Cuphead

Cuphead is a 2017 run and gun video game developed and published by Studio MDHR. The game was inspired by the rubber hose style of animation used in cartoons of the 1930s, such as the work of Fleischer Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and sought to emulate their subversive and surrealist qualities.

Cuphead
Promotional artwork, featuring Cuphead and Mugman
Developer(s)Studio MDHR
Publisher(s)Studio MDHR
Director(s)
  • Chad Moldenhauer
  • Jared Moldenhauer
Producer(s)
  • Marija Moldenhauer
  • Ryan Moldenhauer
Designer(s)Jared Moldenhauer
Programmer(s)
  • Eric Billingsley
  • Kezia Adamo
  • Tony Coculuzzi
  • Thomas Pryde
Artist(s)Chad Moldenhauer
Writer(s)Evan Skolnick
Composer(s)Kristofer Maddigan
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
  • Windows, Xbox One
  • September 29, 2017
  • macOS
  • October 19, 2018
  • Nintendo Switch
  • April 18, 2019
  • PlayStation 4
  • July 28, 2020
Genre(s)Run and gun
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Cuphead features one or two players taking control of animated characters Cuphead and his brother Mugman to fight through several levels, that culminate in boss fights, in order to repay their debt to the devil. The game was praised for its art style and noted for its challenging difficulty. It was both a critical and commercial success, winning several awards and selling over six million copies within three years. An animated series based on the game is in production by Netflix.

Gameplay
In-game screenshot of Cuphead, showing the player battling Captain Brineybeard, one of the game's bosses

Cuphead's gameplay is centered around continual boss fights, interspersed with run-and-gun levels. All levels but the final one include a mausoleum where the player has to parry ghosts before they touch an urn which rewards them with a Super move for completing the challenge. Each of these boss fights and run-and-gun levels is housed in one of four different worlds, with the fourth world containing the final fight against the Devil himself. Each boss fight includes a simple, normal and expert difficulty mode (with the exception of the final two bosses, which lack a simple mode). Defeating every boss on normal mode is required to complete the game, while expert mode is unlocked upon completion. While most boss battles take place on land, several bosses instead are fought in aeroplanes in levels which play like side-scrolling Shoot 'em ups. The game also includes role-playing elements and a branching level sequence.[1][2] Player characters have infinite lives, maintaining all equipment between deaths.[1] Equippable weapons and special abilities known as Charms can be purchased from the shop using coins. Player characters feature a parry attack that can be used on certain objects marked in pink, to various effects, the most important of them being increasing a "super meter" that enables more powerful attacks. The super meter is represented by playing cards. The player can use an EX move with one playing card, with the move used depending on the weapon equipped.

After completing a level, the player is ranked with a grade based on their performance, based on factors such as the time taken to complete the level, damage avoided, and number of parried attacks. The levels are accessible through a top-down perspective overworld with its own secret areas.[2] The game also has a two-player local cooperative mode.[3]

Plot

On the fictional Inkwell Isle, Cuphead and his brother, Mugman, are two fun-loving cups who live under the watchful eye of Elder Kettle. Against the elder's warnings, the brothers enter the Devil's Casino and begin playing craps. When they go on a winning streak, the Devil himself offers to raise the stakes. If Cuphead and Mugman can win one more roll, they will receive all the money in the casino; if not, the Devil will take their souls. Cuphead loses by rolling snake eyes, and he and Mugman beg for mercy. The Devil makes a deal with them: If the two can collect a "soul contract" from each of his runaway soul debtors by midnight the next day, he might let them keep theirs. They visit Elder Kettle, who gives them a potion that allows them to fire blasts from their fingers to aid in their quest, but also warns them that the debtors may change physical form in an effort to stop them.

The brothers travel around the Inkwell Isles, fighting the debtors in order to obtain their contracts. On entering the second island, the Elder Kettle notices that the duo are getting stronger from their battles, and informs them about "doing the right thing" when they come up against the Devil again. Once they have the contracts, they return to the Devil's Casino, but its manager, King Dice, blocks their way. Claiming that they have caused him to lose a bet with the Devil, he forces them to fight several of his henchmen before confronting them directly. After the brothers defeat King Dice, the player must choose whether to give the contracts to the Devil. If the player turns over the contracts, the Devil turns the brothers into his evil lackeys, and the game ends; if not, the Devil becomes furious at the brothers' refusal to honor their deal and fights them himself. Cuphead and Mugman triumph over him, burn the contracts and race home. Learning that they no longer have anything to fear from the Devil, the former debtors honor the brothers for their heroic actions.

Development
Studio MDHR at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Cuphead was the first game by Studio MDHR, a Canadian indie game development studio consisting of brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer.[1] Additional animation work was contributed by Jake Clark, with programming led by Eric Billingsley.[4] Its development began in 2010 using the Unity game engine, and it was developed from the brothers' homes in Oakville, Ontario and Regina, Saskatchewan, respectively.[2][5][6][7] The game was inspired by cartoons produced by the Fleischer and Walt Disney animation studios, along with cartoonists Ub Iwerks, Grim Natwick, and Willard Bowsky.[1] Chad Moldenhauer called Fleischer Studios "the magnetic north of his art style," and particularly sought to mimic their "subversive and surrealist" elements.[8]

The Moldenhauers watched 1930s-era cartoons in their youth, which Chad Moldenhauer describes as happenstance, based on gifts and VHS compilations. Among other siblings in their Regina, Saskatchewan childhood home, the two shared aesthetic taste and interest in gameplay. They attempted a game in the style of Cuphead in 2000, but lacked the tools to continue. The brothers decided to try again following the success of the indie game Super Meat Boy, which released in 2010. The character that became Cuphead descended from a 1936 Japanese propaganda animated film where a man with a teacup for a head morphs into a tank. The Moldenhauers emulated the animation because they found it strange, and "right away it stuck."[8] Before settling on him as the main character, the brothers had created around 150 different character designs, including a kappa in a tophat and characters with a plate or fork for a head.[8]

The animation techniques behind Cuphead are similar to those of 1930s cartoons.[8] Chad Moldenhauer, who had previously worked in graphic design, hand-drew the animations and painted the backgrounds using watercolors, colorizing them in Photoshop.[9] The gameplay runs at a framerate of 60, while the animation runs at 24, which is a film standard. Chad Moldenhauer also saw his process with its human imperfections as a reaction to the perfectionism of pixel art. Jared Moldenhauer worked on other aspects of the game, though they discussed gameplay design together. Their studio hired a Romanian developer, a Brooklyn animator, and an Ontario jazz musician for the project. They sought to keep the recording processes of the time period as if the team were developing in that era.[8] The score for the game was composed by Kristofer Maddigan and consists of 51 tracks performed by jazz and big band musicians.[10]

The Moldenhauers described Cuphead as having a difficult, "retro game" core for its emphasis on gameplay over plot.[1] Kill Screen described the developers as "obsessed" with run and gun fundamentals of "animations and exploits and hitboxes."[2] Over the development process, they have made multiple revisions to many gameplay elements, including how gameplay actions feel at the edges of platforms and how long players are disabled after receiving damage.[8] They planned multiple difficulty levels and chose to abandon a typical damsel in distress plot for one where Cuphead perpetually creates trouble for himself.[1] The developers planned to surpass the Guinness World Record for number of boss battles in a run and gun game by having over 30 to the record's 25.[3] The game's implementation and visual design, combined with the limited number of people available to work on the game, proved to be Studio MDHR's biggest challenge, and as such the Moldenhauers went to great lengths to complete the game, even remortgaging their house in order to finance it.[11][12]

Release

Though the game was shown during the Xbox press event of Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 to audience approval, Cuphead was not available to play and was estimated to be 40 percent complete. Cuphead was expected to be extended via expansion packs[2] with 10 to 15 bosses each,[3] similar to how Sonic & Knuckles added atop the Sonic series formula.[2] Cuphead was released on September 29, 2017 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One, and supports Xbox Play Anywhere.[13] King Features Syndicate has the licensing rights to Cuphead merchandise and assorted paraphernalia.[14] Downloadable content for the game, titled The Delicious Last Course and featuring a new playable character, levels, and bosses, was revealed at E3 2018 for release in 2019.[15] However, the new content was pushed back into 2020 as to avoid putting too much pressure and crunch time on their development team.[16] It was later delayed into 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] A port of Cuphead for macOS was released on October 19, 2018, and advertised with an animated short titled "Crisp Apples."[18]

A port for the Nintendo Switch was announced on March 20, 2019 and released on April 18, 2019.[19] This was made possible when Microsoft approached the development team about creating a Nintendo Switch version.[20] A PlayStation 4 port was announced and released on July 28, 2020.[21]

In June 2019, an adapted port for Tesla, Inc.'s Linux-based operating system for some of its cars was announced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who expressed his appreciation of the game.[22] It was released in September 2019 as part of Tesla's software version 10.0, though only the game's first level is playable.[23][24]

Reception

Ben Kuchera of Polygon wrote that Cuphead was one of the five most interesting reveals at Microsoft's E3 2014 press conference, even though he knew little about the game apart from its aesthetic. He said it "stood out immediately" and that everyone in the website's press room viscerally reacted to the trailer.[40] Cuphead won the IGN Best Xbox One game at E3 award in 2015,[41] and also won the award for "Best Indie Game" at the Gamescom 2015 Awards.[42] It was also nominated as "Best Independent Game" at the E3 2016 Game Critics Awards.[43]

Cuphead received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[25][26][27][28] The game has also been noted for its difficulty by several media outlets.[44][45] Destructoid's Brett Makedonski welcomed the high difficulty, which he noted as "tough but fair." Based on "exhaustive" pattern recognition, he said it ultimately relied on muscle memory, rather than reaction. He thought structuring the game around boss battles was well executed, and that each boss encounter held "different and special and memorable" traits. Praising the 1930s aesthetics as cohesive, Makedonski found the jazz-based soundtrack to be "similarly fabulous."[29] Despite dying 188 times in his playthrough, Ray Carsillo at EGMNow felt no frustration from the difficulty, but rather motivation to "dig my heels in deeper." Carsillo lauded the "gorgeous" hand-drawn visuals, asserting that the only thing surpassing the artwork was the gameplay, which he said went "beyond pattern recognition."[31] Peter Brown of GameSpot opined that combatting enemies provided a considerably rewarding experience. He described the cartoon aesthetic as charming, adding that it infused "color and expression" to the game. Further, he saw Cuphead as a "true recreation" of hand-drawn cel animation. Brown also relished how quick loading times proved beneficial to trial and error tactics.[33]

Lucas Sullivan at GamesRadar+ wrote that Cuphead "stands tall among the best 2D shooters of all time," and agreed the gameplay challenges demanded patient pattern recognition to be accomplished, from which he said players would be rewarded "tenfold." Sullivan called the animation adorable, noting the wealth of detail present in the watercolor backdrops, and said it worked well with the gameplay. Like Carsillo, Sullivan claimed never to be frustrated with the difficulty.[34] Giant Bomb's Ben Pack remarked that playing the game yielded one of his most enjoyable experiences with video games, citing the combination of "brutal" platforming and an "exceptionally well realized" art style.[35] Writing for IGN, Joe Skrebels declared every scene a "masterwork" and commended the sound work, calling it an "ideal match" to the aesthetics. Platforming battles were seen as the most imaginative part of the game, and having no health bars for enemies its "smartest" and "most devilish" addition. Like Brown and Sullivan, Skrebels found the battles to be rewarding as well as "one of Cuphead's greatest strengths."[36] Chris Schilling of PC Gamer expressed approval of the controls, saying that their "reliable jump and dash" led to more "nimble and responsive" handling. Disagreeing with Makedonski, Schilling explained that certain random elements meant "you can't simply learn patterns by rote and rely entirely on muscle memory."[37] Chris Plante at Polygon commented that, at its best, the game serves to educate the player in strategy through trial and error. He enjoyed the parrying system more so than the various attacks, as it proved to be a "crucial" and "relatively forgiving" mechanic.[38] Colm Ahern of VideoGamer.com wrote in his verdict, "Cuphead will best most games in how it looks and sounds, and defeating that boss that you once deemed unbeatable is glorious."[39]

Conversely, Makedonski said the "eight-direction firing radius" was his least favorite system in the game, calling it "clunky and awkward."[29] Even though Brown saw "the fear of the unexpected" as part of what made Cuphead thrilling, he disparaged the game's failure to identify progress and capability.[33] Skrebels thought that the "run 'n' gun, left-to-right platforming" lacked inventiveness, while also subjecting the "parry system" and control scheme to criticism.[36] Plante complained that the final bosses made Cuphead's greatest features less effective, and mentioned that the difficulty "eventually goes too far."[38] Ahern agreed with Plante in his reproval of the final bosses, also saying that the challenge was "a step too far."[39]

Unwinnable writer Yussef Cole wrote an essay titled "Cuphead and the Racist Spectre of Fleischer Animation," in which he argued that by using the rubber hose animation style, Studio MDHR also brought up the "bigotry and prejudice" that had a strong influence on early animation, claiming that Studio MDHR ignored the context and history of the aesthetic it "so faithfully" replicated.[46] Cole states that much of the imagery that Studio MDHR took from the Fleischer style effectively carried the racial stereotypes of the 1930s Harlem and minstrel shows that the animation style was built on.[46] Chad and Jared Moldenhauer had stated prior to release that they wanted to make an animation style that harkened back to 1930s cartoons without getting ties to racism or minstrel shows in them.[12] Maja Moldenhauer further stated that all they wanted from the Fleischers was the animation style and visuals, and that anything else happening "in that era we're not versed in it."[47] In response to Cole's essay, Brandon Orselli of Niche Gamer defended the game as a tribute to that art style, writing that it was not meant to deliver narratives, or "go anywhere beyond where it needs to go in terms of its basic and child-like storytelling."[48]

Sales

In the two first weeks of release, Cuphead sold over one million copies worldwide.[49] Sales rose to over four million by July 2019,[49] and reached five million by its second anniversary of release.[50] By the time it was released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2020, it had reached 6 million sales.[51]

Awards

Entertainment Weekly placed Cuphead fifth on the list of its "Best Games of 2017",[52] while GamesRadar ranked it ninth on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017,"[53] and Polygon ranked it 14th on their list of the "50 best games of 2017."[54] In Game Informer's Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the "Best Microsoft Game" and "Best Co-op Multiplayer" categories, while it came in third place for "Best Action Game."[55][56] The website also gave it the awards for "Best Microsoft Exclusive" in their "Best of 2017 Awards," and for "Best Bosses" in their 2017 Action Game of the Year Awards.[57][58] EGMNow ranked the game at #2 on their list of the 25 best games of 2017,[59] while Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation ranked it third on his list of the Best Games of 2017.[60] The Verge named it one of their 15 best video games of 2017.[61]

Cuphead was nominated for "Breakout Game of the Year" in PC Gamer's 2017 Game of the Year Awards,[62] and won the award for "Best Xbox One Game" in Destructoid's Game of the Year Awards 2017.[63] It also won the award for "Best Xbox One Game" and "Best Art Direction" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards,[64][65] whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year," "Best PC Game," "Best Platformer," "Best Original Music," and "Best Multiplayer."[66][67][68][69][70] The game also won the award for "Best Looking Game" and "Best Style," in addition to being runner-up for "Best Shopkeeper" for the character Porkrind, "Best Music," "Best Debut," and "Game of the Year" at Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2017 Awards.[71][72][73][74]

In the week of 14 September 2019, the album Selected Tunes from Cuphead topped the Jazz Albums Billboard charts.[75]

List of awards and nominations for Cuphead
YearAwardCategoryResultRef.
2017 Golden Joystick Awards Best Visual Design Won [76]
Best Xbox Game of the Year Won
The Game Awards 2017 Best Art Direction Won [77][78]
Best Independent Game Won
Best Debut Indie Game Won
Best Score/Music Nominated
Best Action Game Nominated
Titanium Awards Best Indie Game Nominated [79][80]
Best Artistic Design Won
Best Soundtrack Nominated
2018 New York Game Awards 2018 Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game Won [81]
Statue of Liberty Award for Best World Nominated
45th Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game (Hanna Abi-Hanna) Won [82][83]
Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game (Tina Nawrocki) Nominated
21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Game of the Year Nominated [84][85]
Action Game of the Year Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Animation Won
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Won
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition Won
NAVGTR Awards Animation, Artistic Won [86][87]
Art Direction, Period Influence Won
Character Design Won
Control Precision Won
Game, Original Family Won
Original Light Mix Score, New IP Won
Italian Video Game Awards Best Art Direction Won [88]
Best Audio Nominated
Best Indie Game Nominated
SXSW Gaming Awards Excellence in Musical Score Nominated [89][90]
Excellence in Visual Achievement Nominated
Excellence in Animation Won
Excellence in Art Won
Most Promising New Intellectual Property Nominated
Excellence in Design Nominated
Independent Games Festival Awards Excellence in Visual Art Nominated [91][92]
Excellence in Audio Nominated
Game Developers Choice Awards Best Audio Nominated [93][94]
Best Debut (Studio MDHR) Won
Best Visual Art Won
16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards Audio of the Year Won [95]
Best Original Instrumental ("Sugarland Shimmy") Nominated
Best Original Song ("Die House") Nominated
Breakout Talent of the Year (Kristofer Maddigan) Won
14th British Academy Games Awards Artistic Achievement Nominated [96][97]
Debut Game Nominated
Music Won
Original Property Nominated
2018 Webby Awards Action Nominated [98]
Best Art Direction Won
Best Visual Design (People's Voice) Won
Develop Awards Sound Design (Sweet Justice Sound) Nominated [99]
The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards Best Arcade Game Nominated [100][101]
Visual Design Nominated

Legacy

Cuphead was an influence on the in-development game Enchanted Portals by Xixo Games Studio. When Enchanted Portals was announced, it was heavily criticized from fans of Cuphead for sharing gameplay and art style with Cuphead. In response, the developers of Enchanted Portals stated that they had wished to make a game similar to Cuphead, while retaining respect for the original.[102] The creator of episodic horror survival game Bendy and the Ink Machine, which also uses rubber hose animation, has discussed wanting to make a crossover with Cuphead.[103] A Cuphead Mii Fighter costume was added to the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate via downloadable content in January 2020. It also came bundled with one of the game's boss level themes, "Floral Fury".[104] Additionally, four Cuphead-themed Spirits were added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in February 2020.[105] Later in 2020, fast food chain Arby's added limited edition toys and papercrafts based on some characters from the game to their kids menu at select locations.[106]

Animated series

In July 2019, Netflix announced The Cuphead Show!, an animated series based on the game. It will feature adventures of Cuphead and Mugman across Inkwell Isle, exploring areas and characters beyond those in the video game. While the series will be targeted for children, Studio MDHR also anticipated that they will include humor and gags for adult audience appreciation. The series will be animated; it will not be done as meticulously as the video game using traditional pen-and-paper methods, as that would take far too long to complete, but it will feature hand-drawn characters and movement. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer from Studio MDHR will be executive producers along with CJ Kettler from King Features Syndicate. Dave Wasson and Cosmo Segurson will co-executive produce, while Clayton Morrow and Adam Paloian will be supervising directors.[49][107]

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