Cuphead

last updated 2026-03-05

Cuphead is a 2D sideview shooter and platformer. I first played on Regular mode in 2022, and replayed on Expert mode including its DLC in 2026-02 - 03. My overall opinion is it's pretty good, and also quite hard, even on Regular mode.

Core mechanics

Cuphead's a bit simpler than most other action platformers I've played. For the most part, you just jump, dash and shoot. You have a super meter that fills slowly from hitting enemies and can be spent on special attacks, and you can "parry" certain projectiles (usually indicated by being pink) to nullify them and fill part of your super meter.

You can also choose from a few different weapons and one of a few passive bonuses called charms to equip. Although I only really used 2 weapons (and you can only carry 2 at once anyway), I still quite liked the challenge of switching between them during combat to optimize damage.

Sadly, the game shows no quantitative information on anything, so you have to look it up if you want to make informed choices.

It's also sad that the special attacks are... really weak. They do barely more damage than just shooting normally for the same amount of time, and they lock you into animation so they're dangerous.

There's also some levels where you're in a plane instead of on foot, which replaces all your stuff with analogs, like your dash is replaced with the ability to become smaller and faster. I don't really like the plane part of the game because your equipment choices don't apply to it; it always has the same 2 weapons and the same special attack.

Structure

It is a levels game, though not completely linear (there's often 2 or 3 you can do next), and levels are about 2 minutes long with quick retries. Your max hp is 3 by default, which is a bit low for this level length but reasonable.

There's money you use to buy new weapons and charms, but it's neither grindable nor permanently missable, there's only 5 coins on each non-boss level and you can replay them to get the ones you missed, but can't re-collect the same ones.

Boss design

Since the game is almost entirely boss fights, it's really important that bosses be good. And, well, they're good and bad.

First, I'm really happy with how much they use platforming. A lot of other action platformers basically alternate between fighting and platforming, but Cuphead combines them often and well, with mobile platforms creating movement challenges you have to navigate at the same time as dodging and attacking.

Even when you're not platforming, most bosses have multiple threats in play at once, so rather than just learning and rehearsing a response to each attack, you're always exposed to new situations and have to plan movements on the fly.

They also have fairly large movesets, but they're split into many phases, such that some phases have only 1 or 2 moves, which makes them repetitive. Also, each phase is so different that they might as well be separate bosses stuck together, which can be frustrating since you have to go through the early phases so many times to even be allowed to practice the late ones. Sometimes you finally make it to the last phase with 1 hp after 10 tries only to instantly die because you have no idea what to expect, and know it might take 10 more tries to reach that phase again.

Telegraphs are often subtle or unclear. Sometimes even hidden in the background. Also, they're often spread out all over the screen, so you have to watch the whole screen at once, which is impractical. Sometimes even if you know how a phase works, you'll be hit by stuff you didn't even see because you had to watch the 5 other hazards flying around. Hitbox boundaries are also often unclear, and there are some objects that look dangerous but aren't, and objects that don't look dangerous but are.

Many bosses have minions or projectiles that can enter from the sides of the screen at any time with no telegraph, so it's never safe to be there. This annnoys me because *usually* you won't get punished for briefly being near the edge, which makes it feel like it's supposed to be allowed, but then sometimes you get randomly punished for it. Also, these are sometimes combined with boss attacks that force you to the sides to dodge.

Only a few bosses have this, but another annoying design flaw is some bits of scenery being drawn *over* the playable gamespace, which can hide hazards.

Ergonomic problem

Cuphead inherits a flaw common in arcade-style shooters: you almost always want to be shooting, which means you hold down that button the entire time you're playing. It makes my finger sore. But solving this here isn't as simple as just making you always shoot, because there *are* situations where you don't want to shoot, just very few. Maybe a button that suppresses shooting instead of a button that shoots would've been better.

Easy mode

It has a weird deal with the easy mode: there is one, but it makes your wins not actually count toward unlocking the next world, making it pointless (at most you could play all of world 1 this way).