It's another indie game for those of you who love these, and not only that, this will also be my second only non-PlayStation game review to date. And no I did not become a traitor to the clan of PS by going out and buying an Xbox One, not that I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one, and probably will soon. This is also one of the first times in a very, very long time that I have played anything on PC, and I must say I did feel a bit superior to have rejoined the PC master race for just that short time.
The first thing I need to get off my chest is that this game will have you either screaming with joy or complete frustration around every turn, but at the end of the day it was a good experience. The game's look and feel will take you back to to your earliest memories of those very old 1930s Disney animations, even for the oldest of us. The entire game is made of hand-drawn characters with beautiful nostalgic watercolour backgrounds, and this is definitely the first of it's kind. What stood out the most for me was the when it came to the sound design and music, more so the latter. Musically Cuphead has a high-tempo ragtime, big band, swing and jazz mashup with a list of musicians almost as long as the rest of the credits combined, they put a massive amount of their budget just towards to music alone. As someone in the music industry I have an idea of how much time and effort goes into creating a musical production like this. I even included a video below where they give you a little behind the scenes look of the production of that.
Against the wise old elder's warnings, the two brothers enter the Devil's Casino and take a chance at playing a game of craps. When they go on a winning streak, the Devil himself offers to raise the stakes and make a too good to true wager with them. If Cuphead and Mugman can win one more roll of the dice, they will receive all the money in the whole casino, but if they happen to loose, the Devil will get take both of their souls. Cuphead rolls, but luck seems to not be on his side so he ends up loosing by rolling snake eyes, and he and Mugman can do nothing but beg for mercy. The Devil who was a cunning fellow makes a deal with the two brothers, if they collect the "soul contracts" that signify his ownership of the souls of his runaway debtors by midnight the next day, and he might let them keep theirs. They return to Elder Kettle with the bad news of their predicament, who offers them some help by giving them a potion that allows the brother to fire blasts from their fingers to aid in their quest. He also gives them a stern warning that the debtors they need to track down, may change themselves to different things in attempt to stop them. The brothers then set off on their travels around the Inkwell Isles, fighting the residents who have lost their souls to the Devil in order to obtain their contracts, in hopes that they are able to acquire them all to hopefully get their own back.
"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." - Walt Disney
As much as this looks like the best Christmas gift to get your kids or that little niece or nephew you may have, they're not going to like it all that much as soon as they start playing the game. Cuphead is not hard, it's really, really hard and absolutely uncompromising in its difficulty right from the outset. Levels include no checkpoints and besides that there is no way to regain lost health, it's basically like someone applied a friendly Disney theme to Dark Souls, and then made it harder. There were times where I spent hours just on one level, the frustration gets so intense that you eventually surpass it and enter a zen like mental state. Well, not really, I wish that was what happened, there is a far greater chance of you having to go buy a new mouse and keyboard.
The game does have co-op play, but with so much more then happening on screen it ends up being much harder to get through a level with someone helping you, or at least attempting to. Cuphead himself is perfectly responsive, with never-ending shots and dashes at his disposal, genuinely powerful when compared to other platforming heroes. All in all the game made me feel more good and more bad than any other game I’ve played in a very long time, and at times I avoided it like the plague and at other times the accomplishment of beating a level felt like I had ascended Mount Everest. What I absolutely loved the most about this game was that the development team didn't just give players want they wanted, they made you earn it, and I can't say there is a much greater feeling than that. So definitely put some thought into this before you just go out and buy the game.
This is the only game that I know of which StudioMDHR has developed as of yet,and was release in September of last year only for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One platforms. The game was also released about 3 months ago for the macOS platform, but unfortunately nothing in the pipeline for PlayStation or the Nintendo Switch. The game was inspired by the rubber hose style of animation used in cartoons of the 1930s, such as the work of studios Fleischer and Walt Disney Animation, seeking to emulate their subversive and surrealist qualities. Rubber hose animation was the first animation style that became standardized in the American animation industry during the 1920s. The defining feature of this style is the rubber hose limbs, arms, and sometimes legs, which are typically simple flowing curves without articulation.
You could pick this up for a deal on Steam now just before Christmas if this is your cup of tea.
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