Cuphead brings to the Xbox Store, something new and fresh, but with a challenge. Cuphead brings the hardest side-scroller that I have played in years. The side-scrolling motion in this game is fast-paced and unrelenting. It will bring the pain more often than you want in a 1930’s style, Popeye infused game. Cuphead has a very unique textually grainy background as if the background is being projected with dust on the front lens covering certain spots.
The player, Cuphead, and the enemies in the front are visually the best work done on a game especially one like this in a while. The colors are vivid and fresh and complement the way this game is portrayed. The additional soundtrack that plays for each level is a great compliment to the levels, adding subtly rather than distracting the players from the main objective at hand.
Cuphead gives you three different options for the levels available to play in the game. There is the run and gun type. The classic, always firing from your snapping fingers type of gameplay, hoping you don’t run into a falling acorn with a devilish grin on its face. The second type is the platform gameplay. The platform gameplay is where the game offers platforms to avoid attacks but making them a challenge by not having the stay put or having fire shoot out from different directions.
With these platforms in play, your concentration goes from landing on them to dodging the enemy’s attacks, and whatever is coming at you. The third and final gameplay is the big boss battles with their three-level progression. This is where the fun begins. The bosses don’t have health bars, so knowing where you’re at when trying to beat them is challenging. For you playing as Cuphead, there’s no health regeneration to regain those hits you’ve lost over the course of the battle. So three hits and you’re out. But, with a mustached, burly pig at your
disposal to exchange coins for items, your chances of making it through are a little bit better.
The game is a challenge for anyone wanting to test the waters with Cuphead; Don’t Deal With The Devil! With no regeneration of health and a difficulty for levels that seems unfitting, Cuphead will make you want to walk away in anger and frustration but will have you coming back for more to finish what you started. It is definitely something to check out and for only twenty dollars on the Xbox Store, this is a deal worth twenty dollars. What do you say, want to deal with the devil?