'Cuphead' - A Gaming Masterpiece

For those who are looking for a truly unique gaming experience, this is for you!

Cuphead by StudioMDHR (available only on PC and Xbox One for 25 dollars) is a game that revolves around two charming characters named Cuphead and Mugman.

Backstory

In essence, after the two boys wander into a casino that the devil himself owns, they play a game of craps and get on a winning streak. The devil offers them all the loot in the casino if they win one last game. However, if they lose, he’ll take their souls. Cuphead impulsively takes this offer and he ends up losing. Cuphead and Mugman beg the devil not take their souls. In exchange for this not to happen, he puts them on a journey to collect the souls of the runaways who are in debt to him.

Goal of the Game

Throughout the game, you play as Cuphead in the three “Inkwell Isles” which are essentially stages of the game. You battle these really interesting creatures who are apparently in debt to the devil. For instance, you may fight against two boxer frogs who shoot different projectiles and throw punches at you that you’ll surely have to dodge.

Each boss gets progressively harder the more you damage them. In most cases, they change their attacks and sometimes even their appearance. The two frogs in this battle merge together near the end to turn into a huge slot machine that gives you a random thing to dodge as you shoot at it.

You’ll be able to play against these bosses at an easy difficulty (which will only give you some practice, since it doesn’t exactly help you progress in the game), however, you’ll have to beat every boss in normal mode to get to the next Inkwell Isle. Once you collect all the soul contracts in the game, you’ll eventually play against the devil. You’ll choose to give him all the souls you collected and join him, or rebel against him, not give him the souls and fight him. Each choice has a different outcome.

'Cuphead' is really challenging.

This game is nothing short of a challenge to beat. However, it can be very satisfying. What we lack nowadays is a game that not anyone can just beat so easily. Let me put this into perspective. In Cuphead, you’ll have to do a lot of dodging through projectiles (and sometimes even the boss itself) coming at you and it get progressively harder as you continue to damage the boss. You'll have to shoot at them too. Additionally, if you die—much like the dark souls series—you’ll have to restart all over again. While it is quite frustrating, you can spend hours playing it and feel like a complete badass for beating the hard bosses.

The original soundtrack is a masterpiece in of itself.

If you’re into jazz, this game is packed with the most beautiful, nostalgic and almost orgasmic music you’ll ever hear. It’s fits perfectly together with the art style of the game, being 30s animation. You’ll have to listen to it for yourself to hear the beauty in it. It’s all original music and it’s in a $20 game! Insanity!

What makes this game such a masterpiece is the fact that everything in the game from the characters, bosses and backgrounds are all hand drawn. A lot of the colours were added in digitally but all the characters and movements were done by hand. So this game mixes the medium of 30s animation with the medium of gaming and you can even say it includes jazz to compliment its 80 year old atmosphere.

Gameplay

Surely you want some gameplay, so here you go my friends! PS: If you skip to 21 min, you’ll see the battle with the frogs I was talking about in action, but in co-op mode.

To conclude, due to the extensive, detailed work put into the illustrations, music, and the fact that the game is just a great challenge to overcome, it is a masterpiece!