Why Cuphead's Difficulty Makes The Game So Great 

Question: Cuphead is extremely hard

Meanwhile IGN's reviewer lowered the score due the difficulty lmao

I love the 80s and 90s It was a time when not every game was being compared to Dark Souls

I love this game, it’s almost like Megaman for a new generation. Sure you die a lot, but you keep learning and have fun along the way.

"Beating a phase in cuphead is like a really good sneeze, uhh satisfying release, but you're also left with a mess you have to clean up afterwards." Sure, will go with sneeze..

as someone who used to struggle with multitasking i can say this game legitimately helped me a lot

When I first played Dr. Kahl I used to think the last phase was nearly unfair, even after I beat it. Play it again years later, I kind of see the pattern of what you do where it's not that bad.

Just started last week. Love it. Started my expert run through. It'll definitely be a game I come back to pick up and play every now and then

It's only $20 and is gorgeous, all gamers should give it a try.

I've gotta admit, I've never had so much fun dying in a game before. I wasn't even mad when I died. Super Meat Boy drove me up the wall, and Megaman would burst some arteries, but Cuphead? I feel it's tough but fair.

I can't wait for the city sim that sells itself by being "the Dark Souls of city sim games - there's like a tornado every three minutes!"

Just finished it. Amazing game and, although it was difficult, it was really satisfying to beat some of these bosses. Felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest when I had 1 HP left fighting king dice and was hoping I hit him enough times for a knockout before the next barrage of cards came out.

Cuphead is the Bloodborne of Demon's Souls tbh

Haven't played it (yet), but judging from some of the community forum posts on Steam, it is definitely the combination of several individual attacks that gives the game its difficulty. There are reports of rare occasions where individual elements in a fight combine in a way that is, frankly, impossible to survive. For example, the randomized placement of cloud platforms during the Dragon boss fight, combined the wrong way with its various attacks, can occasionally leave the player having to choose between taking a hit and falling off the stage.

The cool thing is that it plays like a puzzle. You try to figure out the pieces of one part. After finally managing to understand it you get to the next one. The first one is still hard enough to challenge you and try to get into phase 2 with enough health as possible

Cup Head is best described as a game that harnesses the purposeful difficulty back in the arcades. Meant to go after your quarters.

Can people just stop calling any game that is hard Dark Souls PLEASE!!!! 1st it was Crash Bandicoot 1 remaster (even tho the original was Already hard as fuck) now this..... just stop.

I’m glad to say I’ve completed the game but trying to go back through some bosses on expert is almost impossible 😅 only done a few so far

He says “Difficult, but fair.” Me: The stupid robot says no.

I love this game! Allthough theres 1 scenario where for the first time felt like things were unfair. Thats the rollercoaster boss level. I felt like you had to he lucky with the timing the roller coaster because sometimes in the third phase, a roller coaster would come and the boss would shoot the horseshoe's. In that scenario if I'd jump I'd get hit by the horseshoe if I would not jump I'd get hit by the people IN the roller coaster. So unless you have that dodge dash its IMPOSSIBLE to dodge that attack. But when you'd try again you could have a much better go because the coaster timing is random! I did end up beating tho but during the road to victory I felt like there were moments where it was purely based on wether I had a good timing with the rollercoaster or had bad luck with it and end uo having undodgable moments

No more difficult than the average SNES/Genesis game. It's only in the last decade or so that companies figured out they can attract a much wider audience by removing all difficulty. So now we're at a point where we have to call things "The dark souls of" just to describe a game with a reasonable amount of challenge.

Nice vid. I will love to see one explaining why this game should not be pirated. All hard work behind, the beautiful art, the small indie team and how them remortgaged their houses for the project, etc.

Agreed. This wouldnt be one of my favorite 2D games without the challenge. I play much more difficult games so I find this game pretty moderate. Some bosses have taken me an hour to beat, but thats on the lower end for some of the challenges I complete. Still its way harder than the typical modern platformer. There wouldnt be any satisfaction if there was no deaths.

I have just completed it on PS4. When I first bought it I thought I’d never beat it 🙏🏼 Feels good, beautiful art style and a great challenging and fun game ❤️

Just because a game is hard does not automatically mean it is like Dark Souls

I felt like the reward (no reward) never outweighed the tedious task of dying 30 times to a boss. Although the music and art style was incredible, death and difficulty are two different subjects.

One unfair level is the Bee level when , sometime, the platform RNG between two phase can leave you without any escape

So I finally finished the game a few days ago and I absolutely love it! I didn't watch many old cartoons and haven't been a big fan of the style but that changed since this game. Right now I'm trying different things in Cuphead, like fighting on expert (I got the devil but not Kind Dice how tf :D) Also I kind of learned to not get angry at my deaths anymore (except vs the bee...screw her) I just...accept it by now, which is a great help in order to accomplish things here. My favourite Boss is King Dice, I know, yes: This unfair piece of cube. But I really like the challenge of fighting various bosses before the real one (at least in cuphead) and for some reason he is the one I never get angry at, that's cuz my first goal while getting into this game was "Get to King Dice". I never thought I would even finish the game because I was stuck at the second island but I just kept trying and didn't give up to reach my goal.~ I really love this game and it's perfect for everyone who likes a challenge but also for those, who want to experience smth new! ^-^

Cuphead made me realize there are two kinds of video games: video games and cinematic cake walks. I think video games can be cinematic (Monster Hunter), but cake walks that constantly display points on the map where you'll find the next cutscene until it's over don't make me want to call it a game. It's not a distinction between good or bad, just what button pressing adventure you prefer to spend your time on.

I didn't realize how bad at video games I was until today, I can't yet beat the root gang. Granted, I've only played for an hour, but still.

3:38 The little birds are putting salt the big one.

The dopamine I got after getting the pacifist quest for the run and gun levels was mad I absolutely love cuphead!

It’s such a hard game but when you get an A+ rating on a boss you’ve had trouble on, it’s THE best feeling.

It's like, instant satisfaction every-time you do something successful in this game lmfao

Another reason for the difficulty is so that it would take less time to make the game. There are only 19 bosses that need to be animated but 7 weeks worth of content. Easier difficulty would result in less time that you get from each boss, causing for there to need to be more bosses in order to make the same amount of content. This would add an extra one or two years to the process of animating the game, and we might not even have it yet.

finished it yesterday! probably my favorite game of the year.

Great review man. I was waiting forever for this game to come out! If you grew up with 8 bit Nintendo as i did, this game is par for the course. Once you learn the mechanics it's all good. It's very fair game and dying a bunch is what it's about. You die and you learn till you don't....

I get the feeling this video was created as a sort of therapy video for people who have been utterly broken by Cuphead.

I love the look of this game but difficult games make me rage and I don't want to spend the extra money replacing my controller.

People said that Ninja Gaiden sigma was difficult. But, I it to be fair too. That demand respect and ine truly has to earn everything one gets. And it turned out to be one of my favorite games.

someone has already completed it without taking any damage ;)

I can honestly say that the gameplay is hella addicting once you get into it. No joke, I've completed the game up to 200% and I almost have every achievement in the game, and I'm not even a completionist!

This feels like a love letter to run n guns, platformers and side scrolling shmups But mostly run n gun

Did you just say its the DARK SOULS of video gaymes? ITS JUST LIKE DARK SOULS

“But time is just a human construct put in place to keep people like us from playing more cuphead” I feel right at home with this channel

Dark Souls is the Dark Souls of Dark Souls.

this game is an MasterPiece great video. keep the good work,Gamespot-Team. XD...

It took me 859 death’s to finally kick the devils a** but for me the most annoying bosses were the dragon as well as King Dice.

i got it for Switch the day it came out...and i cant stop playing! ...that was a month ago...and im only on World 3 now....thats how hard it is. Unbelievably fun though!

Favorite bosses are Ribby and Croaks, Cagney Carnation, and Sally Stageplay Least favorite bosses are Grim Matchstick and Dr. Kahl's Robot. Those are the only two boss fights where I can legitimately call BS

Truly one of the best games ever. The difficulty is why there is replay value & from an artistic perspective it is just a joy to play with a great soundtrack. Hope they do another one…. The studio said no but they are doing “something.” What ever game they are working on it should be good, Cuphead shows what they are capable of.

0:40 that dodge tho

I have beaten the game and it might have took me more than an hour to defeat one boss. I beat them all on simple then realised I had to beat them all again on normal and I did. Its frustrating but you feel a great accomplishment. Note I haven't beat expert mode yet I'm trying its hard it even makes the first boss a challenge!

Cuphead. The game that recreated the feeling of fun yet stress in an artistic style known as rubberhose. Not only am I impressed with this game, I am obsessed and addicted to it. The bosses that annoy me the most : Ribby and Croaks, and the Queen Bee. Those put me in such a bad and agressive mood after about 50 deaths on both haha. But after completing the game twice and looking at the game in different filters has made me in love with it, so I could never truly get upset at it. I dont have. favourite boss, but if I was to chose one over any others, it would be Cagney Carnation. This game has nailed the art and music, I give it a 10/10. MDHR Studios should be proud of themselves.

When i saw the title of this video i was happy because i really think that if the game wouldn't be that easy it would lose a big part of what it makes it good

Finished the game earlier. Easily one of the best games I've played in years. Difficulty was just right, hard, but never insurmountable, and rarely frustrating. Don't think I'll ever get around to Expert mode though. I know my limits, lol.

i just finshed the game on ps4. I died 870 times. Im happy i didnt quit

After A+ ranking every boss in the game.... and P ranking the R&G’s.. I am very sleep deprived

Cuphead is an old school shoot em up; they were always pretty difficult

This was suprisingly an entertaining video, and for your question, THE DRAGON IS BS

... Until the very end of this video, I never knew you could parry the laser beam on the ship boss fight. 200% and all. The More You Know™

Comparing a game to dark souls because of it's difficulty is stupid simply because Dark Souls is not nearly as hard as alot of people claim. Yes they are challenging games, but once you understand how the combat works it becomes significantly easier. A game doesn't have to super hard anyway to be considered good in my opinion. Edit: Alot of the difficulty of dark souls is mainly based on the game not telling the player about anything.

for the last time... THIS GAME IS NOT LIKE DARK SOULS JUST BECAUSE ITS DIFFICULT

I played through World 1 on regular, but eventually I became a little board of having to play each boss so many times, so finished world 2 and 3 on simple.

2:52 Jared Moldenhauer: We just wanted to make it more difficult Source: Every Interview with Jared Moldenhauer

I watched RadBrad gameplay .. I told ya ... Its fucking Hard ... He gets upset everytime .. But when he win over boss fight .. He felt satisfied and reliefs ..

Cuphead is like the game that literally says: Hahahahahahaha git gud

I just got this game today and ive gotten to the dragon, but holy shit is that middle phase difficult

I beat cup head and the most bs is when u hit the one fighting the die head and have to start over

Cuphead: Difficult but Fair. Dr Kahl's Robot: Difficult but... no, just difficult.

The low framerate makes it more difficult to dodge the projectiles

I loved the classic cartoon style of this game but Everyone kept reviewing about how difficult it was so I shied away from adding to the collection. Then my 12 y/o grandson wanted to try it. I thought why not, a game we can play together would be a plus in my book but I didn’t think he would stick to it due to that difficulty. He gives up on a lot of frustrating things pretty easily. Well, glad to say I was wrong, on two accounts. Like the review points out, it’s not difficult, it’s just challenging, and there is a difference. They kid wants to play more than I do. And he loves trying again and again until we beat the bosses. Actually, you can see how many times you died and he counts that as a badge of honor. We’re only at around 1200 deaths so far but I’m sure we’ll see that number rise 10x that buy the time we’re done. Give it a shot if you want to lose track of time.

Nobody is calling it dark souls of platformers.....

Okay, I'm convinced to buy it now.

Great video, guy

Cuphead: never give up

Ok I might be crazy but it doesn’t even look that hard, I just bought it and I’m gonna try it out

I grew up playing my Sega Genesis, it was great fun! But then i got a PC, and it had a lot of other different sort of games. It's been like 15 years since i last played my console, and i don't really feel the need to go back to it. Sure, i tried the emulators when i was really bored, but i gave up quickly. Now retro games are coming back in style, and i'm not sure if it's such a great thing. I mean, if back in the day i'd have bought a game for my Sega and it looked and played like an old Atari game, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have been happy at all. Going back to the classics is the safe thing to do, but i'd rather not pay for a game that's going for nostalgia and asking 19.99 bucks for it. Technology is moving forward, we're getting better and better processors, graphic cards etc. People in the past were limited by the technology available to them. Now that we have it, it's like most people lost their imagination. Sequels, reboots, games based on popular comic books or movies, etc. Not that often do we get original games, or at least games that don't try to copy the successful ones.

It's the only game that made me jump up in joy when beating the final boss.

I received an ad for Cuphead coming to Switch. This is how ads should work.

i have one issue with the game. there's no way to get HP back during a fight. this encourages restarting the moment you get hit, even though the parry would be a great health restoration mechanic. Hell, it'd be even better if that was a charm: jellybean - no super gained from parries, but reastores health instead.

The fact that they say "git gud" but not everybody can get good is kinda depressing

When your cursor hovers over something, its King Dice's Hand. Yay.

This looks like an awesome game!

God, the art and music in this game's so fucking good...

"Time is just a Human construct put in place to keep People like us From playing more Cuphead" True

Prior to playing cuphead my maneuvering skills are very good and I dont tend to get hit

I remember when I was beating Cagney and I thought his head stretch attack was way too fast and then a update appeared on cuphead. After that i played cagney and then i noticed his stretch attack was slower amd I beat it instantly. Coincedence? I think not! Or i just sucked

Friend of mine said it’s too kiddy lol okay sir ..

Its like playing portal 2 without a guide.

my only problem you cant finish the game on simple mode only regular after many tearfull nights i finished the game

2:08 YES

0:00 Hermit challenges has entered the chat

Pain: Do you hate me?

Ahhhhh yes the clietay Darkseid comparison

I died (according to the counter) and I loved beating the game.

is cuphead your favorite of the year you said?... man, this shit is my favorite ever already and I don't even have it yet, this shit is going to bring me back, I stopped playing games more than 15 years ago, I used to be a decent player (beating ninja gaiden & battletoads my major successes)... I lost interest and passion a long time ago, but this shit is so beautiful I can't wait to play the fuck outta it

I got so mad at the first level I almost had a heart attack

Dark Souls? Try Contra and Gradius. Also the three hits and you're dead reminds me of The Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa Arcade Game

Its difficulty makes it fun because you are determined to keep playing no matter how hard you rage