When I was a kid I never got into the action shooter games like Contra, or R-Type. I did have those games for my consoles and I played them, but they were always frustratingly hard for me. I think Contra I outright gave up on and R-type I got fairly far into it as it came out when I was a bit older and better at being less stupid in a game. (not in real life though, boy I was/am stupid)
As I got older and into the PSX-era and beyond I moved away from games like that in general. Yet here we are in 2017 and I am about to talk about Cuphead, a boss rush action shooter.
First I suppose we will get the obvious out of the way. Cuphead is a beautiful game, take the 1930's era cartoons and colorize them in vivid but still stylized dull colors and you have a wonderful looking game. I shit you not my 83-year-old Grandma saw me playing this game and she said, "Oh I remember this cartoon." Which made me laugh and then she actually sat down and watched me play. Grandma even caught onto what was happening and would yell at me to watch the bullet, or jump over the thing, hit the pink one, etc.
It was a blast, as I never saw her ever sit and watch something I played like that. I offered to let her join in and play with me, but she said she could never do it with her bad thumbs so she just watched.
Everything about the ascetic of the game is perfect. The animation, the art styles, the music, the grainy degradation film effect over the whole game, it's all just wonderful.
But sadly Cuphead doesn't play as perfectly as it looks. Don't get me wrong, the controls are pretty tight for the boss rush levels, but they don't feel quite tight enough for the platforming levels. Everything just is a little oddly spaced and aiming can be weird on levels that have slopes. As I understand it, the game was never meant to have the platforming levels and was literally supposed to only have bosses, and I can see why.
The bosses themselves are very creative and a lot of fun once you get a handle on what's happening. The game isn't Dark Souls hard, but it is hard enough that most bosses will take you several tries to get through. Each boss goes through at least three phases, all with different looks and different attacks. Every boss is incredibly well designed to be challenging and fresh each time. You'll never approach a new boss and see patterns or attacks from previous bosses (except the ending), and that's a huge accomplishment imo for a game like this.
I do have a couple of core complaints though. First off, the weapon variety just sucks. My starting weapon by far felt the best most comfortable and most damaging weapon in the game. Every weapon seems to be a side grade if nothing else, like they all have different damage levels, different ranges, different arcs, but ultimately they all average out to do the same overall damage over a period of time. I guess it's fine, but it meant that I never felt stronger as I got through the game. Instead I just felt better at dodging and mechanics, which might be enough for some people, but it felt a bit weak to me.
Additionally there is no indication of how much damage you are actually doing during a fight, which I think adds to the weapon issue. Bosses have no visible health meter, nor do they gain any visible damage upon them to show the player that whatever they are doing is working. You won't know you are winning a given phase until the boss changes phases or dies. However when you die there is a progress bar that shows you how close to the end of the fight you are, but this makes the game feel like your damage and weapons don't matter and all you need to do is survive to win. Looking at it now, I guess that is exactly the point, just by living you will get through the game and dealing damage just seems like a secondary thing to keep you busy between dodges.
Despite that, Cuphead is definitely carried by it's graphically style. If you like bullet-hell games, side scrolling shooters, and platformers, you will like Cuphead. Plain and simple.
As I got older and into the PSX-era and beyond I moved away from games like that in general. Yet here we are in 2017 and I am about to talk about Cuphead, a boss rush action shooter.
First I suppose we will get the obvious out of the way. Cuphead is a beautiful game, take the 1930's era cartoons and colorize them in vivid but still stylized dull colors and you have a wonderful looking game. I shit you not my 83-year-old Grandma saw me playing this game and she said, "Oh I remember this cartoon." Which made me laugh and then she actually sat down and watched me play. Grandma even caught onto what was happening and would yell at me to watch the bullet, or jump over the thing, hit the pink one, etc.
It was a blast, as I never saw her ever sit and watch something I played like that. I offered to let her join in and play with me, but she said she could never do it with her bad thumbs so she just watched.
Everything about the ascetic of the game is perfect. The animation, the art styles, the music, the grainy degradation film effect over the whole game, it's all just wonderful.
But sadly Cuphead doesn't play as perfectly as it looks. Don't get me wrong, the controls are pretty tight for the boss rush levels, but they don't feel quite tight enough for the platforming levels. Everything just is a little oddly spaced and aiming can be weird on levels that have slopes. As I understand it, the game was never meant to have the platforming levels and was literally supposed to only have bosses, and I can see why.
The bosses themselves are very creative and a lot of fun once you get a handle on what's happening. The game isn't Dark Souls hard, but it is hard enough that most bosses will take you several tries to get through. Each boss goes through at least three phases, all with different looks and different attacks. Every boss is incredibly well designed to be challenging and fresh each time. You'll never approach a new boss and see patterns or attacks from previous bosses (except the ending), and that's a huge accomplishment imo for a game like this.
I do have a couple of core complaints though. First off, the weapon variety just sucks. My starting weapon by far felt the best most comfortable and most damaging weapon in the game. Every weapon seems to be a side grade if nothing else, like they all have different damage levels, different ranges, different arcs, but ultimately they all average out to do the same overall damage over a period of time. I guess it's fine, but it meant that I never felt stronger as I got through the game. Instead I just felt better at dodging and mechanics, which might be enough for some people, but it felt a bit weak to me.
Additionally there is no indication of how much damage you are actually doing during a fight, which I think adds to the weapon issue. Bosses have no visible health meter, nor do they gain any visible damage upon them to show the player that whatever they are doing is working. You won't know you are winning a given phase until the boss changes phases or dies. However when you die there is a progress bar that shows you how close to the end of the fight you are, but this makes the game feel like your damage and weapons don't matter and all you need to do is survive to win. Looking at it now, I guess that is exactly the point, just by living you will get through the game and dealing damage just seems like a secondary thing to keep you busy between dodges.
Despite that, Cuphead is definitely carried by it's graphically style. If you like bullet-hell games, side scrolling shooters, and platformers, you will like Cuphead. Plain and simple.
