It's the 3rd! 3rd birthday of my
blog that contains senseless writing about various thing especially
video games. On this special occasion, i will write a review about special
video game as well. It's Studio MDHR's Cuphead
(2017)!
Oh wow! Cuphead (in red trouser)
and Mugman (in blue trouser) look very smug. Hands on hips and that cocky
smile. But when their game are sold by 3 million copies (perhaps more to this
date), they have the right to be so boastful. Unlike Mutant Penguin and Team Buddies which are the topic of previous anniversary edition review and
relatively obscured, everyone know Cuphead
because it's very phenomenal game. Why so? For starter, the artwork (including
sprites and background) on this game is 1930's American cartoon style and fully
hand-drawn! I heard that after succeed on the demo, MDHR studio has to re-draw
almost everything for the full release version resulting on delayed release
date. I don't play this game when it was new but at least it's the first game
that i bought on Steam. Anyway, my plan is to bring Mugman on new game slot and
later Cuphead on my previous playthrough. I don't show all the stages, mind
you.
Here's the story (presented in fairy tale book) on how the mazer
brothers get into trouble. It was peaceful time and place in Inkwell Isle, the
brother catch butterfly while Elder Kettle sleep on his rocking chair. I notice
that the steam that come out of his nose form lots of Z's. Very elaborate.
In real life case, children that
aren't attended by the elders will most likely ran over by car. But in this
case, they're end up in Casino and do gambling! If the other players are living
skeletons and the gambling table is a coffin, you should feel very uneasy at
this Casino. But blinded by (most likely) devised winning streak, the brothers
ignore the evidences and keep on gambling.
When suddenly the owner of the
Casino: Devil shows up and offer the brothers to play another round. If they
win, they will get all the dough that Casino has. And if they lose, the devil
(as usual in other media) will have their soul. Mugman aware of the danger but Cuphead only care for the
huge money that he will get. So he rolls another dice. Tell you what? I think
the manager: Mr. King Dice most likely control the dice because he's
obviously anthropomorphic of dice
itself. Here, we see him touching his own head indicating he's in the middle of
controlling the dices with telekinetic power.
As you can predict that the
brothers lose the bet as they got snake eyes, meaning their dices roll is
double '1' which is the lowest number you can get from 2 dices. I kind of
wonder what dice game that they play. Roll as many number as you can? Or roll
number '7' to win? I have a hunch, it's the latter.
The brother beg for amnesty and
lucky for them The Devil has an idea: they must become Devil's makeshift debt
collector to relieve themselves from their own debt. Sounds impossible but at
least the brothers can live longer.
After get kicked (on their butt)
by the Devil, they run back to Elder Kettle to ask for advice. He says the
brothers have to get along with the Devil's plan and he gives them a potion
that possess some kind of magic power to aid them on their job as debt
collectors. The effect is allow the brother to shoot bullets from their finger
or hand. As you may know that Cuphead is filled with various parody or
reference. Based on that magic potion and the wacky reaction of the brothers
after drinking it, i'm going to guess that it refers to Astérix comic. Moving
to that blank paper on the table will lead me to tutorial.
Does this footage proves me as
trusty journalist? I like the tutorial adapts with my button configuration. Or
maybe there's lot of modern video games do that too? By default the direction
control is arrow keys but i played a dozens of game that use WASD key for
movement (including emulators) so i change it although i can use the arrow keys
in certain (low) extent.
Cuphead is to 2D run 'n gun to
the core. What's new is this parry mechanic (activated by pressing jump button
while jumping). It's like butt stomp in Castle
of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse but instead of mandatory killing method,
it's for bouncing to any object with pink
color including (the heart) of your deceased partner's ghost. It comes to no
one surprise that Cuphead is well known for its rather brutal difficulty. So if
you have capability to persuade your friend to play this game, you play this
game on easier mode, basically. As i don't have such grand ability, i will play
the game solo, as usual.
After the tutorial (that gives me
1 coin in the end), i go outside to do some debt collecting. Maybe i was
over-analyzing but that lone lighthouse reminds me of Bioshock and the Elder Kettle's house reminds me of Smurf's house.
A few steps from the house, i
find this tomato or apple guy that gives me 3 coins! Demoman_thanks02.wav
He said that he used to be adventurous
and such. He maybe refers to something but i'm not sure. The closest thing that
i can think of is: Captain Tomaday
which is arcade vertical shooter that starring tomato with superman-like suit.
Porkrind's Emporium
With such money, i dare myself to
go to the caravan shop. Inside, i find this porcine shopkeeper which is the
reference to Wonder Boy III The Dragon's
Trap (that i don't play yet). But i like to think him as Porky Pig that
have been through some dark past when he's forced to kill his colleague Daffy
Duck that goes berserk. Now he trust no friend, only coins and married to some
beauty pig (her photo is in right corner). Besides extra arsenal, Porky here
sells charms which is passive upgrade. The items on his store will be replace
after purchase so you can't expect a change on the item simply by browsing
alone. Right now, Porky has homing shoot, multi-way shoot, boomeranging shoot,
extra 1 health, and smoke bomb. By default, Cuphead/Mugman has 3 health points and
extra 1 health points sounds like a good deal but there's consequence when
wearing the extra health charm: it reduces their firepower a bit. Meanwhile,
smoke bomb allow them to dash past certain enemies and projectile safely. But
you can't see them for a while which can be bit disorienting. To me, at least.
Anyway, the smoke bomb is the best charm in my opinion.
Oh, thanks for the
"friendly" remainder. You, pig. [In literal sense]
Here's the equip menu and Mugman looks happy as
usual. This kind of nitpicking, but i don't like the inconsistency of the
control in overworld and equip menu. I have to use arrow keys and 'Z' key
there. But again, this is just my minor inconvenience.
Forrest Follies
This is the nearest Run 'n Gun stage from the Elder
Kettle's house so you can assume this is the 1st stage. Believe it or not, the
situation is busier than it looks. Enemies comes at Mugman relentlessly giving
you no moment to dilly-dally. With 3 hitpoints and no health refill along the
way, the game feels intense. This could be adaptation from Japanese version of Contra Hardcorp. That mushroom on the
left will hide making it invincible and the only way to kill it is: shoot it
while it shoots at you. It's like Met from Megaman
series. That small walking blue blob will return alive a moment after getting
shot. It's runt version of blood skeleton from Castlevania series. Meanwhile that piranha plant on chasm is
obviously homage from Super Mario Bros.
Hey, kids! This is how acorns made. They come out
from this Acme's Acorn Maker machine that's operated by sunflower with arms and
legs. This legit biology lesson right here. [Redwood-sized Lie]
I have to admit that it's quite
harder to play the game while taking screenshot but i still get 'A' grade here.
Medic_positivevocalization02.wav
Botanic
Panic
To make it clear, the Run n Gun
stages are optional (but necessary to get extra coins). The real meat of the
game is boss stages. We're told to collect debt from debtors (bosses),
remember? My first debtor is the root pack. They're group of vegetables. First
of the group is Sal Spudder the giant potato. At first, i thought he spits
another potato (!) besides worm. Turns out it's just dirt. His spitting move
here is named "Playin' Dirty". Very funny.
Next opponent is Ollie Bulb the
giant onion. But i just give him silent treatment and he's cool with it. Why?
Because i heard that he's pacifist so why i have to raise my finger against
him, huh?
The last of the group is Chauncey
Chantenay the giant carrot with psychokinetic power over other non-sentient
small carrots. He can also shoot psycho rings from his third eye. There's also
beet that spins around the ground like spinning top. She's in right corner and
she only appear assisting Chauncey if you don't fight Ollie like what i did. I
notice i make quite big mistake: i don't equip my newly-bought weapon yet.
I'm not surprised with this
outcome. Buying extra weapon is optional but it's useful for stronger firepower
besides Cuphead/Mugman has another slot for weapon by default. It's waste if
you don't use it. By the way, yes. Carrot contains beta-carotene that's good
for your eye when consumed, kids.
See! This is lot better. The
multi-way shoot can hit both flying carrots and Chauncey's eyes (which are his
weakpoint). The weapon potentially deal more damage than the 'single shoot'
weapon but the range is limited. As the screen is quite narrow, the short-range
nature of the multi-way shoot is acceptable to me.
Ruse of an
Ooze
As far as i know, Goopy Le Grande
here is the only one who gives respect to Cuphead/Mugman by taking of his
hat(?) at the start of the fight. Meanwhile Mugman here drinks liquid from his
own head. They said the liquid on their head is their own soul. So basically,
he drinks his own soul in preparation for the upcoming fight which is weird.
Goopy here is -how should i say-
a massive idiot. He never shoots any projectile or attacks that homing on
Cuphead/Mugman directly. All he does is: jumping around with the occasion pause
to headbutt them and you can dodge this attack by simply ducking. This pattern
isn't new to me.
His routine is like this sub-boss
in Contra Hardcorp where it bounces
around with the occasion pause to throw its leg. But the difference is quite
significant. The orb robot here has more pattern such as side-walking and blows
fire along the ground.
On his next phase, he turns
bigger and his pattern is the same as before. But you have to watch his bigger
size while hoping around and the dashing move feels more necessary than before.
His final phase is marked with
tombstone falls on him and he goes splat. But no, it's not over. My advice if
you play this game: keep squeezing the trigger unless the announcer says
"Knock out!". Don't let anything bad falls to your opponent, fools
you! Including here where he gives false indication that he's already dead. His
pattern on this phase is still rather easy. Because he's situated in
background, you can move safely anywhere. You have to beware when he's paused in
which he's ready to slam his entire tombstone at you. His weakpoint is his
portrait.
Which fish? You or the one you're about to fish? Anyway, this NPC
tells me that you can't shoot the ghosts and you have to parry them instead.
Speaking of spook, there's mausoleum behinds us. I'm going there.
In mausoleum, i have to parry all
the ghosts that go after that urn in the middle. As that fish said, bullets
have no effect on this spectral beings. Besides they're in pink which mean you
can only parry them. You know what scary? No, not the ghosts. It's hand that
grows on Mugman's straw when he's parrying.
After parrying all the ghost, the
urn reveals this lady named The Legendary Chalice and she's in middle of
searching for magic power but got trapped by the ghost. As token of gratitude,
she give me said magic power and that's super art!
Soldier_thanksfortheheal02.wav
Threatenin'
Zeppelin
After a brief airplane tutorial,
i move on to the first horizontal shooter stage. Hilda berg here claim to be a
blimp although i doubt she looks like one but whatever. She's most likely based
on Hindenburg. You know? That zeppelin that ends up burn and crash in 1937. May
the victims rest in peace. On lighter note, she conjure this homing tornado
reminds me of Iron Lich from Heretic.
Besides shooting homing tornado
and shouting 'HAAA!', she inhale lots of air, charging to off-screen and later
transform into 3 forms based on constellation: Taurus, Gemini, or Sagittarius. That
feels very familiar...
Why, of course! She has the same
obsession to constellation transform with that bastard hacker Noiman Cascade
from Contra Hardcorp. Do you see they
both conjure energy orb in the middle of the twins? The similarity is uncanny,
indeed! Contra Hardcorp is one of
best Contra game so no wonder Studio
MDHR keep making reference from it.
On her final form, she turn into
wacky crescent moon with ugly witch's nose. She spawn stars at random elevation
and summon flying saucers (which are based on UFO "sighting" in the
old days) in two colors: brown and red. Brown UFO will shoot tractor beam at
fixed position while red ones will shoot the beam when it's above you and you
can just pass the red ones safely because you're quick enough before it can
shoot at you.
Floral Fury
Here it is, the Nintendo's
favorite: Cagney Carnation (hinted by the recent update on Super Smash Bros Ultimate). He shows his adorable face and suddenly
go crazy. He's genuine lunatic, reader.
Here's the super art: energy beam
that could be reference to Shinku Hadou Ken in Capcom's Marvel crossover game
(e.g Marvel Vs. Capcom). It's
activated by pressing the super button when the super gauge is full.
"There's super gauge?" Yes. Do you see ace cards besides weapon
selection and hitpoint hud in bottom left corner on other screenshot? That's
the super meter. It's filled when you hit any enemies. Also filled by 1 card if
you parry successfully! You can spend 1 card to perform special art that
depends on weapon that you currently wield. If you manage to fill all the 5 ace
cards, you will unleash the super art instead. I saw a calculation that energy
beam art deals less damage than mega buster (the special art of single shot
weapon) 5 times. But you get temporary invincibility while unleash the super
art. But you have to be careful on the timing to unleash it. You don't want to
get any projectile the moment after the super art, do you?
Cagney's final phase is simpler than the first phase
but his vine fill the ground thus you're not allowed to be on ground without
harm. His vine will grow on 1-2 floating platform, forcing you to stand on the right
platform. He also spits pollen ball that comes in 2 version: white and pink. As
you know anything that is in pink, is parry-able.
Engineer_negativevocalization01.wav. But i almost
there. That's other way to say "Mass rape and global conquest" and i
still wonder why Nintendo choose this pervert psychopath (even only for his
OST), besides relatable to piranha plant. Nintendo supposed to be
family-friendly, right? I think anyone is better candidate than him like Wally
Warbles who's protective father to his (evil) son, Djimmi The Great who's
cunning genie that like to smile, or even Goop Le Grande who's jolly idiot and
also narcissistic (because he always hint himself as handsome git throughout
his quote).
Die House
The Inkwell Isle is divided into 3 part and between
them there's Die House that serve as checkpoint of your progress. In there,
you're not allowed to go further by Mr. King Dice if you haven't beaten all the
debtors in current area. Do you see that blackboard? It indicates the debtors.
Any number that's crossed mean you have beaten the debtor. Beat all the debtor
and you're allowed to proceed further.
Passing the first Die House,
Elder Kettle catch up to the brothers. He informs that they can take on both
Mr. King Dice and the devil but for now they have to collect all of those
contract first before doing so. The "Your strength is growing!"
doesn't mean that the mazer brothers can level up. No, as there's no exp system
or what have you. You only get various passive bonus or extra weapon (that can
only bring 2 of them) from shop. Or super arts from the Legendary Chalice. I
think, he subtly hints on the player's own skill that grows rather than the
brother's power. It's brilliant writing if i may say.
I put this GIF as transition
between my playthrough. Besides i like this hourglass guy. He's adorable for
loading icon. I think it's based on mouse cursor when loading happens in
Windows OS.
Fiery Frolic
This time the debtor is a legit
dragon! The name is Grim Matchstick. The 'Grim' part may refer to Grim brothers
who's the famous fairy tale writer. As for the 'Matchstick' part -well- he's
fire breathing dragon, isn't that relatable? Although this time he shoots rings
of beam at me. If you wonder why the screenshot is in black & white, that's
not because my laptop is broken. This filter is unlockable feature if you
manage to finish all run 'n gun stages without shooting any bullet although you
still allow to parry. Which mean it becomes run 'n dash/jump genre. Needless to
say that finding parry-able objects in this filter, becomes really difficult.
In this occasion, i try using the 'Charge' weapon which allow me to hold the
shoot to make it stronger at the cost of not able to rapid shoot like usual.
With the double wave pattern of the fully charged projectile, i'm pretty sure
it's based on Fang's 'D' weapon in Contra Hardcorps but there's significant
difference. 'Charge' weapon need less time to charge but the effect of fully
charged shoot isn't as powerful as Fang's weapon. It deal less damage and it
can't pierce through enemy. Some youtuber claim that this is the best weapon in
the game but i disagree about it. Maybe because my impatience nature that prefer
rapid shoots in this kind of game. But i think the fully charged shoot build
more super meter than the rapid shoot at the same duration.
Grim's tail attack from above is
based dragon's attack in Capcom's Forgotten Worlds iirc. While Grim himself is
more or less like that dragon robot in Dr. Wily's fortress from Megaman. The
real problem in this stage is finding the footing while dodging Grim's attacks.
Although falling to the bottom isn't instant death, it only reduces your health
by 1 and you jump away immediately after that giving you chance to set your
foot.
On his final phase, he turns into
King Ghidorah! 3-headed dragon (and the weather becomes stormy). 3 is
better than 1 as they said. This time he spits fire bubble that you can break
with your bullet but i suggest you don't do that. Because if you break it, it
will burst into smaller & faster bubble. It's like that projectile type in Ghost Pilot that you better avoid it
than destroy it. Sometime the middle head turns into big blowtorch to spurt
flame in the middle. You better watch it!
Funfair
Fever
This run 'n gun stage is situated
in circus carnival so you know what to expect here: clowns, circus ringleader (that
has wizardry power because why not?) and unhealthy foods. Sadly no animal
circus is present around here maybe they're currently working from home as
government's invocation. This stage and Forest Follies are my favorite Run 'n
Gun stages especially because of the OSTs. This time, i use 2-strip filter that
you can unlock by defeating all bosses with at least A- grade.
These cannons remind me of Banzai
Bill for some reason. This 'roundabout' weapon behaves like cross/boomerang
sub-weapon in Castlevania. Or if you
want to be more precise, it's like Browny's weapon 'B' in Contra Hardcorps. Now that i mention it, i haven't reviewed the
game as Browny. I will do that in near future.
Remember when i say unhealthy
foods? This hotdog is the example. Believe me, you don't want to eat sausage
that have teeth and keep spraying condiments at you like this abomination.
There's also jumping pretzels with ugly face. They look worse than this hotdog,
i tell you. Anyway, i turn this filter off because it hurts my eyes. Seriously.
Murine Corps
Werner Werman is a rat that
currently on that homemade tank. He wears Pickelhaube helmet which worn by
German soldier in World War I but for some reason he keeps British flag on
ceiling. You see that mouse hole with laurel wreath on top of it? It reminds me
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo minus the roaring lion, somehow. That toy soldier
on corner bottom-right probably refers to the nutcracker story. Oh, right!
About the boss. His tank attack with catapult that throws junks at me (the
chewed gum is parry-able. Yuck!), cannon that shoot bomb that will produce fire
left and right when hit the ground, or he tries to charge at me but he gave
springboard to facilitate my jump. This time i use 'Kablooie' weapon which like
'dropshot' weapon from metal slug but faster and less bad.
I vill vin! Zust you vait! Yes,
Werner Werman speaks like Medic in Team
Fortress 2. I heard that his design is based on Mortimer Mouse, Mickey
Mouse's rival. Judging by how Cuphead's fashion resemble the famous Walt
Disney's mouse. That assumption is most likely true.
I was failed in this phase where
Werner Werman sprays flame to both side (but only in single plane) while bottle
caps that spin like buzzsaws extend in random location. I forgot that only the
bottle cap part that hurts me and not the stick attached to it like i
demonstrate here.
Remember when i say "Don't
let anything bad falls to your opponent, fools you!". That also applies
here where Werner suddenly got eaten by cat but the fight isn't over yet.
Although it's not surprising to see the cat as he peeks from the hole
throughout the battle, like that brain mother alien in Alien Storm.
The cat has 2 kind of attacks:
either he summons rat ghosts that you can (re-)kill or claws from either side that
will make debris fall from above. You may know that in World War 2, German
soldiers are codenamed 'Jerries' while British ones are codenamed 'Tommies'.
Thus this stage is closely related to Tom & Jerry cartoon. Just look at
that cat's fur color! It's the same with Tom's. While Werner is in brown like
Jerry. The similarity is astounding!
Turns out the cat is robot
controlled by Werner himself! Soldier_DominationEngineer03.wav
Shootin N'
Lootin
Shootin 'n lootin sounds like
what everyone does in Borderlands
game. By the way Captain Brineybeard here is...goddamn Brutus/Bluto, Popeye's
rival! No doubt about it! To be more specific, he resembles Bluto that act as Sindbad
in 'Popeye The Sailor meets Sindbad The Sailor' movie (1936). This boss stage
is what i like the most because the aforementioned Brineybeard similarity to
Bluto and the OST. Also he gives me a lot chance to parry from that octopus
that most likely spits parry-able pellet. The homing weapon is mandatory to hit
him easier. It's slightly weaker and slower than the standard bullet but it
will surely hits the target. The barrel move left or right and will drop if i
happen below but i can bait him in easier time easily. Meanwhile the ship
silently judges me until 2nd phase where he start to spit cannonball along the
pier.
Cpt. Brineybeard can also summon
sea creatures (by whistling) to assist him. There's a group of bulldog fish
that come out from the front of the pier (and telegraphed by periscope).
They're quite fast but can be easily dealt as they're not so durable. Just in
case, i don't use the homing weapon for them otherwise the weapon's targeting
will gets too "busy" thus making wrong priority.
Here's the most dangerous Cpt.
Brineybeard's minion: a shark that will jump from left side up to 3/4 part of
the pier. You can make him retreat earlier by shooting him. There's alarm and
shark fin swims in the background that indicates the Jaws will come after me.
Meanwhile, this squid comes from
the center and start spraying ink droplets. He's harmless but if you happen to
get hit by the ink, the screen will darken making you hard to see.
Fed up with the incompetency of
the captain and his friends, the ship becomes angry (and throws the captain
into the ocean in process). Now, i have to fight the ship. His weakpoint and
also his weapon is: his uvula that shoots either bubbles with spinning pattern
or this big fat (parry-able) laser that like Cyclops' Optic Blast in any
Capcom's Marvel fighting game. You still have to mind about the barrel, though.
Junkyard
Jive
I know that giant robot is boy's
romance but i have to say that this stage is the least i like or at least in
Horizontal shooter genre. The OST is less cheerful but at least better than
Pyramid Peril's. And most important is: the boss fight is very tedious because
as you can see he fills ± 70 % of the screen with hazard. You can lure his
antenna beam into more favorable zone but there's other thing that you have to
be careful like that vertical laser, and small flying bots (that's the same
with Gradius game). In this phase he
has 3 weakpoint/weapon: the antenna, the chest (that spawn that vertical laser
emitter), and the stomach that spawn the flying bots. Destroy the parts won't
make them stop attacking you, at least until you have destroy his heart. If you
break his antenna, his head will turn into cannon that shoot nuts and bolts. If
you break his chest, he will start to use his hand to either grab magnet to
disrupt your movement or strike you from behind while shooting orbs up and
down. If you break his stomach, he will spawn slow-moving homing bombs instead.
My strategy is to destroy his parts in this order: stomach, antenna, and
finally chest.
Yup, i died quite a lot here. Not
to mention that foreground element also "assist" the giant robot by
obscuring my vision. You probably know that "You Died!" message here
is based on either Resident Evil or Dark Soul.
Beyond the first part of Inkwell
Isle, your plane will get additional weapon: bomb drop, for free. It fires in
much slower rate than the machine guns but at least you can hit your enemy
that's not on the same plane [Pun not intended] with you.
In his final phase, Dr. Kahl show
himself riding on his robot. An evil professor rides on flying bowl-like
vehicle is definitely reference to Dr. Robotnik/Eggman from Sonic. Dr. Kahl
uses gem power to attack may be based on Dr. Neo Cortex from Crash Bandicoot.
He wiggles his eyebrows at the start of the battle like what Dr. Wily does. If
i may add that electric fences that comes from above or below, reminds me of
that space ship section from Battletoad
and they're annoying too.
One Hell of
A Time
Of course, the final boss is the
devil himself. I skip the fight with Mr. King Dice because it demands me to do
a series of parry flawlessly and i still can't pull that out. Impressed with Cuphead/Mugman's
feat to not only get all the contract but also defeating Mr. King Dice, the
devil offer them to join forces. This is certainly based on Contra Hardcorp (again) where Colonel
Bahamut offers the protagonist to join his rank in latter part of the 'best
ending' route. That's the one where i play as Ray. Anyway, as the music in
introduction said "Don't Deal With The Devil". You have to decline
his offer although there's honest part of me that insist on keeping with the
deal of giving him the soul contracts from the debtors.
And off we go to fight with The Devil.
You may notice that The Devil's sit on his throne throughout the battle,
resembles final boss of Capcom's Ghouls
'n Ghosts. He can conjure either bouncing bubble or fire souls that will
surround you but one of them is parry-able. Be careful not to lose focus on
dodging though. A purple imp will come out from the throne and will come at you
from either side. He doesn't have much health but he runs relatively fast. My
suggestion for this battle: use multi-way weapon often because not only The
Devil's hitpoint is near but also wide (around his head). Utilize this to reap as
many damage as you can and also super meter buildup.
He can also transform into 3 animal
form: 1) Spider, where he tries to crush you by dropping his head unto you 2)
Dragon, where he goes to either side and makes you cornered 3) Goat, where he
stretches his arm and eventually clap at you from left and right. The 3rd ones
is definitely the hardest one. I mean look at that! He fill entire ground with
his arm and i tell you this: you can't avoid it by ducking! The safest method
that i can come up with: position yourself into the center, move either side a
bit, and dash toward center. You can also stand in center and jump straight but
there's quite long moment for the arm to retract. I notice that he never use
that fork to poke me directly. Weird.
Eventually, the devil stretch his
mouth and his skeleton come out from his skin and then enters that hole in
center. You should stay away from center as he can damage you in process. Also
you should chase him ASAP as this entire room will be filled by flame from left
and right side.
As if his weakpoint wasn't big
enough, he turns very big and presents you with even bigger weakpoint while
grinning! You can shoot his either eyeball. He has 2 attacks: 1) he spawn an
axe that whirling around (which may be based on Axe sub-weapon in Castlevania) 2) Flying bomb that you can
parry before it explodes. The safest strategy will be ignore the bomb and stay
away as possible because its explosion is huge and move around in rather
erratic manner as if baiting you to parry it. You also have to mind the
platform and burning poker chip that sometime falls in random position.
On next phase, he grows
impatience and begin to summon his many minions. Plus, 2 platform on either
corner fall, so you're forced to move to the center. Again, the multi-way
weapon proves its worth here. With it, you can easily dispatch the nearest fat
demon (that will spit skull at you if you keep him alive longer) and blue small
demons (that come out from Devil's forehead like nasty acne!) spin like buzzsaw and charge at you later while also shooting his
eyes. At glance, The Devil's attacks are more ferocious. But in my opinion,
they become more inaccurate and easier to handle especially if you compare it
with his attack where he fill the ground with his stretched arms. That means,
he becomes desperate to get rid Cuphead/Mugman off.
On final phase he begins to cry.
Heavy_taunts05.wav
No tear can stop me beating him.
I mean i can parry his tears. For God's sake! Instead you have to mind the only
platform that you can get into (which is in the center) and that burning poker
chip. It may sounds impossible, but you can jump away from platform to avoid
the chip and land back to it safely. Believe it or not, i defeat The Devil on
first try. Only this time, mind you.
In the end, it's the brothers
that laugh lastly and louder. How nice of them to let The Devil get back to his
skin, put ice bag on his head, and put some bandages. Besides, accepting his
surrender plea.
They also throw the contracts
that they got from their tedious job, into the fire thus destroying them. The
brothers are really generous soul.
Then they announce that the
debtors no longer owe to The Devil. Everyone happy to hear that and become
friends.
It seems they hook up the DLC there
or so i hope.
Studio MDHR's Cuphead (2017) is absolutely gorgeous and
charming in lots of way. The art style, the reference elements, the gameplay
design, the music, everything! Yes, the game has rather harsh difficulty but
still well made in my opinion like they can measure people's capability well.
There's some boss that harder in early part but on later part, they're easy. The
Devil, for example. If i fail the stage, i rarely feels "Oh, scrap! I have
to do all over again. Shucks!". It's more like "Aw, darn! OK, let's do it
again!". The thing that mostly make me stick with the game is: the music.
Like i don't mind retry the stage over and over again if i get to listen to the
music that's super good, again. Besides, there's no hardened thing on gameplay
aspect like after-death penalty. Everything is intuitive although some need adjustment from player's own skill. The
thing that i feel iffy is when i have to parry a projectile near ground,
Cuphead/Mugman decides to land on it and takes damage instead of parrying.
There's also foreground elements that obscure my vision, which feels unfair. The
game consists of 19 boss stages and 6 Run 'n Gun stages, which is quite short.
But if it's longer, it most likely wears out its welcome. The horizontal
shooter mode feels great although some charms don't apply in that mode like the
smoke bomb, for example. Dashing in that mode is replaced with making the plane
smaller and faster albeit with weakened gun that don't reach entire stage. This
function could be the opposite of focused move like in Touhou Project but still
allow you to dodge projectiles more easily. Jump in that mode is replaced by
direct parry while doing 'barrel roll' move. The arts are replaced with Bullet
Bill-like projectile (for 1 card super art) and bomb transformation (for full
super meter art). The 2D platform shooter genre is as basic as you can get but
with extra feature like parry or super gauge. The super gauge adds variety on
prolonging battle and keeps it fun. The other 2D shooter game that have super
gauge that i can think is Blood-over-. While other 2D platform game that
feature forward dash is Megaman X and
Wario Land. I can mention other
reference in the game but i should stop.
Cuphead (2017)
certainly gets my AAA recommendation. Yes, it's hard game and the difficulty
aspect could be acquired taste. But i ensure you that if i can finish the game,
you can do that too. Plus the game is charming i mean everyone has pleasant
smile there. So no harm on play the game (and fails over and over again),
right?
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