Cuphead is one of those games that has a reputation of being hard as balls, and I didn’t plan on playing it. Even if I’m used to playing hard games, it’s quite a commitment to start playing a game that is supposed to be hard. What if you run into a roadblock and cannot progress any further due to the difficulty. Seems like a waste of time then.
That’s not what happened with Cuphead. I played through it all (96%, missed a few coins) and I had a lot of fun despite dying 674 times. I’m quite proud of myself for finishing it, as it indeed was no walk in the park.
With Cuphead the devs nailed how to make a difficult game compelling. You have base hp of 3. After three hits you’re out, so it’s very easy to fail, but when you fail there is no punishment. The encounter resets and you go straight back in. Death is not an issue in this game. Instead it is inevitable for you to die, in order to learn the encounters and avoid taking damage. I don’t even get mad when I fail. I just think “again!” and reset. Even after failing 100 times on the same boss, it’s still fun to go another round. I never got frustrated or bored. Quite the opposite I was thinking “just one more time” and couldn’t put it away.
The encounters are very well made. The enemies signal super well what attack is coming. Everything has a beat to it so its easy to learn how to time your dodges and parries. The game is generous with its hitboxes and with the different weapons there are always several strategies that you can employ for the same encounter. Even if some of the bosses are really hard they never seem unfair. Once you’ve done an encounter enough times you can let the muscles in your hands take you through the bullet hellscape without even thinking.
Some games are just hard, like the Capra Demon in Dark Souls. No matter how many times I play it’s still very hard. In Cuphead all encounters can be learned and mastered and once you know it, they are not that hard to execute. Each time you fail is not a waste, because you’ve moved closer to mastering the mechanics.
I think that is the thing which makes Cuphead a really compelling game, even if it is hard.
I rate this game as EXCELLENT.
Replay 