One factor that stood out to me after I noticed Studio MDHR showcase Cuphead‘s long-awaited DLC – the Scrumptious Final Course – in a preview session final month was the comparisons the studio made to Fantasia.
The developer – because it confirmed off a soundtrack recorded with extra musicians, animation achieved on bigger paper with extra frames of hand-drawn artwork, and executives with extra phases and backgrounds than something we noticed within the base recreation – in contrast the DLC to how Disney lead as much as the launch of Fantasia with all the things it discovered within the 30s; bringing in all the teachings it discovered from earlier blockbuster releases into this new, ground-breaking mission.
Sure, it is a lofty comparability, however then Cuphead is a lofty recreation; I might argue it goes past simply ‘being a recreation’ and is definitely a kind of uncommon initiatives you’d see fortunately put in in museums. It is acquired sufficient conventional artwork in there to make even the non-gamer varieties go “alright, yeah, that is fairly spectacular”. And just about anybody that is consumed any media over the previous 100 years can have a look at Cuphead and say “I see what this recreation is doing, cool”.
However the DLC does not simply construct on that aesthetic stuff, nah – that’d be too simple for a corporation as given to scope creep as Studio MDHR is. Slightly, after ending the DLC, I’ve to say essentially the most spectacular factor about it’s the new playable character – Ms. Chalice. She takes each facet that made Cuphead’s base recreation pleasing and elevates it, taking the sport from a hardcore curio into a vital, must-play all-timer.
The DLC is priced at a really agreeable $7.99 / £6.79, and provides various new stuff to the general Cuphead expertise; you get to traverse a brand-new Inkwell Isle, discover new weapons and charms so as to add to your smorgasbord of nutty skills, face off in opposition to 12 model new bosses, and – most significantly – play because the once-banished Ms. Chalice.
Within the base recreation, you might play as Mugman and Cuphead. The 2 impish cups had the choice to equip charms and alter their supers, in addition to modify the weapons they used to higher get one over on bosses. Ms. Chalice also can do all of these items – with one caveat. You’ll want to equip a allure to play as her – so possibly you do not get bonus life at the price of harm output, or the power to ‘blink’ and keep away from harm while dashing in mid-air.
Higher than that, although, you get entry to her personal model of fight; Ms. Chalice can double-jump, sprint parry, and dodge roll. Souls gamers, Elden Ring converts, and Hole Knight stans, look sharp – sure, I did say dodge roll. And sure, there are invincibility frames to it. And sure, it’s stupendously satisfying if you kill a boss proper after rolling by means of its most irritating assault.
With loads of new utility, Cuphead feels enjoyable to play yet again. Not content material with merely battering all the DLC’s bosses, I’ve performed by means of the bottom recreation as soon as extra with Ms. Chalice. As a result of why not? It is virtually like enjoying a brand new recreation. There are these on the market that ask whether or not including Ms. Chalice is like including an ‘simple mode’ to the sport – and while I’ll say, sure, I discover the sport simpler after buying and selling in Cuphead and Mugman for his or her femme-coded counterpart, I do not suppose she’s an ‘simple mode’, per se.
Let us take a look at the way it breaks down. Ms. Chalice can double-jump, however her vanilla bounce is worse than the unique characters’. She has a dodge roll, however that kinda works just like the Smoke Bomb allure from the bottom recreation – and it solely works on the bottom, versus the Smoke Bomb’s air utility. Her sprint parry makes some projectiles simpler to dodge, however others a lot, a lot more durable because of the auto-hop that occurs on the finish. That is very true outdoors of the DLC.
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Personally, I feel the trade-offs are good; I just like the roll, I just like the double bounce – it makes the sport’s platforming throughout boss fights extra bearable. However Ms. Chalice’s actual energy is in her 4 base HP; one up from Cuphead or Mugman’s. Sure, to play the sport ‘correctly’, you are going to need to not take any harm throughout fights. However should you’re simply making an attempt to play the sport for enjoyable (are you able to think about such a factor!?), the DLC’s new character is certainly one thing you need to try and get used to.
The 12 new bosses themselves within the DLC are, under no circumstances, simpler than the bottom recreation – in truth, there’s one particularly that I had extra bother with than something within the first three isles. Might that be my muscle reminiscence taking its time to return again, or struggling on the handicaps Ms. Chalice confers? I do not know. However what I do know is that this; the sport feels simpler to me, post-DLC, however that is not made the entire expertise worse.
No, it is made Cuphead – greater than ever earlier than – really feel like a recreation that respects my time and my talent. And I can not wait to point out it off to everybody that comes inside view of my front room TV.