he said it ultimately relied on
muscle memory
Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, the brain creates a long-t ...
, rather than reaction. He thought structuring the game around
boss battle
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
s was well executed, and that each boss encounter held "different and special and memorable" traits. Praising the 1930s aesthetics as cohesive, he found the jazz-based soundtrack to be "similarly fabulous". He said the "eight-direction firing radius" was "clunky and awkward".
Though dying 188 times in his playthrough, Ray Carsillo at
''EGMNow'' was not frustrated by the difficulty, but rather was motivated to "dig my heels in deeper". He lauded the "gorgeous" hand-drawn visuals, surpassed only by the gameplay which goes "beyond pattern recognition".
Peter Brown of ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' opined that combating enemies provided a considerably rewarding experience. He described the cartoon aesthetic as charming, infusing "color and expression", and a "true recreation" of hand-drawn
cel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, bu ...
animation. He relished the quick loading times which serve
trial and error
Trial and error is a fundamental method of problem-solving characterized by repeated, varied attempts which are continued until success, or until the practicer stops trying.
According to W.H. Thorpe, the term was devised by C. Lloyd Morgan (18 ...
tactics. Though he saw "the fear of the unexpected" as part of ''Cuphead''s thrill, he disparaged its failure to identify progress and capability.
Lucas Sullivan at ''
GamesRadar+
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites '' Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and ''Computer ...
'' wrote that ''Cuphead'' "stands tall among the best 2D shooters of all time", and that the gameplay demands patient pattern recognition, but which is not frustrating and would reward players "tenfold". Sullivan called the animation adorable, with a wealth of detail in the
watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
backdrops, which worked well with the gameplay.
''
Giant Bomb
''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by '' Time' ...
''s Ben Pack remarked that playing the game yielded one of his most enjoyable gaming experiences, citing the combination of "brutal" platforming and an "exceptionally well realized" art style.
Joe Skrebels of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
declared every scene a "masterwork" and commended the sound work, calling it an "ideal match" to the aesthetics. He called platforming battles the most imaginative part, and the lack of enemy health bars its "smartest" and "most devilish" feature. He found the battles rewarding and "one of ''Cuphead''s greatest strengths". He said the "run 'n' gun, left-to-right platforming" lacked inventiveness, and criticized the "parry system" and control scheme.
Chris Schilling of ''
PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' liked the "reliable jump and dash" controls with "nimble and responsive" handling. Schilling explained that certain random elements meant "you can't simply learn patterns by rote and rely entirely on muscle memory".
Chris Plante of ''Polygon'' said the game educates the player in strategy through trial and error. He enjoyed the "crucial" and "relatively forgiving" parrying system, more than the various attacks. He complained that the final bosses diminished the game's greatest features, and that the difficulty "eventually goes too far".
Colm Ahern of VideoGamer.com wrote, "''Cuphead'' will best most games in how it looks and sounds, and defeating that boss that you once deemed unbeatable is glorious." He criticized the final bosses, saying that the challenge was "a step too far".
''Unwinnable'' writer Yussef Cole wrote an essay titled "Cuphead and the Racist Spectre of Fleischer Animation", arguing that by using the
rubber hose animation style, Studio MDHR also brought up the "bigotry and prejudice" that had a strong influence on early animation, claiming that Studio MDHR ignored the context and history of the aesthetic it "so faithfully" replicated.
Cole states that much of the imagery that Studio MDHR took from the Fleischer style effectively carried the racial stereotypes of the
1930s Harlem and
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...
s that the animation style was built on.
Chad and Jared Moldenhauer had stated prior to release that they wanted to make an animation style that harkened back to 1930s cartoons without getting ties to racism or minstrel shows in them.
Maja Moldenhauer further stated that all they wanted from the Fleischers was the animation style and visuals, and are "not versed in" anything else happening in that era. In response to Cole's essay, Brandon Orselli of ''Niche Gamer'' defended the game as a tribute to that art style, writing that it was not meant to deliver narratives, or "go anywhere beyond where it needs to go in terms of its basic and child-like storytelling".
Sales
In the two first weeks of release, more than one million copies of ''Cuphead'' were sold worldwide.
Sales reached more than four million by July 2019,
and five million by its second anniversary of release. By the time it was released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2020, it had reached 6 million sales. ''Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course'' accumulated a total of one million sales within less than two weeks of its launch.
Awards
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' placed ''Cuphead'' fifth on the list of its "Best Games of 2017", ''GamesRadar+'' ranked it ninth on its list of the 25 Best Games of 2017", and ''Polygon'' ranked it 14th on its list of the "50 best games of 2017". In ''
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
''s Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the "Best Microsoft Game" and "Best Co-op Multiplayer" categories, and got third place for "Best Action Game". The website also gave it the awards for "Best Microsoft Exclusive" in its "Best of 2017 Awards", and for "Best Bosses" in its 2017 Action Game of the Year Awards. EGMNow ranked the game at #2 on its list of the 25 best games of 2017, and
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British comedic writer, author, video game journalist, humorist, podcaster, and video game developer. He is best known for his video game review series ''Zero Punctuation'', which he pro ...
of ''
Zero Punctuation
''Zero Punctuation'' is a series of video game reviews created by English comedy writer and video game journalist Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Since the series began in 2007, episodes have been published weekly by internet magazine '' The Escapist'' ...
'' ranked it third on his list of the Best Games of 2017. ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
'' named it one of its 15 best video games of 2017.
''Cuphead'' was nominated for "Breakout Game of the Year" in ''PC Gamer''s 2017 Game of the Year Awards, and won the award for "Best Xbox One Game" in ''Destructoid''s Game of the Year Awards 2017. It won "Best Xbox One Game" and "Best Art Direction" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year", "Best PC Game", "Best Platformer", "Best Original Music", and "Best Multiplayer". It won "Best Looking Game" and "Best Style", and was runner-up for "Best Shopkeeper" for the character Porkrind, "Best Music", "Best Debut", and "Game of the Year" at ''Giant Bomb'' Game of the Year 2017 Awards.
In the week of September 14, 2019, the album ''Selected Tunes from Cuphead'' topped the Jazz Albums
''Billboard'' charts.
Legacy
A ''Cuphead'' Mii Fighter costume was added to the 2018
fighting game ''
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeed ...
'' via
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
in January 2020. It also came bundled with one of the game's boss level themes, "Floral Fury". Four ''Cuphead''-themed "spirits" were added to ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' in February 2020. Later in 2020,
Arby's
Arby's is an American fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue. In October 2017, ''Food & Wine'' called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)".
Arby ...
added limited-edition toys and
papercraft
Paper models, also called card models or papercraft, are models constructed mainly from sheets of heavy paper, paperboard, card stock, or foam.
Details
This may be considered a broad category that contains origami and card modeling. Origami ...
s based on some characters from the game to its kids' menu at select locations. A
tabletop game
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games.
Classification according to equipment used
Tabletop ga ...
, ''Cuphead: Fast Rolling Dice Game'', was released in 2021, featuring a companion app for iOS and Android that plays music and calculates the score.
''The Cuphead Show!''
''The Cuphead Show!'', an
animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...
based on the game and produced by
Netflix Animation
Netflix Animation is an American animation studio and a subsidiary of Netflix. The studio primarily produces and develops animated programs and feature films.
History
When Netflix began to produce original animated content in 2013, all of them ...
, was announced in July 2019. The show does not use pen-and-paper animation methods like the game and instead uses digital animation. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer serve as executive producers alongside
CJ Kettler
CJ Kettler is an American television producer, media executive, and entrepreneur. She has held senior management positions with Hearst, MTV Networks, Vestron, Oxygen Media, Channel One News, Travelzoo, LIME, and others.
Kettler served as CE ...
from
King Features Syndicate.
The series premiered on February 18, 2022. On August 19, 2022, the 13-episode second season was released worldwide. The 11-episode third season was released on November 18, 2022.
Notes
References
External links
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Shoot 'em ups