by Angel Duran
This review will get red hot! Cuphead, Studio MDHR’s highly anticipated action/platformer is finally available on Nintendo Switch. I’m happy to say that the Switch port makes a very smooth transition over.
Developed by the studio MDHR, a company founded by two brothers by the names of Chad Moldenhauer and Jared Moldenhauer. Along with their team, they brought the cartoony world of Cuphead to life. The game originally came out on the Xbox One back in September 29 of 2018 and the game received many positive responses. Now that Nintendo and Microsoft are best friends because of the whole idea of having cross-platform games, meaning no matter console you play on you can play with people on a different console compared to yours, Nintendo and Microsoft pioneered this partnership and saw an opportunity to rub it in Sony’s face because they did not want to cross-platform. With Microsoft and Nintendo’s friendship, gamers saw the results such as the announcement of Xbox Live Microsoft’s online subscription service being brought over to the Nintendo Switch. It also saw the announcement of the Shoot ‘Em Up and Boss Rush game Cuphead.
The game’s story is actually very simple; it’s about two brothers Cuphead and Mugman. They are two fun loving boys under the watch of the Elder Kettle. The Elder Kettle warns them about the Devil’s Casino; the boys ignore the Elder Kettle’s warning and go to the casino to play craps. They go on a winning streak and the Devil offers them to raise the stakes. The wager that the devil made was that if they win they get all the money in the casino, but if they lose the devil takes their souls. The brothers accept the wager and ultimately lose because Cuphead rolls snake eyes. After begging for mercy, the Devil makes a deal with them to collect soul contracts. The brothers set off across Inkwell Isle fighting the residents who have lost their souls to the Devil.
Right off the bat, the game has plenty of goods to offer, such as the visuals. The art style is beautiful. It takes inspiration from vintage animation studios such as Fleischer Studios and Disney. The team even went as far as to hand draw every single frame of animation in the game. It’s not just the drawings that take inspiration in the shows of the past; the screen overlay also has a flickering effect and color bleed on the screen, giving it more of that old-school feeling. Even in the sound department ,the soundtrack is made up of original jazz recordings composed by Kris Maddigan that were recorded live in their studio. All the work they put in the animation and music does pay off because it really feels like you’re playing in the cartoons of yesteryear; it also is just fun to look at.
There were points of my gameplay sessions where my mom or dad walked in and they were confused because they thought I was watching an old cartoon and not playing a video game. The art can be great in a game, but that doesn’t equal a good game; you have to have a balance of good gameplay– luckily this game has that. The team spent countless hours fine-tuning the small details such as the hitboxes, which can be described as where your projectiles hit an enemy, and vice versa. The goal the team had is that the game plays as good as it looks and it does–even though you want to rip your hair out given how hard the game can actually be. Taking influences from games like Contra, Super Mario World, Mega Man and Street Fighter, and that influence shows because those games really made you test your skills and patience to not throw your controller at the television. The games’ difficulty is a positive because while at times it may seem impossible to beat that boss or enemy, the game encourages you to start over because you don’t have lives. With the press of a button you just have to wait for the game to load to jump back in and learn the pattern of the enemy to beat him. Given that the game is on the Nintendo Switch is a huge plus because you can take it anywhere and you don’t have to be tethered to a home console. Since the game is on the Nintendo Switch which is not the most powerful console on the market, it was kind of worrisome on how the game would perform on Nintendo’s hybrid console. But since Cuphead isn’t graphically demanding, the game runs great on docked mode (meaning when it uses the TV as the display). Given the close amount of detail in the game, it truly does pay off in the long run because it really is a game like no other.
The game does a lot right, but one of the biggest strengths that the game has can be seen as a weakness. The difficulty could be seen as a turnoff for some people: given that the game is a boss rush and a platformer, it is about 75% bosses and 25% platform levels. You will be facing up against bosses that have many phases that require close attention to what the bosses’ attack patterns are. But the difficulty isn’t a thing that destroys the game as a whole because it varies from the skill of the player. The game is built off the whole idea of being difficult because of the inspiration of the game so it made in mind of people playing difficult games.
Cuphead is more than just a game; it’s a work of art because of the amount of the work that the team spent. Even if you aren’t a fan of the difficulty, it’s just fun to watch someone play because at least in my experience I get a chuckle from watching someone struggle with a boss or levels. It’s also fun to watch because it really does feel like a cartoon and it’s fun seeing the character expressions. The game is definitely a game where you will die a lot, but it’s a hoot to play. That’s why this game gets 5 mugs out 5.
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