Cuphead

 Xbox One
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 955 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 805 out of 955
  2. Mixed: 44 out of 955
  3. Negative: 106 out of 955
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  1. LUCAWAN
    Dec 8, 2017
    4
    very difficult, repetitive times are repeated ... the game forces you to decorate, to follow, if you are good it ends in an hour !!! simple story, very good is the songs.
  2. fabricated_me
    Dec 8, 2017
    4
    Cuphead is like one of those rigged carnival games, which are intriguing but you quickly realize it's a waste of time, and for the most part you are set up for failure. The difference between those midway games and Cuphead is that the former usually costs a buck or two and after you try it out, you move on. The latter suckers you into spending $20 for a digital equivalent of that kind ofCuphead is like one of those rigged carnival games, which are intriguing but you quickly realize it's a waste of time, and for the most part you are set up for failure. The difference between those midway games and Cuphead is that the former usually costs a buck or two and after you try it out, you move on. The latter suckers you into spending $20 for a digital equivalent of that kind of experience you can subject yourself to over and over again. It has an an appealing visual presentation, and when it was announced I couldn't wait to play it because I am no stranger to 2D action games on the original Nintendo and Sega consoles. I've heard people defend the difficulty of this game by saying that it simply hearkens back to those kinds of games but I think they are experiencing buyers remorse and/or trying to be a good sport about it, which is fine, but I have played many of these types of games in the past; the kind from the 80s and 90s and they are not this damn hard. I've even beaten some of them and thoroughly enjoyed the brutal ones like Contra or Super Mario Brothers.

    At what point do you draw a line between challenging and cheap? This game is cheap as hell. You have 3 hits and you're dead, which is totally acceptable, but there are way too many standard things that have been omitted from the game which makes no sense. There's simply NOT ENOUGH ROOM on each stage to dodge the barrage of projectiles, and to add insult to injury, sometimes it's not clear what hurts you and what doesn't. You have 3 lives and you're dead. OK. Cool. It can still be that way with extra lives to pick up throughout the levels, maybe to -- you know, have more than 3? And if that is completely out of the question then fine, maybe it could have been designed so that you can replenish your health back to 3. Why couldn't they put some kind of reward or incentive like that to keep the flow of the gameplay going? Even if it did allow something like that, it would still be tough as nails. I'm not even talking about making it really easy, I'm just rattling off what I kept thinking while I played it, and if it had some features like that it, it would resemble a real game and not some annoyingly unfair shooting gallery. In those old games like Contra, they're hard but you can definitely do it after a few attempts. In this game I felt like I simply could not do it. Maybe people too young to remember the NES days think this is what it was like? Well, it really wasn't. Even the 16-bit era had ridiculously hard games, but you could still beat them, like Earthworm Jim or something. That is a hard game but you can actually play it for a while, and even if you're getting your ass kicked there's still a way forward. There's no sense of progression or trial and error here because it's never a mystery why you died -- you know the reason: you got hit by something you could not avoid fast enough. So you do it again and again and again until you somewhat "master" the annoying unfairness of it all, and yes I beat it. I'm not being a sore loser, I just wanted to express that I felt manipulated into buying this game because it seemed like something that would have platforming levels and bosses at the end of each world like Super Mario. Instead, it's designed to make you fail hundreds of times so it that it can seem like an old school "hardcore" action game but it's not. It's just some schlock made by a team of hipsters in the 2010s, and they sold it by masking it with a novel art style. Good job, you got my $20. Games that are too easy annoy the hell out of me, and I avoid them, but games that are pointlessly hard and repetitive irritate me in the same way. If you're trying to pick up a game to play for an hour or two to have a good time on the weekend then pick up something else.    … Expand
  3. sonicsonic039
    Apr 19, 2019
    0
    Too Hard, Awful Characters, not fan to play. No plot, Development at all.
    That Terrible copy paste to old Cartoon.
    The Indie Fandom is Disgusting alone side of BATIM.
  4. godwars027
    Apr 20, 2019
    1
    A Terrible chose creating this game for first that Inspired by the cartoons of the 1930s.
    Say I Disagree with this game.
    We had Sonic, Animanics, BATIM and Now Cuphead. all them mostly been used to the Classic Cartoon to give them pouplar and newer to the fan To milking the Franchise and Fandom.
    This game is just not that good.
    i say not recommended that stay away.
  5. warclanw
    Apr 19, 2019
    0
    Old Cartoon was Awesome but the new toons is kinda ruined for everyone.

    -Weak character
    -Too Overrated
    -No Plot, No Depevoment
    -Bad Characters
    -The Story Suck
    -Fandom (Indie Game)
    -Insulted to the Classic Cartoon

    Not Recommended
  6. deathsoul067
    Apr 20, 2019
    0
    This a full of army of little kid-teen playing this game and ruined the old Cartoon Communities
    Really Cuphead? What was Studio MDHR Thinking?
    Since after 2 days later is already Most controversial outside the Internet. The New toons is just Disgusting, Horrible fanbase, cancerous fandom, Ocs, Too many Crossover, Fan Game, Rule 34, Younger Kids and the rest. Our Childhood are been    This a full of army of little kid-teen playing this game and ruined the old Cartoon Communities
    Really Cuphead? What was Studio MDHR Thinking?
    Since after 2 days later is already Most controversial outside the Internet.

    The New toons is just Disgusting, Horrible fanbase, cancerous fandom, Ocs, Too many Crossover, Fan Game, Rule 34, Younger Kids and the rest.

    Our Childhood are been ruined by mostly Indie game Fandom.
    most of the fandom are evil, why they doing this, they not iconic enough to like them.
    What a big duel of Indie game from of the first place
    Amino can tell how many people are there with any franchise such as Cartoon Characters, Video Game Character, Anime and other thing like that.
    Just avoid the popular Indie game it killed you and it make the other fan unhappy.    … Expand
  7. shadownightw
    Apr 21, 2019
    1
    Cuphead is really such Overrated Games.
    It not worth it for a story, Gameplays, character at all.
    Not recommended We don't just hate the game, all it matter is another Indie Game like FNAF, Undertales BATIM all over again. Old Cartoon was start to Lose popularly because of this Both Cuphead and BATIM Steal the show. What they keep going to adding and adding and more Attention it    Cuphead is really such Overrated Games.
    It not worth it for a story, Gameplays, character at all.
    Not recommended

    We don't just hate the game, all it matter is another Indie Game like FNAF, Undertales BATIM all over again.
    Old Cartoon was start to Lose popularly because of this Both Cuphead and BATIM Steal the show.
    What they keep going to adding and adding and more Attention it never stop those game, This need to stop!

    If there the new characters come out then the fandom will get bomb every new character that only Inspired by the cartoons of the 1930's
    Seriously were the other boy?
    Old Toons are goner and passed away    … Expand
  8. datgame
    Oct 2, 2017
    4
    Mediocre platformer and shmup.¨Nice cozy visuals and sound. The color-bleeding and old film effect is just distracting after 2 minutes. Color bleeding can be disabled, but not other grain and bad picture. Can't disable rumble either. Bad mechanics and controls. Enemies are often not in line to be hit by shots, but they can hit me in the same line.
  9. Mike94
    May 23, 2018
    0
    que juego tan feo eso parece como una mala caricatura hecha para unos pocos, lo compre y lo devolví al otro día ......
  10. SirGamesALot
    Oct 13, 2017
    2
    Cuphead: Broken Fine China

    As anyone who's seen anything about this game, yes Cuphead is a beautiful, fun-looking game with a wonderful soundtrack. However, I put emphasis on looks because while they may have been better off making an actual cartoon, that is if they took the time to write a less almost charmingly cliched story for it, the gameplay of this game is garbage. Don't get    Cuphead: Broken Fine China

    As anyone who's seen anything about this game, yes Cuphead is a beautiful, fun-looking game with a wonderful soundtrack. However, I put emphasis on looks because while they may have been better off making an actual cartoon, that is if they took the time to write a less almost charmingly cliched story for it, the gameplay of this game is garbage.

    Don't get me wrong, every level starts off fun, but believe you me, after the 20th or 30th, or 113th f*cking try, you will learn to hate every single level. Whoever playtested this game should be fired, not just from the company, from the Earth, into the sun. Over 100 attempts was not an exaggeration, this game is so brutally, cruelly, unbearably difficult it made me want to walk to the top of the nearest tall building and throw my Xbox off a roof. It turned me from an animal activist and environmentalist into a man with no goal but to burn every tree and stomp every flower and frog I see for the rest of my life.

    For a game with such smooth and pretty animation in all other situations, Cuphead sure could have used the ability to fully rotate his arm. I can't even count the number of times one of those smug looking enemies was waltzing up 3 centimeters from Cuphead's goofy, smiling face but he couldn't shoot him because he has a rare form of Parkinson's that prevents his arms from bending at more than 6 angles. Not only does this ruin gameplay, it makes the painstakingly rendered animations almost constantly look like a janky mess. This could've also been remedied by a players ability to jump on or mele some enemies like nearly every other platformer, but cup head gets hit by a speck of dust blowing in the wind and he's out for the count.

    The largest flaw in this game or any game I've ever played in my life is the 3 hit only, no checkpoint gameplay based almost entirely on nearly endless trial and error with ridiculously complex mutli-stage bosses that have more projectiles and side enemies surrounding them at all times than the human eye can possibly keep track of. There were a few bosses so ridiculously cluttered with things on the screen I had to try to unfocus my eyes and just react to the specific blurred colors of enemies because there was just way too much going on.

    Without an unlimited lives, checkpoint, or increased aim rotation/button assignment patch I will never play this game again and be glad for it, after all the work that went into creating this beautiful, fun world we want to explore, it's rendered moot by the sheer lack of fun derived from the gameplay. Playing this game felt like a chore, like an exam you had to study for hours to get every single answer exactly write because playing it any way but the one single way to beat it designed by the programmers is the wrong way.

    Cuphead seems as if the design process went something like this, "Okay the level looks cool, the boss has some good designs and crazy attacks, on to the next" (but what about whether or not it is physically possible for an average human being to track that many things while dodging and ducking and pin point shooting on a poorly designed aiming system?) "I said on to the next!"

    I played it the first time just to see all of the cool levels and bosses and partially just because I refused to be beaten by a game that looked like it was made for children though the child version of myself probably would have blown a gasket playing this game. But looking back at it, I can't think of a single level I had fun playing the entire time, in fact, I hated almost all of the time that I spent playing this game, the grind, the memorization, the repetition, the rage-inducing gameplay shortcomings. Without a serious patch to give this more of a laid back feel that you can just casually play and have fun going through the world, I wouldn't play this game again to save my life, that's just sadomasochistic. It's a beautiful game, that's fun in theory but infuriating in practice, with those basic necessities patched in it would easily be an 8/10, but until such a time, I can't even bring myself to give it more than a 2.    … Expand
  11. zuppadipini
    Oct 7, 2017
    4
    +bello stile
    -non e difficile e solo incredibilmente confuso e mal calcolato
    - Bossfight finale buggata che rende impossibile finirlo
    -pochi contenuti dura 15 ore solo perché muori e ripeti in continuazione
    -spesso schivare gli attacchi e impossibile sia per la quantità di oggetti a schermo sia perché evitare alcuni attacchi e impossibile
  12. papadoc
    Oct 2, 2017
    4
    THIS GAME IS NOT EASY
    This one was a doozy a real doozy I've never experienced such difficulty even in the hardest of tasks in life. Right from the get go the game seeks to humiliate the uninitiated in the most brutal ways possible, "jump" whilst "dash" are you F*****KING kidding me? Respawning enemies galore every time you try jump attacking them YOU receive damage, after 26 minutes I    THIS GAME IS NOT EASY
    This one was a doozy a real doozy I've never experienced such difficulty even in the hardest of tasks in life. Right from the get go the game seeks to humiliate the uninitiated in the most brutal ways possible, "jump" whilst "dash" are you F*****KING kidding me? Respawning enemies galore every time you try jump attacking them YOU receive damage, after 26 minutes I simply did not know how to proceed with such a genuinely difficult game. Now before you go on some racist rant just know I ain't no spring chicken and I've been doing THIS for years.
    Note: plz no death threats    … Expand
  13. swordman0027
    Apr 21, 2019
    0
    This Game is failed for many level.
    - Character are Uncreative
    - Not even fun at all. - Main Characters are useless plot, personally and Non-Animal Type - Cheap Rip off Change my mind Studio MDHR shouldn't make another game that from the 1930's. Indie Gamer Company want to milking more and more and hurting their fanbase Cuphead and Bendy were created as Both Company is highly    This Game is failed for many level.
    - Character are Uncreative
    - Not even fun at all.
    - Main Characters are useless plot, personally and Non-Animal Type
    - Cheap Rip off

    Change my mind Studio MDHR shouldn't make another game that from the 1930's.

    Indie Gamer Company want to milking more and more and hurting their fanbase
    Cuphead and Bendy were created as Both Company is highly backslash to the old Cartoon.
    That they do they made too many crossover, Ocs, Shipping that highly annoying and ruining for me.
    There many game better then this.    … Expand
  14. saintandrewsfal
    Oct 4, 2021
    4
    I can easily see why people would like this game. It's colorful, stylish, and unique. But it's for a certain type of gamer. I'm not that type of gamer. Because of it's difficulty and repetition, it puts itself in a class that isn't interesting to me. But more than just my tastes, the game does have additional flaws. 1) You can't turn in your upgrades (even at a reduced price) to get/tryI can easily see why people would like this game. It's colorful, stylish, and unique. But it's for a certain type of gamer. I'm not that type of gamer. Because of it's difficulty and repetition, it puts itself in a class that isn't interesting to me. But more than just my tastes, the game does have additional flaws. 1) You can't turn in your upgrades (even at a reduced price) to get/try something else. You could argue that this makes the game even more difficult, but I'd rather they increase the difficulty in a less aggravating way to locking you into an upgrade. 2) You can only go so far on simple mode, which isn't made clear at the beginning of the game. Thus, you might play through on simple for the story only to find out that won't get you to the ending. 3) Some bosses/boss parts can be easily defeated standing in a certain spot and/or doing a certain move, which you can grind to find out or watch YouTube. But to be fair, that's true for a lot of games. 4) When playing two players it can be hard to distinguish between you and your friend. I think Cuphead and Mugman should've been a little more unique from one another. 5) Should've had a kid mode so that not only could kids play this game, but casual adults too.

    Anyway, I prefer games with simple story mode or some online action. This game kept my interest for a night or two, but the aforementioned flaws and repetition was not my thing. If you're like me, this isn't the game for you.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best Xbox One Game of 2017
6
#6 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2017
2
#2 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 72 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 72
  3. Negative: 0 out of 72
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 16, 2018
    80
    The unique audiovisual elaborating and uncompromising playability beat a few freckles on the beauty of the game. Cuphead is a title that has mistakes, but you just cannot get it from the head. [Issue#279]
  2. FANDOM
    Dec 11, 2017
    70
    For players that appreciate classic run-and-gun combat, punishing difficulty, constantly learning from failure, and breathtaking art, Cuphead’s experience will not disappoint.
    Read full review
  3. games(TM)
    Nov 3, 2017
    80
    Microsoft's true standout exclusive for 2017. [Issue#194, p.70]
See all critic reviews »