Cuphead is this deceptively charming and uber difficult platformer shooter that made waves when it launched exclusively on Xbox and PC back in 2017. Someone must have done a deal with the devil, because eventually it came to the Switch in 2019?despite the developer originally saying it wouldn?t come to other platforms?and a surprise launch last week brought the retro-cartoon-inspired frustration machine to PS4 players at long last. Having not played it on any other platforms, I approached this PS4 release with fresh eyes, and despite years of built hype that could have let me down, Cuphead did not disappoint. Rather, screenshots and video couldn?t ever really do justice to just what it feels like to play this retro cartoon for myself.
Cuphead masks its often brutal difficulty with an incredible animation style that borders on somewhere between being both adorable and terrifying. It?s a work of creative genius to see how the boss encounters bizarrely morph over time adding as much difficulty as they do weirdness. The story begins as thus: Cuphead and Mugman get into a bit of gambling trouble after sneaking into a casino owned by the devil himself. The only way to repay their debts is to collect on the soul contracts of other debtors who have unsettled accounts with the demon king. This is the main goal of Cuphead; a series of tough boss encounters against a bunch of bizarre characters, most often anthropomorphic inanimate objects or crazy creatures with a variety of strange ...