Dev Take Tuesday - Cuphead's Clouds

I’m going to complain about Cuphead in the next couple paragraphs: a tiny complaint that, yes, is tied to the game’s oft-discussed difficulty. But first, let me gush about StudioMDHR’s popular indie hit. It’s impossible to talk about the game without bringing up its unique and captivating art style. The early twentieth-century cartoon look and jazzy instrumental tracks truly set the game apart. My dad never plays video games (apart from the occasional game of Mario Kart or Madden) but will sit down and watch my brother and me play just because of the game’s visuals. However, Cuphead isn’t simply about spectacle—the game utilizes tight controls and uniquely challenging boss fight after boss fight to create a great gameplay experience.

Cuphead is fun but extremely taxing. If I’m being honest, it’s my brother who keeps us afloat in the game’s two-player mode. In the vast majority of cases, this difficulty seems “earned” by the designers. You might die several times as you figure out a boss’s attack patterns, but once you learn the patterns you feel ready to vanquish your increasingly vexing foe. These boss attacks almost always have their own tell that clues players into which attack they must prepare for. One particularly elegant tell I noticed was during a convoluted carnival battle where a dangerous roller coaster could be seen distantly in the background before it arrived on the main screen.

Gif found in this Polygon article

Most of the time, my brother and I knew that our failures were our fault—we were clumsy with the controls or not focused enough to see the boss’s tells. But then we lost to the dragon. And lost again. And probably lost around forty times? I lost count. And with the dragon, the failures were much more frustrating. Unsurprisingly, Cuphead’s dragon flies, which means players need to jump from cloud to cloud throughout the battle. Unfortunately, these clouds briskly scroll across the screen in random formations. I’m sure the design decision here was intended to prevent stagnant play patterns, but I personally feel that the randomness of the attacks is enough. When an unlucky combination of attacks leaves you stranded without a cloud to jump too, fault is attributed to misfortune instead of personal mistakes.

Overall, Cuphead is an incredible experience that I highly recommend. As someone who gravitates more towards slow-paced strategy games, it’s rare that a twitchy game like Cuphead captures my long-term interest. A large percentage of that interest comes from the way the game thoughtfully handles difficulty, which makes the few missteps—like Cuphead’s clouds—really stick out.