I suck at platformers, but they are very fun. With that being said, I had fun playing this with friends (who are good at these types of games). I was carried 100%, but this experience has peaked my interest in replaying and completing more content of the game that we have not finished.

Brief Description
Cuphead is a very hard platformer. It can be played either in singleplayer or in coop, but I imagine it is funner and more intended for coop play. You control Cuphead and Mugman, who are trying to break their deal with the devil. There are three main regions with a mix of stages. There are run and gun stages (which help you get coins to buy items in the shop), mosoleums (where you unlock supers/ultimates), and the main aspect of the game, which are boss fights (beating all in a region allows you to progress the game).


Pros
-Everything about the art design and style of the game is fabulous. It is unique, and as my friend put it, a homage to old timey vintage American cartoons. The UI, character designs, animations, sound design, and overall look of the game is an S++ from me.
-The level design is really fun. I have no expert level critiques to say other than they are all unique and it is really satisfying to get farther and farther with each attempt at a level until you complete the stage.
-I love the overall juxtaposition of the cheerful design of the characters in the game with the dark undertones of the fights and the plot of the game. The sentiment of "Don't make a deal with the devil." is in it of itself really damn cool.
-I think they make it very playable for casual players considering that there is an easy mode. I have not tried it because my friend carried me, but I like that it opens to a broader audience with that.
-The variety of weapons and items that really make it fun to play the game how you want. You can beat stages in a variety of ways to challenge yourself.
-Mechanically the game is fun. The movement is fluid and the parry/dash system is fun.

Cons
-I am not going to lie-- I cannot think if a single valid con. I guess it can suck if you hate repeating levels over and over and are not particularly good at platformers, but the difficulty is a main attraction of the game because you can feel yourself getting better throughout the boss fight as you remember it's attack patterns. So, in my head, that is a plus. But I can understand the thing that this might drive people away, as I felt demotivated after I lost to a level like 50 times.

I definitely will go back to this game to try to do better at the levels and also complete the content we have not finished in the hopefully near future. It is extremely fun and I reckon that everyone should give it a try!

Played co-op on PC with my girlfriend.

Masterpiece of a game honestly. Beautiful artwork, incredible soundtrack and tight challenging gameplay. Love how focused it is on bosses, makes it super entertaining. Getting better with each attempt, love that feeling.

Now gotta play the DLC!

helped a friend finally finish his playthrough of the game!
looks fantastic, the bossfights are a whole lot of (infiurating) fun, the soundtrack is groovy and memorable, it's a very good game!
only a few notes :
- I hate the King Dice fight : while I like the idea of having to go through a mini-boss rush, the randomness of the dice, the inconsistent balancing of the fights and the unfairness of King Dice's following phase just drive me crazy.
- the run' & gun' stages are fun but they are sometimes pretty annoying to get through in two-player mode
- most of the stuff you can buy in the shop you will never use (except if you like the game enough to the point of wanting to challenge yourself with specific builds)

Cuphead’s relentless difficulty and classic cartoon art-design is a recipe to really captivate an audience. The type of audience that hates themselves.

When a truly difficult game comes my way, I often go in with caution. I don’t need everything to be braindead easy, but I do much prefer a relaxed experience over constant enemy placement, boss attack, confusing platform fuckery. Where Cuphead is able to separate itself from the games we know today as “bullshit,” is its fast-paced cutesy style of play.

Too many times in a game like the first Dark Souls, Sekiro, or the hardest modes on most FPS games, enemies are delay merchants, or there’s too many brutal, high damage attacks. Cuphead throws all of this out of the window and says, “Yo, check out this exploding bomb okay now look at this bullet wait actually blue and red bullet okay pink balloon you can parry this hold on pal I wasn’t done it’s time for my ultimate move, a floating head that follows you around. Checkmate, bitch.”

Cuphead’s ability to keep a lighthearted environment while also murdering you in broad daylight is what makes it stand out from its competition. Similar genres like shmups often fail to give you a break, it’s just a constant hellfire for 2+ hours. Cuphead’s boss difficulty can vary, and it isn’t all required to be done in a linear fashion. It’s really like an open world game where you have the freedom of saying fuck this, I’ll come back later.

A few things can really hold Cuphead back for me, though. Hit boxes on certain enemies, like the spaceships in Dr. Kahl, never seem to be all that close to them. Sometimes I’m standing around in what I think is a safe spot, only for a random attack to fly above my head but actually hit me in the process, even though it didn’t look like it did at all. There’s also some awful attacks. Again, Dr. Kahl is a huge blame here. The exploding bombs that follow you around are just ridiculous. I know Cuphead’s whole shtick is that retro feel of NES bullshit design, but when the majority of the game doesn’t feel that way, it’s hard to excuse this one instance.

My absolute biggest gripe with Cuphead, is the fact that the easier difficulty is just there for practice. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea; to add in an easier option but just deem it obsolete in the endgame. It’s not even like it just slows it down, they are completely different attacks with different patterns. What’s the point of adding a “practice mode” if that mode isn’t practice for “Regular” at all?

Also, fuck King Dice. Too long, no heals after levels unless you land on hearts, dumb. Lame.

I think what makes Cuphead so special is the fact that it’s just boss after boss after boss, with killer soundtracks and a great visual design. The difficulty is for the people who love masochism, while the rest of the game is for the people who love good overall game design. 8/10.

I love this title and its dlc! I have 100% the game, performing pacifist runs on all of the run n gun stages, and completing all of the bosses on hard mode. I found the doctor to not be as difficult as many have found, nor king dice, but I had an EXTREMELY difficult time with the dragon boss fight. Its art style is so aesthetically pleasing and it is so hard not to appreciate its hand drawn animation. Major hats off to this studio in Microsofts magnum Oppus of this generation. Also… spawned an amazing review by gaming journalists.