Cuphead is a slice of video game heaven and surprisingly appealing piece of animation gold. Having been in development for the better part of a decade, Cuphead burst onto the video game market just in 2017, and it's resulted in a resurgence in the internet's love for 'The Golden Age of Animation' and the works of the great Max Fleischer. Does the game emulate those cartoons of a bygone era pre-dating World War Two? Yes. It absolutely does just that and then some! Yes the game's frustrating for newcomers to the run and gun genre but the sense of gratification and accomplishment you get from beating any one of the bosses in-game is incredible.
This game takes pages from gaming classics like MegaMan, Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario World and even Contra; it even pays homage to 'toon classics like Popeye, Betty Boop, Disney shorts from the 20s and 30s, has nods to the Looney Tunes shorts, and even Tom & Jerry. Cuphead is a masterclass in 'cultural remixing', fusing video games and animation into the perfect combo package. What is there not to like about something that has THIS many callbacks while being its own thing as well?
Cuphead is a game for the ages and will introduce newcomers to the run-and-gun genre, as well as persuade some people to play MegaMan sometime in the future.
