I choose to believe that Swery's intentions were good with this game, and I'm glad it seems to have genuinely helped some people, but I'm so tired of trans stories being portrayed just through the struggles of dysphoria rather than through the growing confidence and happiness that transitioning can lead to, through the pain wrought upon trans people by society rather than through found family and the comfort of finding others who understand you. The overwhelmingly vast majority of the game's runtime is spent deep in a mire of sadness (that read to me as almost comically over-the-top edgy at its worst points), and for a story that claimed to be about regeneration I wish there was more joy to be found here.

It also honestly just feels egregious to me that the primary gameplay mechanic of a story about a trans woman revolves around solving puzzles by choosing to amputate, immolate or just generally tear your body to pieces. This is problematic both because of how eerily reminiscent it feels of various TERF talking points (how they refer to gender-affirming surgeries as "mutilation"), and also because I don't want to be forced to hear our trans protagonist's leg bones crunch apart for the fiftieth time in the game. Trans people shouldn't be forced through the level of extreme pain this game asks of its protagonist just to be allowed to opportunity to finally heal, grow and be happy.

well this is certainly one of the games of all time.

I gotta be honest, going into this game I feel like I wanted to like it more than I did - maybe not love it, but at least put it in the ballpark of 7/10 - especially as someone who's sort of into a lot of the different "mascot" platformers from the 90's, and truth is I do think the workings for a solid game are here. The art style, for one, is nice, especially for a PS1 game - just having a very "cute" feel to everything on top of being really colorful (and Croc himself is an adorable little fella), and the sound design is also surprisingly good. If you didn't already know, this was originally supposed to be a Yoshi game that was "outsourced" to Argonaut Games, and I gotta say - even if those plans fell through and took the form of a different IP, this game still manages to keep a similar vibe to Yoshi's Island.

The level design is also decent... at least for the most part. It isn't anything too special, but I do like how it adds a sense of "open"-ness and exploration while still keeping a more linear structure, with the addition of collectibles scattered throughout the level towards completion. I also like how the game spices things up with some new mechanics based off each world theme, albeit these mechanics can be a bit of a mixed bag. Some mesh well with the rest of the level design well enough, but others do just come off as pretty gimmicky to some extent. 4-6 is one example I can think of, where you progress through the entire level on these platforms that rotate and/or move as this Platform Pete guy bangs his hammer, and it just gets kinda... tedious, largely just coming down to memorization and pattern recognition. 4-5 also has two sections where you're going down an elevator sort of thing as enemies drop in and fight you, and you can basically just get through it by mashing the Square button (or whatever the Tail Attack button is for the other versions) over and over again. Overall though, with some exceptions, the level design is fine enough for what it's going for.

Unfortunately what brings this game down more than anything for me is the controls. I'm just going to be straight here - tank controls really do not belong in a platformer. While the controls are fine, I guess, for some of the more open-ended areas where you're basically running along a path, doing any sort of platforming in this game is basically a chore. Croc's air control is pretty floaty and stiff, and trying to turn around is a pain, especially when you're dealing with moving or disappearing platforms where you don't really have enough time to react. Doesn't really help that there's a few sections in the game full of small platforms in a game where the controls feel extremely imprecise and stiff. It's especially noticeable in levels like, again, 4-6 where in addition to the trial-and-error gameplay you need to keep that in mind while having enough reaction time to deal with these clunky controls. I do have a hard time putting how the controls "feel" into words, but if you've played any game with tank controls... well, I imagine you can get the idea.

I will give the game some credit for actually programming analog controls with camera movement with the DualShock versus just mapping D-pad controls to the analog stick like a lot of PS1 games seem to do, but unfortunately it doesn't really fix the overall issues I have with the controls as Croc's turn while moving is still extremely wide, and makes the game feel slippery, on top of adding a new issue on top of everything else where just trying to turn around on platforms sometimes led to my death because you have to be really precise with the analog stick. It feels better than the extremely stiff D-pad controls, but it's still far from ideal.

The hitboxes in this game also feel kinda wonky. It's not too bad with most of the stage enemies, but with the bosses in particular there were times where I felt like I hit them when I was able to, only for the game to treat it as if I just ran into the boss and took damage. Granted the bosses themselves are all... pretty pathetic otherwise (the only challenging thing about the final boss is trying to get the camera to stay on him), but it is an issue that I felt was worth mentioning.

Overall, while this game does feel like it has a solid foundation, the controls and some of the level design gimmicks just really drag it down for me, and I have a hard time recommending it unless you really like a lot of PS1-era 3D platformers. I will say that I only beat the "main" part of the game which ends at the second boss of World 4, and I could've gone ahead and grabbed all the Gobbos to unlock and play through World 5 which has the 'true' final boss and ending, but honestly I was already pretty much ready to be done with the game even before World 4 lmao. Apparently the 'true' ending isn't even anything to write home about anyway so, whatever.

As I was playing through this game though, I found out that there is an official remaster/remake in development, so if you are interested in playing this game... I'd probably just say to wait until whenever that comes out.

So my favorite part of the DLC is probably going to seem pretty boring in comparison to the lavishly produced bosses and the new playable character, but it’s the inclusion of two new abilities that have upended some of my ingrained habits. The first is the Crackshot, a more powerful and slightly dumber version of the Chaser, whose EX shot is a turret that lets you double your firepower. The thing can do insane damage, especially in fights where’d you normally have to consciously target the boss, but the tradeoff is that you’re constantly trying to find time to place the it- and importantly, find a spot onscreen where it won’t make contact with the boss and break. It emphasizes positioning in a way many of the other shot types don’t, and gives you a good reason to switch between weapons, always aware that you could be getting in a little bit more damage if you place a turret somewhere in the bedlam of a fight.

The second ability, and probably the more controversial inclusion, is a charm that lets you regain health after a certain number of parries. Right now it does feel slightly broken, (you can still S-rank bosses you’ve taken a stupid number of hits on) but it solves one of my biggest problems of the original game, where one hit early on was enough for me to just reset the fight. Now there’s a reason to stick around and really know bosses' patterns, trying to parry everything they throw out to fill out your health bar, instead of just going for the three safest moves in their repertoire to hit the threshold for a decent score. Again, its an inclusion that gives fights a real spark, a great sense of wanting to be everywhere at once, trying to balance damage and survivability.

They’re a much-needed upset for a game, that for me, had slowly become Charge-Shot/Spread-Shot/Smoke Bomb over the course of time, and while I imagine that they’ll continue to be changed with later updates, they’re emblematic of a DLC that does a great job of pushing a good game that much further to greatness with these sorts of subtle additions. Same goes for the puzzle-like “King of Games” fights- simple challenges that offer a bit of extra cash if you want to totally disregard the Run ‘n Gun stages. They seem like something of a pleasant distraction right now, but offer a bit more agency in buying upgrades, no longer forced to pay the fun tax if you want an additional weapon- a change that will likely become more appreciable with time.

I think my biggest problem with the DLC is more one of familiarity: six good bosses that are Hard but Fair™, but nothing so taxing as the boss gauntlet of King Dice, or as wildly varied as Sugarland Shimmy. Just a distinctly iterative feeling surrounding the whole thing, which is great for its fundamentals, but somewhat disappointing when its new bosses fit in so neatly with the original cast. (Moonshine Mob is the standout though, can’t say enough good things about it, and it’s probably top-to-bottom the best production Studio MDHR has created.)

There’s also a part of me that wishes this had some kind of extras gallery or a replay mode as a way of letting players really appreciate the staggering amount of passion that’s gone into the animation here. The whole DLC seems like a conscious shift towards making the game more approachable, with the new kit and additional challenges geared as much to new players as they are to die-hard fans- but the core paradox of Cuphead being this game sold on the quality of its animation (that you’ll have no chance to appreciate while playing), still hasn’t changed.

Forgive me if this felt like the patch notes revue, so many of my problems with the original were these ultra-specific hang ups: that lack of a recovery mechanic or what felt like a clear hierarchy of weapons and abilities. The Delicious Last Course makes those choices ambiguous for the first time in years, adding a bit more life to a game that had felt increasingly stifled- probably harder to appreciate right now, (had to quiet the deeply unhelpful part of me that wanted this to materialize into a Silksong-style standalone game), but the kinds of smart additions that will help the more easily game sit alongside the classics it’s paying tribute to.