An evolution in platformer animation and art style. Any player can tell Studio HDMR poured an enormous amount of work and creativity into the development of Cuphead. Every fight in this game excels in achieving aesthetically stunning moments that stand alone in an industry which has seen its fair share of artsy side scrollers. Its difficulty can be infuriating at times, although its bosses' systems are fair and built on predictable patterns that can be mastered in a reasonable amount of tries.

The only flaw I found in Cuphead was its slight lack of depth outside the major levels. The Run 'n Gun sequences, while again beautiful, seemed a little boring in comparison to the rest of the game. They do function as a nice break from the anxiety inducing dragons and mad clowns, although I felt the developers could've done a slightly better job fleshing everything else out by implementing possibly more side missions, collectibles, achievements, etc. These shortcomings are slight annoyances and detracted little from my enjoyment.