Decided to pick this game up again on Xbox because I wanted an excuse to experience it again (and gamerscore). My main goal was all achievements, but I got sidetracked by wanting to S-rank every boss of the main game before moving on to the DLC; my playtime would've been about half what it was otherwise.

In terms of achieving what it aims to, Cuphead is a damn near-perfect game. It sounds, looks and feels stunning, and I feel the boss rush style of gameplay compliments the wacky, animated 1930s aesthetic better than a lot of other genres could even hope to. Being thrown into chaos after chaos is kinda what makes Cuphead what it is - every boss or level will go for a theme, and its ways of doing so will always feel authentic and well thought out.

The distribution between bosses and run-and-gun stages is to be expected, since the latter are not the highlight of the game for most, but I do enjoy them for what they are, especially when going for the pacifist rank in each of them, which in my opinion makes them way more fun. Even obstacles which seem built around combat can be just barely slid by with precise movement, and it's evident there was care into ensuring players could reliably beat these levels without harming anything.

As for the bosses, there are definitely some high highs and some lows sprinkled in between, and I do wish there were a couple more plane fights, but most of my complaints come from experience with their Expert variants, which I'll go into detail about now:

- Cagney's first phase gets craaaazy. Chipping away at his minions moreso than him makes it a little more manageable, but it's like a mad dash to get to phase 2 before I can breathe again.

- Beppi's horse phase felt like RNG. If I got a yellow horse while the rollercoaster was on screen, the run was basically dead.

- Dr Kahl's last phase goes on for WAY too long. It feels like they planned a phase afterwards and just... didn't implement it. Each time I got past his robot phase in S-rank attempts I would kinda just be praying that I did THAT fast enough to allow him to kill a minute while I waited for him to die.

Any other boss not listed here either didn't give me much trouble or did so in a way where I was having too much fun to care. You could apply my complaint about Cagney to the Devil's penultimate phase, but it's just so damn fun in the moment that I can excuse it (It's also the final boss to be fair).

A more broad complaint I do have about the bosses is their parry distribution, and how varied it can be between bosses. Take Grim Matchstick for example, who only has parry opportunities in his first phase. If you're trying to speed through the fight for the time bonus, sometimes he doesn't even get the chance to fire three of these at all, leaving you unable to get any parries in during the rest of the fight. Compare this to bosses like Captain Brineybeard, Wally Warbles and King Dice which have - I'm not even exaggerating - a dozen parry opportunities in EVERY attempt, and it feels like a bit of an oversight. If you want a unique example of parry distribution, Goopy Le Grande has three very obvious parry opportunities that remain constant every attempt, but he has no natural parry opportunities elsewhere. He is the ONLY boss to do this, and good for him, but I'm not sure why they only did it here - I can only assume it was to account for the fact that he has no projectiles.

Now to talk about the Delicious Last Course! I haven't mentioned it up until now to keep my thoughts pre and post DLC seperate.

Whilst Cuphead nailed its aesthetic, the DLC's almost feels like it evolved with time, mixing in that rubber hose style with 1940s Disney animation, but it works super well and the transition is seamless. The music is phenomenal once again - this time with a lot more variety - pleasantly surprising me with scatting and even yodelling thrown in there (I guess that's what a band with twice the number of members gets you!)

In terms of difficulty, the DLC will definitely challenge you even if you've completed the base game on Expert. I can say with confidence that the final boss of the DLC is the hardest S-Rank in the game for me by a landslide. As for my favourite DLC boss, I'm actually part of the minority that loves Mortimer Freeze - his fight just feels great to me the whole way through, especially the yeti phase which really gets the platformer gene going.

The absence of run-and-gun stages wasn't really a complaint from me - the alternative was a lot more fun! I'll let you discover it for yourself, but it really makes you master enemies in otherwise unexplored ways and I would kill for more content just like it.

As for extras not exclusive to Isle IV, Chalice is a fun playable character. Her quirks make her feel like an easy mode, but there are some scenarios in which parrying with her is scarily difficult, especially in one boss in particular. She feels like a combination of charms in a way, and I do like that, but I avoided using her for main game S-Ranks as a way to not feel cheap (I used her for Isle IV though, lmao). Her super arts are subpar for the most part, but then art 2 is just... absurdly good. You'll see.

The new weapons are fun, especially crackshot. Twist-up and converge are pretty good and definitely ones I can see myself using more than some of the base game ones. The new charms are neat, especially THAT one, although it was a missed opportunity for it to be a fun toggleable challenge mode charm. Again, I'll let you figure it out, but I will say that I'm glad they didn't gatekeep the process of unlocking it to Isle IV only. I think I would've gone insane otherwise.

At the end of the day, through all my complaints is passion. If I didn't love this game as much as I do, I wouldn't be able to think of those little things that would make it just that bit better. A lot of my gripes were nitpicky, and I'll survive knowing they'll stay that way, but Cuphead is a wonderful game, and while my hunger for more content isn't quite satiated, its last course leaves a nice aftertaste in my mouth.

Where it Shines:
Hand Drawn??! - 10/10
Music & Sound Design - 9/10
Tough but Fair - 9/10

The Good:
This is one of those rare times a game truly lives up to it's hype. I'm not much for tough as nails games, but Cuphead walks a very nice line between difficult and doable. There are even simple versions of the bosses if you are struggling.
The gameplay is fun, fast, frantic, but without leaning too hard on the bullet hell aspect of things.
But I would be remiss if I didn't say that where this game truly shines is it's aesthetic.
Cuphead is HAND DRAWN. Read that again.
HAND. FREAKING. DRAWN.
It nails the old classic cartoon aesthetic, from the art style, to the music, to the story telling, to the charm and character of it's world and inhabitants.
It's truly a nearly flawless game.

The Bad:
I did say nearly flawless, but not flawless.
There are two main areas where I have to dock it a couple of points.
First, the airplane pilot levels. Those can just honestly piss right off. The whole game you get upgrades and different weapons and can really customize your loadout to suit the boss, but with these levels, you are just stuck with this shit plane and it's basic bitch abilities. I did not enjoy these sections at all and they were a real low point in the game for me. They may have been more tolerable if you could change your loadout like the rest of the game.
Second, the second to last boss is a boss gauntlet, where if you die, you start AT THE VERY BEGINNING. I felt the entire game was tough, but fair, up until that point. The game is a tight 10 hours to beat, but I swear to god I spent 1.5 - 2 hours just on that section alone, and it was not enjoyable.

Summary:
Despite the above flaws I mentioned, Cuphead is an incredible game, worthy of all it's praise. It's a painstakingly developed game with meticulous attention to detail and fantastic art, music, and game direction. Even if you suck at games like this, I recommend playing because it was such a delight to experience. I doubt I'll ever play anything like it ever again, until they release Cuphead 2 that is.

Note on my ratings:

Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.

1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite

I first played the game because of its aesthetic. I sticked around to S rank every stage because of the gameplay.

This game just has significant amount of love put into it. It is best shown in its hand-drawn frame by frame animations. It took a very long time for the game to actually be released. But I honestly prefer that over something being rushed out half-baked.

The game is also notoriously challenging. I remember getting stuck at numerous bosses during my first playthrough. However, it is because of the challenge that defeating each boss actually feels super rewarding. They even added all the great defeat animation and that satisfying "KNOCKOUT".

If all you want is just to complete the game's story, then the game shouldn't be too intimidating in my opinion. I did, however, put considerable amount of time towards S ranking each stage in both the main game and the DLCs. That part was extremely challenging but I was more than glad to do it. Why? Because the game is fun!

This game is definitely going to be remembered as a classic in the future. There's simply nothing like it when it came out. 30s cartoon style combined with 90s and early 2000s shoot 'em up games - that's simply a match made in heaven!

If you can't tell already, I absolutely adore this game. So if you haven't yet, go and buy this game along with the DLC right now! It will sure bring you an experience you will never forget!

Cuphead için zor demek ne kadar doğru olur bilemiyorum. Cuphead oyunu öğrenmeni istiyor daha doğrusu kendisini oynamanı istiyor. Bölümler, bosslar cidden çok güzel tasarlanmış. Biraz çaba, biraz dikkat ve orta düzey reflekslerle problemsiz bitebiliyor. Daha zorunu oynadım ve ne yazık ki o oyunların hiç biri cuphead gibi kusursuz ve düzgün çalışan mekaniklere sahip değildi. Belki de cuphead'i zor denilen diğer oyunlardan ayıran en büyük fark da budur: pürüzsüz mekanikler. Oyun oynuyorum diyen ve türe ilgi duyan herkesin en azından bir kere denemesi gereken bir deneyim cuphead. Bana bu eşsiz deneyimi yaşattığın için teşekkürler. Bu aradaaa Allah Grim Matchstick'in belasını versin.

Тяжело сказать что-либо про Капхэда, чего уже не было сказано за все эти годы. Пожалуй, всё очевидное и так лежит на поверхности. Но, быть может, в этом и кроется проблема? Задумывались ли Вы о том, что каким бы внешним великолепием не пестрило произведение, по-настоящему красит его лишь контекст? Контекст - вот чего мне действительно не хватает. Нигде и никогда форма не превалирует для меня над содержанием. Вы можете сотворить наикрасивейший мультфильм за всю историю мультипликации, но для меня ему и грошь цены нет, если за всем этим фасадом не стоит хотя бы толика красноречия и острого ума.
Я ни в коем случае не принижаю тот громадный труд, что ушёл на проработку великолепной визуальной составляющей. Моя претензия заключается в том, что за воистину изобретательной демонстрацией великого множества ярких и экспрессивных образов не стоит ничего, но могло бы. Словно прекрасный на вид букет, прислонившись к которому, ты осознаёшь, что это просто декоративные цветы, способные порадовать только глаз и не более.