Cuphead

Here, of course, the starting point is different: there is no commercial tragedy of a failure that has marked the story (the Dreamcast) and in hindsight Cuphead is not even a Microsoft game, having been developed and produced by Studio MDHR . But it is Microsoft that has welcomed and pushed him, promoted and pampered for a long time, until he became a standard-bearer of the indie world within his stables. And it will be Microsoft to help Studio MDHR to implement part of the Xbox Live services in the Switch version of Cuphead.

The game of the Moldenhauer brothers arrives on the Nintendo console in full form. One would say "without a shot wound", if it were not that he is ready to leave on the ground, stunned, who knows how many other players. Because the essence of Cuphead has remained unchanged in this year and a half since its first release for Xbox One and PC. It is still, proudly, a cruel, cynical and bad shooter. It hides his desire to beat very strongly behind an artistic direction that has few equals in the history of video games, with that perfect quotationism to the prehistory of animation and simply perfect jazz accompaniment.

But when you take the controller in hand, or the entire Switch if you choose to play in portable mode, the reality is bittersweet. So much is uncontrollable and tumultuous the love that flows and pours on every animation, on the amazing pastel colors, on the visual effects that pretend to "eat" the film, how infamous and evil is the desire to continually put the player under stress. Most of the time spent in Cuphead sees clashes with huge enemies taking place on the screen. Removed a handful of levels with horizontal scrolling (on foot and occasionally in the air), Cuphead is a long succession of challenges against real bosses. Bosses who have various stages, always, to study and memorize before they can take home the "KO!" final that decrees success. A point of arrival that is long coveted and welcomed with a mixture of nervous laughter and wiping sweat from the forehead.

The most interesting mechanism of the game, which for the rest certainly does not try to reinvent the rules of the genre, is linked to the possibility / need to parry and absorb strokes and elements characterized by the pink color. One way to load the bar that handles loaded and more powerful attacks faster. Then there are different types of shots and skills to buy and select before facing the various bosses.

As already mentioned, the version for Switch is practically unassailable: everything moves perfectly, fluidity is guaranteed and the graphic impact remains that already enjoyed on Xbox One and PC. Of course if you switch to the game in portable mode the resolution drops to the 720p allowed by the Switch screen, but it is not necessarily a limit of the game. From the console of Nintendo, rather, Cuphead receives as a dowry the opportunity to play anytime and anywhere, absolutely not to be underestimated and which goes well with the genre of belonging and with the rhythm and style of the MDHR game. A "style" made of repeated attempts. It is less good when you feel like throwing everything on the ground: here the risk of taking out the equivalent of a few hundred euro notes is all there. Also appreciated the freedom to play with a friend by "splitting" the two Joy-Con.

There are, however, no significant changes compared to the version of Cuphead that we have known to date. Removed the possibility to select at the beginning of each fight which of the two protagonists to use, or the novelty of the translations in many languages (excellent one in Italian) and the appearance of a series of new animated sequences and a handful of extra animations.

Cuphead on Switch therefore remains identical, for better or for worse, to the game of 2017. It is not free from faults and defects, above all a very limited sense of progression, poor power-up management and especially that desire (at the limit of the actual antipathy) of wanting to slap the players. Always. But as said in the review of the first edition, everyone is called to make his choice conscious of what he will go (or will not go) to buy.

MODUS OPERANDI
I played Cuphead on Switch (both in portable mode and on a Samsung KS7000 TV) thanks to a digital code received by the development team. I tackled two of the three islands that make up the entire game, which I had already thoroughly tested on Xbox One and PC.

We were wrong about you. You, with your pretty graphic outfit in the style of old Disney and Fleischer cartoons from the 1930s; you with your funny animations, charmingly drawn characters, you are anything but a relaxed, nostalgic afternoon in front of the TV with Mickey Mouse, Popeye the sailor and Co.

Behind your fancy shell there is a core that is so hard that we almost broke on it. We literally descended into hell for you - and had a lot of fun doing it. Thanks Cuphead!

Boss fight parade

If we win a boss fight or complete a run & gun passage, we unlock paths on the map that lead us to new levels. Once we have managed all of them, the gates to a second and third world open again, which we also have to close before the grand finale.

3,2,1 ... Wallop!

However, achieving this goal is anything but easy. The merciless facts on the table: We can usually only take three hits before having to start the level from before. But we have an infinite number of lives and unlimited ammunition, a stronger special attack and a powerful "Super Art" attack that we can only carry out with a fully filled EX bar.

Our move set seems modest when we look at what the bosses have been up to. They take as many hits as a sack of sand can hold and usually have three different forms within the fight, each of which requires a different approach and thus forces us to rethink.

Die, learn, try again

Even our very first boss fight against the "Root Pack", a murderous trio of a potato, an onion and a carrot, turns out to be so tricky that after three unsuccessful rounds we are almost ready to eat the controller Fire corner. However, once we pull the belt vigorously, we start again and instead of shooting wildly, we start by memorizing the movement and attack patterns of our opponents (and nightshade plants) exactly until we have understood how we the different phases of the fight.

Our plan: In phase one, just jump over the balls of dirt that the potato spits at us and shoot at them at the same time; in phase two in the left corner of the screen because this is where we are best protected from the tears of the howling onion. And in the final phase of the fight it is better to keep moving to avoid the psychic rays and flying carrot rockets of the three-eyed carrot colossus and work off its life bar piece by piece as it runs by.

That’s the theory. After our aha experience, however, we still need a few attempts to successfully implement our tactics. Especially in the last phase of the fight, every evasive jump requires precision and every shot requires the right timing, which is basically easy to do thanks to the excellent controls .

On the other hand, we fail because we either react too slowly, confuse motion sequences in the heat of the moment, fail to foresee attacks by the enemy that we have learned by heart, or simply fail to concentrate. We also state here: Cuphead is tough, but still fair. We just can't make mistakes.

With patience and spit to sweet victory

Again and again we die; and with each death we learn a little more, get better and finally send the nasty vegetables back into the ground: "Hurray, we did it!". The feeling of strutting off the field victoriously after many, many failed attempts overwhelms us and becomes even more intense the more challenging the fighting becomes.

After having overcome many more bosses, the first one seems like a no brainer in comparison. Already in the last stage of the first world, the level of difficulty increases again so much that we no longer need seven, but maybe 27 attempts to kill one boss. We can't deny that some fights or run & gun levels have frustrated us, that we were about to just give up.

But in the end that's only up to us. Pause, take a deep breath, carry on. All you need is a high degree of perseverance and the will to learn , both of which are rewarded in the end with an incredibly euphoric and satisfying feeling to play.

Clutched firmly on the handle

Cuphead, you are a smart boy. You are teaching us not only to overcome the obstacles you put in our way, but also to ignore our own weaknesses.

You send us through hell, make us pull our hair out and clench our fists with a growl, but inspire us so much after every hurdle we have overcome that in the end we feel invincible - at least for a short time. A deal with the devil? We would do it again at any time.