Cuphead

Cuphead is a run-and-gun action game about Cuphead and Mugman, brothers who must repay a debt to the Devil by confronting his debtors across strange islands. Boss battles anchor the journey, with side-scrolling stages, weapon and ability purchases, parrying, and local cooperative play shaping how each challenge is approached.

Cuphead and Mugman begin in a predicament created by their own wager: after losing to the Devil at his casino, they are sent to collect the contracts owed by the other souls who made deals with him. The brothers travel through a series of strange island worlds, meeting the Devil’s debtors as bosses rather than following a long sequence of dialogue scenes. The story gives the action a clear purpose—settle the accounts and escape the bargain—while keeping its focus on the encounters themselves. Cuphead and Mugman are the two playable characters, and the Devil frames the debt-collecting journey. The setting draws on the look and sound of 1930s animation, using hand-drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds and original jazz recordings. That presentation carries across both the world map and the battles, where expressive figures and changing scenes sit alongside precise platform-shooter controls. Local co-op follows this same map-based campaign structure rather than introducing a separate story route.

The main activity is confronting bosses whose battles unfold through successive forms and changing attacks. A fight asks the player to keep firing while reading threats across the screen: projectiles, smaller enemies, moving hazards and the boss itself can demand attention at once. Bosses shift their shape, position or behaviour as the encounter advances, so progress depends on reacting to what the current phase presents rather than holding one safe position. A short post-defeat sequence lets a player gauge how far the attempt went, then retry the encounter. The repeated loop is to enter a fight, learn how its attacks occupy space, adjust movement and weapon choice, and make another attempt. The game’s principal challenge is these boss duels, but they are interspersed with side-scrolling Run ’n Gun stages. Those levels put jumping, shooting and moving through enemy-filled terrain together, adding a different kind of forward traversal to the boss-focused structure. The player sees the battle progress after a failed attempt, which gives each retry a visible point of comparison.

Cuphead’s movement and attacks give the player several ways to respond to those patterns. The character can move, jump, duck, dash and shoot, while aiming and weapon switching help direct fire toward threats. The parry is a more timing-sensitive action: certain pink objects can be struck in mid-air with a jump input, which destroys or deflects the target and builds the special-attack resource. Ordinary hits on enemies also fill that meter. Spending a segment triggers a weapon’s EX attack; filling the full meter enables a Super Art. This creates a choice between using smaller powered attacks as opportunities arise and saving the accumulated resource for a larger special move. Parrying therefore has both an immediate defensive or offensive effect and a longer-term resource benefit. In co-op, a player can also attempt to revive a fallen partner by parrying their floating ghost before it disappears, making the same timing mechanic relevant to keeping the pair in a fight. On certain encounters, flight replaces ordinary jumping with plane movement while keeping the need to avoid attacks and return fire.

Preparation happens between stages through the island map and the shop. Coins found in Run ’n Gun levels can be exchanged for weapons and charms, which change the available attacks or add passive effects. The player equips a selection before entering a challenge, then can revisit the equipment screen to change the loadout. Each weapon has a different firing behaviour, while its EX move gives that weapon a meter-powered option; selecting gear is therefore a practical way to alter how a boss can be handled. Charms add another kind of adjustment, trading one benefit for another rather than simply replacing the need to dodge. The shop’s available wares change as purchases are made, and the game includes Mausoleum stages that reward new abilities when completed. These diversions connect exploration and combat preparation: movement through a side stage can provide coins, and those purchases broaden the tools available for later encounters. The map is the hub for choosing stages and managing that growing set of equipment. Coins are found in stages and spent in the shop, linking platforming detours to the equipment choices used in boss fights.

Bosses offer a choice between Simple and Regular fights. Simple presents an easier version of an encounter, useful for learning the broad movement and attack demands, but a Simple victory does not yield the debtor’s soul contract. Collecting those contracts requires defeating the bosses on Regular; the final battle remains locked until the necessary standard victories are complete. This means reaching another part of the island map is not the same as having settled every debt. A player can visit a boss in Simple, return with a different loadout, and take on the Regular fight when ready. The distinction gives the difficulty setting a role in progression, rather than making it only a damage adjustment. It also makes the debt-collection premise tangible: winning a practice version may help with a troublesome opponent, but the contract is earned through the main version of that encounter.