Cuphead review

Reviewed on: Xbox One

In times when any piece of junk is exalted as art and mediocrity is forcibly placed on the same cutting-edge level by those who are equally mediocre and try to equalize everything and everyone to the same level of ability, it is very good to see something well made and clearly far above average being acclaimed by the public, as this Cuphead has been.

Everything you have heard out there is true: it is beautiful, very well made, has a great soundtrack, controls and gameplay. And yes, it is hard. It isn’t the nightmare some have painted it as, but its difficulty is indeed above the average of today’s games.

But if you played 8- and 16-bit video games, you will quickly notice it is on the same level of difficulty. More than that, it recovers some sensations common to those games, such as the joy and sense of achievement of beating a tough boss or spending a whole afternoon trying to get past a hard level, giving up and, the next day, miraculously getting through on the first try.

This shows that it isn’t enough to use pixels, chiptune and throw half a dozen puzzles into a level for a game to become an 8-bit one, as a whole bunch of indies want us to believe. The gameplay is refined, meticulously designed to make you learn as you play, to urge you to try just one more time and varied enough to make you try other strategies. Obviously the higher difficulty may end up frustrating players not very used to games of the style; that is perhaps my only reservation about the game’s mechanics.

Talking about the visuals is preaching to the choir; it is exactly what you see in the pictures and videos, practically a 1930s cartoon, with all its peculiarities such as sprites that seem to flicker, always in motion with bulging eyes and wide smiles that recall animation masters like Tex Avery or Walter Lantz. And on top of that we have a fantastic soundtrack, extremely engaging and fitting perfectly in every situation.

It really is an incredible game, a work that deserves all the praise it has been getting and the sales it has been achieving. Play it yesterday; it runs on any average PC, even if you don’t have an Xbox One or don’t like playing on computers, get a controller and try a few minutes of this new classic, and by the time you realize it a few hours will have passed.