I wanna drink whatever is inside Cuphead. Just pick him up and consume his essence. I don't know whether this would kill him or not, and frankly? That doesn't even matter to me. In fact, I might just throw him on the ground to make sure it happens, then make Mugman drink a little bit of himself in a smaller cup, fuck him up like Ray Liotta in Hannibal.

I've occasionally found myself thinking about doing a second run through Cuphead ever since the game launched back in 2017, but with the release of The Delicious Last Course and the Physical Edition, now seemed as good a time as any to actually sit down and take a second jog through Inkwell Isle. Of course, by this point I've spent such a considerable amount of time away from the game that it was less a second run and more a semi-blind playthrough. When you get to be my age, you start having trouble remembering faces, but most of the bosses started to come back to me after getting bodied by them a couple of times. "Oh yeah, this medusa lady was tough as hell 30 years ago..."

The easiest way to describe Cuphead is to compare it to Alien Soldier, Treasure's 1995 run-and-gun/boss rush hybrid for the Sega Genesis that everybody, everybody, has definitely played. Basically the same game except you get to fight Bluto instead of wolves riding mechanical unicorns with names like WOLFGUNBLOOD GAROPA. Just like Alien Soldier, Cuphead is all about presenting the player with unique boss battles that are equal parts spectacle and challenge, placing a strong emphasis on reflexive gameplay and memorization of boss patterns which sometimes requires multiple attempts before you sink into a good rhythm.

There's plenty of games out there that expect a similar level of willingness on the player's part to fail and learn, and they live or die on how satisfying the constant loop of death and progress feels. While Cuphead occasionally tows the line, it's ultimately satisfying, and the inclusion of a progress bar upon each death is a definite check in its favor. There were multiple instances where I took a death and felt a big meaty sigh of defeat coming on only to see I was maybe a hit or two away from beating the boss, and that told me I could do it. Even when you fail on earlier phases, pinpointing your progress gives you a good sense of where you're able to take hits and where you need to tighten up your approach. Cuphead is very good at encouraging the player without ever pandering to them.

I think the only area where Cuphead really falters is in its run-and-gun stages, which at times just feel like filler. They're still rich in that same Fleischer flavor that informs the entire look of the game, but you can tell in the way they play and how they're presented that Studio MDHR's passion was elsewhere. To again evoke Alien Soldier, it's a very similar feeling that I get from that game's run-and-gun levels in that they almost feel obligatory, even though they weren't really required at al.

Viewed in isolation, I think The Delicious Last Course sticks the landing a bit better than base Cuphead. The new bosses the DLC introduces are all fantastic, though I would caution new players from sailing off to Inkwell Isle IV the second they're able to (basically the start of the game.) I decided to do this and since I'm so obstinate, I brute forced my way through without any upgrades outside of the homing shot, a weapon that's not great outside of a few key instances - though the Last Course's final boss happens to be one of those, as being able to hold the attack button and simply focus on the obscene amount of projectiles he spits out helps tremendously. Last Course also adds a colosseum comprised entirely of smartly designed bosses that can only be fought by parrying, and I kinda wish there was more of them. They're a lot of fun and way more engaging than the considerably more simplistic mausoleum challenges sprinkled throughout the main game.

Back in 2017, I never would've thought I'd have a physical copy of Cuphead that I could hold in my own very real hands. It even comes with a little member's card and some very nicely designed single-panel gag strips, which definitely sweeten the package. Physical editions of previously "digital only" games is something that appears to be happening with more regularity and with far shorter gaps of time between versions. Take Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, for example, which had its own physical edition announced less than a week after I paid 40$ to download the game in what I'm sure was an act of deliberate aggression against me, personally. Even Signalis and Sonic Origins are getting their own physical copies less than a year from release and given my strong preference for owning hard copies of games, I'm glad to see these titles break out of the realm of digital downloads. Cuphead's physical edition is a solid release of a great game and is well worth having on your shelf.