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.