Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Review - Wicked, Wacky, and Wonderful — Too Much Gaming

Prayers have finally been answered as the long-awaited DLC for Studio MDHR’s peerless platform-shooter Cuphead has finally dropped. I’m late to the party, I know, but having to play this game in intermittent chunks between a busy summer of work has only made each brewing brawl all the sweeter.

I’m happy to report that Studio MDHR delivered more of the winning formula, with a new Inkwell Isle filled with beautifully-animated boss fights combining different styles, and no-charm parry challenge fights replacing the old Run-and-Gun levels. The score is incredible, with a mix of big band and symphonic music that surpasses the first game, with many tracks becoming instant bangers for me. Aside from the new main theme, the absolute highlight is High Noon Hoopla: Esther Winchester’s theme, with pounding percussion, speed-fiddles and even yodeling.

There wasn’t a single impossible boss fight, either. Even when I felt like my movements were not enough to navigate the projectiles, hope sprang from each rebirth. Yeah. I kind of die a lot in these types of games, as I tend to learn most boss mechanics the hard way. But the real winner here is the presentation. Bravo to the team for not compromising on the animation quality or soundtrack.

A Macabre Resurrection Tale

As for the story, this time around it’s a mission to bring the first game’s helpful spirit, the Legendary Chalice, back to life. See, she’s heard that the legendary Chef Saltbaker can craft a meal that can resurrect the dead. So on this new isle, you’ll be fighting various people for ingredients to bake the dish to revive Ms. Chalice. There isn’t much more to it than that, as the bosses were designed to each embody specific characters and concepts, continuing the original game’s tradition of paying homage to the classics without needing to worry about cohesion between the diverse settings and presentation of said battles.

From the start of the game, Cuphead or Mugman can equip a special Charm to be, um, possessed (yeah, really) and switch bodies with Ms. Chalice. She provides an alternate playstyle entirely, as she can double-jump, dash to parry, and perform a roll with slight invincibility on the ground. Ms. Chalice also has an extra HP (4 VS Cuphead and Mugman’s 3). While I enjoyed Ms. Chalice’s new movement options and ability to regain a jump after parrying, using her exclusively all but negates much of the game’s challenge, so I think she’s a wonderful choice for new players. I played as Mugman, mostly. Ms. Chalice’s first jump is shorter, which threw me off, and I think I preferred the challenge of being limited to one jump.

The Delicious Last Course also offers new weapons and charms, as well as a few hidden surprises. All of the new weapons are well thought-through. The Crackshot is one of the easiest weapons to use, an enemy-tracking weapon that, unlike the Chaser, does decent damage. The catch is that it does need to be somewhat aimed to be most effective. The Twist Up is a situational secondary weapon excellent for bosses above the player, while the Converge fires three shots ala games such as Contra, but the stream can be narrowed by locking your avatar in place, thus tripling your firepower. As I found the Charge shot somewhat less useful in this DLC due to the sometimes awkward placements of bosses’ hurtboxes, Converge became a good alternative for quick, extra damage. Between these new options, I barely used the old weapons.

In addition to the tough bosses, there’s an extended series of parry-themed challenges called The King’s Leap, where you’ll be fighting a series of chess-themed antagonists whom you can only damage via well-timed parrying. I found this to be one of the highlights of the game, though I also found the challenges, much like the majority of the game itself, to be a tad on the easy side.

If It Ain’t Broke…

Perhaps the most polarizing aspect of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is that it is, quite simply, more of the same. I had heard such criticisms before playing the game and thought to myself, “if it’s more of the same quality, there’s no way I’ll have anything to complain about”, but as it turns out, I do have a bit of a bone to pick with the developers. I want to lament the lack of radical new ideas.

There are some novel moments that stood out as totally new, such as the gravity-based shenanigans at the last phase of Doggone Dogfight, or the excellent Silhouette Mirage-like left-right movement swapping required in the game’s hidden final boss, but they are the exception rather than the rule, as most of the game’s seven main boss fights play out like classic Cuphead levels, so you’ll be dashing, dodging, hopping, parrying, and shooting your way to victory naught but your wits and patience to learn from failure to help you through the more punishing and at-times seemingly masochistically-tough bits.

Again, I must reiterate that this is not a bad thing, as the core gameplay is extremely solid. I had just hoped that the developers would have pushed the envelope a little more in terms of introducing new boss paradigms and challenges. In the future, it would be nice to see, for instance, a level that focuses on vehicular combat ala Metal Slug, or one that scrolls in different directions at different times, or tasking the player with avoiding a boss that adjusts its tactics dynamically based upon your movements rather than cycling through set animations. The King’s Leap challenges scratched this itch for innovation for me, but I wanted more.

Another common complaint I’ve heard is that the experience, while stellar, is also over too soon, as you can handily beat The Delicious Last Course in a weekend.

An adventure worth taking, and replaying

All in all, The Delicious Last Course feels like a completion of the ideas introduced in Cuphead rather than an evolution of the run-and-gun platforming gameplay, which will definitely delight and satisfy hardcore fans of the original classic title. Though it may seem so at times, there isn’t a single unfair fight in this game. It’s just a matter of patience and pattern recognition. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course owes as much to classics such as the Megaman X and Contra series as it does to the Fleischer-era classic cartoons (in addition to a whole host of other inspirations) that inspired its unique art style, and despite its at times uncomfortably dark elements and, at times, a feeling of deja vu, I’m incredibly grateful to Studio MDHR for releasing this gem. If you’ve never played the original Cuphead, now is a GREAT time to hop in and check it out, as you can play the DLC without having beaten the original game.

9/10

PROS

The same excellent, precise gameplay and impeccable art and animations as seen in the original Cuphead
Seven new bosses, with several mini-bosses, plus a new character, weapons, and charms add variety to the gameplay

CONS

Over a little too soon, at about a third of the size of the original Cuphead
A lack of innovation in the boss battles themselves, with only a few boss phases that stand out from the established formula