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Cuphead Discussion (Nintendo Switch) [game]
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04/22/19, 06:46 Edited: 04/22/19, 06:46
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Yay! Once again I slack off and someone does the work for me.
Really liking Cuphead, by the way. Its difficulty level is somewhat overblown; it's tough but not cheap, and the challenges being in little bite-sized portions makes it a lot less frustrating than, say, losing all your lives/continues in an old NES game.
Initially I wasn't sure what to expect of the whole boss rush aspect of it, but the game transcends that simple description because of how varied and dynamic the encounters are. There's a fair bit of platforming to many of them, and the different phases keep things interesting. The weaponry is surprisingly diverse and balanced (as far as I can tell), to the point where trying new things can have surprisingly good results. I struggled using the homing shot on the Dragon boss for 20 minutes or so, but once I switched to Charge and played it like a Mega Man game, I beat it within a few tries!
And the art, my gosh. It's been emphasized plenty in reviews, but the dev team nailed it. It's animated expertly and perfectly adheres to that old Disney/Merrie Melodies/Betty Boop/Popeye style. Replaying bosses for the 20th time isn't so bad when you get to admire the insane amount of detail that goes into the animations. There's only been one design so far that's seemed slightly out of place (the sentient wall in a run-and-gun stage on the third world) and that's if I'm going through everything with a fine-toothed comb.
And they take it a step further with the music, which doesn't cheap out and phone it in--on the contrary, it runs the gamut of early 20th century stuff (from jazz, swing, big band, barbershop, ragtime, Dixieland and a fun Satchmo-style number) all with glorious live instrumentation. And not only are the bosses well animated, but they fully embrace the cartooniness aspect, morphing and stretching into all sorts of nonsensical forms (a fire-breathing monster's head turns into a blowtorch, one boss's head becomes a wrecking ball, another turns into a slot machine for no real reason).
The one presentation exception that comes to mind--and it's really super minor--is that Cuphead himself feels a tad slapped together. I appreciate his Fleischer bounciness and his Mickey Mouse "GOLLY"s, but the concept of a cup-based hero comes across as a little half-baked. Outside of a few non-gameplay animations, the cup aspect isn't used at all and he simply jumps, dashes and shoots like any other hero. Ultimately this is hardly a big deal, but in a game where every boss oozes personality, it's a little strange that the main character(s) isn't handled a bit more cleverly.
So yeah, I'm having a blast with this game. A few reviews haven't been as impressed with the try-and-try-again gameplay, but if that's your jam and you enjoy stuff like Metal Slug and Gunstar Heroes, Cuphead is a must-play. I went in slightly skeptical about the hype and now it's in the running for my favorite indie game of all. |
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Finished!
Hmm, the way people talked about it, it was like one of the hardest games ever, but the game isn't that hard! Sure, you die a lot, but a lot of it is pattern recognition, and once you get the patterns down, it's not too hard. Of course, it often has multiple things happening at once so the "patterns" become pretty dynamic, but yeah... I'd say it is tough, but not like Super Ghouls and Ghosts tough or anything.
Overall, I liked it. I'm not sure I'm totally a fan of the idea of a game that is essentially a boss rush, but it's a good boss rush, so why not? |
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