Meticulously hand drawn visuals, controls designed for the player’s ability to move precisely, difficult bosses and a stunning soundtrack, are all packed into a game that came out nearly a decade ago: the indie darling from Studio MDHR, Cuphead.
Cuphead is a video game about the brothers, Cuphead and Mugman, finding themselves making a deal with the devil. The game was released on September 29th, 2017. Although that is dark sounding plot, it’s accompanied by visuals that emulate old rubber hose cartoons from the early 1900s. From the art style to the fluid movements of every single thing on the screen, Cuphead stood out from games of the late 2010s, and even from games coming out today.
The idea started out as the brothers’ desire to make their own run and gun game.
“We wanted to stand out from all of the hyper realistic and pixel art games that already exist – something a little more traditionally artistic. Something looser, more free-form,” Chad Moldenhauer, one of the co-creators of Cuphead, said in an interview with Warren Spector from gamesindustry.biz.
To even make the game, both of the Moldenhauer brothers mortgaged their houses, putting their livelihoods on the line to let their game shine as much as it possibly could. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer worked tirelessly on the game, having help from the artists working alongside them and managing to be picked up by Microsoft. Even with the stunning art, the Moldenhauers wanted to put the gameplay foremost, but how does the game play?
Tight movement, telegraphed, if not hard to dodge attacks from the bosses and an array of different weapons depending on the player’s style. Cuphead is a wonderfully precise game to find yourself completing. The difficulty of the game is a given when it comes to the genre. Cuphead is similar to games like the classic Megaman series. The most notable parts of those games to players are the difficult boss fights. Cuphead is different from games like this, though. The bosses are separated from the traditional run n’ guns. Even with its difficulty, the Moldenhauers found a way to make it all fair for the player.
“We feel that players can more readily react to what will happen and what is happening because the animation presents movement in a natural, consistent fashion,” Moldenhauer said in an interview with Warren Spector.
While a person who’s playing a video game may not consciously take the music of a game into account on a first playthrough, the music in Cuphead stands out from its peers, being recorded with an entire orchestra. The music will be bombastic when you fight a three-headed dragon (trumpets and all sorts of brass instruments), causing the player’s nerves start jumping with the theme. Or, the player could be fighting a giant bee running a business empire, the music having more of a city feel as Cuphead climbs up a building to defeat Rumor Honeybottoms. Every boss’ theme lets the player get a feel for the boss, from an upbeat fight against a giant flower, to the more militaristic theme while the player dodges around a war hero rodent, to your final fight with The Devil’s nerve inducing track, cementing the fact that you’ve made it to the end of the game after all your trials and tribulations.
Every player wants to beat a game. What could be more important is the journey to the end, though. Going from barely being able to beat the root pack to mastering the final fight with The Devil. That’s what Cuphead is about.
“Our sincere appreciation to the members of our team whose loyalty and creative endeavor made possible this production,” said the Moldenhauers in a note at the end of the game.
