Looking and sounding like a coloured Fleischer animation from the 1930s, but playing more like a tough '80s run-and-gun, Cuphead is an inventive, surprising game centred on a number of boss battles that need to be studied and replayed to overcome.
On a quest to defeat the devil's debtors — after losing a game of craps to Satan himself — Cuphead (and optionally his pal Mugman, if you're playing with a friend) embark on a journey full of puritanical themes, amazing music and surreal, subversive, occasionally unsettling encounters.
![Most bosses are fought on the ground, but occasionally Cuphead takes to the sky in a plane.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171011003802im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/v/q/f/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyvp69.png/1507514307375.jpg)
The first thing that grabs you about Cuphead is that incredible art style, and in truth it never stops grabbing you. The injection of traditional art — all the characters and animations were hand-drawn with pencil on paper and then hand-inked before being digitised and coloured — adds something really special.
Paired with stunningly animated watercolour backgrounds, an original jazz soundtrack and accurately fuzzy sound and voice, the whole thing really nails the feel of those old cartoons. From terrifyingly transforming beasts to the occasional fully-voiced character song, every element here makes it obvious the tiny Studio MDHR really knows and loves its source material.
![This fight against a genie switches things up with a side-scrolling gauntlet section.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171011003802im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/v/q/d/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyvp69.png/1507514307375.jpg)
Taking on everything from a group of mutated vegetables to a massive bird stuck in a bird house to a literal ghost train, Cuphead runs, jumps and points his fingers for rapid eight-directional shooting, but there's plenty of wrinkles thrown in to make the simple system a bit more complex.
Anything pink that appears on the screen, for example, can be slapped in mid-air to fill your ex meter and give you access to more powerful attacks. Fill your meter right up and you can unleash a powerful super attack, meaning you'll want to put yourself at risk more often than not in order to grab as many pink objects as possible.
While the gameplay isn't quite as inspired or confident as the art — and indeed the aesthetics do occasionally get in the way — it's a satisfying loop and the consistency and beauty of the game kept me wanting more.
Between fights you wander a cute overworld map, chatting to characters and buying power-ups from a growling pig man named Pork Rind. The more gold coins you can collect from special side-scrolling stages — which more closely reflect old-school shoot-em-up games — the more upgrades you can get to make your time easier against the the bosses themselves, each of which is so gorgeous and full of character that you almost don't mind when they kill you immediately.
![Run-and-gun stages are just as difficult as boss fights, with frequent deaths adding to your knowledge of the dangers as ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20171011003802im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/v/q/d/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyvp69.png/1507514307375.jpg)
Persistence is the name of the game here, as each death gives you more knowledge about the villain's attack patterns and capabilities, meaning each attempt brings you closer to victory. As you progress through each battle the boss will switch things up with (often delightful) non-sequitur transformations.
For example one early boss begins as a boxing match against a pair of lanky frogs in a sleazy lounge. While one of the amphibians throws an endless barrage of punches for you to dodge, the other will belch out flaming lies to chase you around before — at some point — transforming into a pedestal fan to mess up your footwork.
![The boss fights are incredibly diverse in their themes.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171011003802im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/v/q/d/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyvp69.png/1507514307375.jpg)
Eventually one frog swallows the other and they transform into a gilded, deadly slot machine for the final phase of the fight. Each transition brings with it new ways to kill you, and so fights often need to be attempted many times with you getting a little further all the time.
It isn't purely about memorisation though, as many fights have random elements, like a genie who opens a chest to unleash any of a range of attacks in the first stage.
![There's nothing sweet about Baroness Von Bon Bon.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171011003802im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/t/2/g/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyvp69.png/1507514307375.jpg)
Despite the frantic shooting and jumping style, this isn't as difficult a game as many of the '80s arcade titles that inspired it, although some of the side-scrolling adventure stages did give my reflexes and skills of memorisation a thorough test.
With few exceptions the bosses can be bested after a handful of attempts, requiring enough concentration to really feel like an achievement when you defeat them but not becoming so much of a problem to cause too much frustration.
All told, the gameplay here is strong enough that Cuphead would have found an appreciative audience even with more video gamey art, but it's the perfectly executed 1930s animation style that makes it something special.
Cuphead is out now for Xbox One (reviewed) and PC.
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