Recent reviews by ph0spholipid

More fun than Specter of Torment and Shovel of Hope in gameplay and in story in my opinion. The more stretched out maps and shorter levels is a fresh new experience that is very welcome. I didn't use the abilities very often but theyre mostly pretty cool. New enemy variants, bosses, minibosses, gameplay mechanics, areas, AN ENTIRE CARD GAME (which is great fun by itself) mix with a great, funny story to make a superb addition to the franchise. Took me 30ish hours to 100% including challenge mode and I enjoyed every minute of it (except those spent grinding for card completionist). The soundtrack is great, the entire experience is colourful and fun. Very glad I purchased it.

Took me around 9 hours to complete my first run through the campaign, which included getting all items fully upgraded. A normal run would probably take 5ish hours. Took 17.5 hours to get all the achievements and then completing challenge brought me to 20.

Random assortment of thoughts: I'd say this isn't as good as king of cards but is better than shovel of hope in terms of gameplay, although i'm not a fan of black knight phase 2. I do recognise that effort was put into making the boss fights different than in shovel of hope. I felt the story of king of cards was more enjoyable and consistently developing than in SoT (although I like the ending and the feature of shield knight). The tower of fate is a cool location as opposed to the basic villages of shovel of hope, and it has a really good song to go with it. I also really enjoyed the final boss, maybe not as much as the final boss of king of cards although SoT's has a very cool design (the overall dark aesthetic is pretty cool). The combat and movement is still very fluid, but as with King of Cards some hits are less avoidable than in Shovel of Hope. The dash slash and scythe sliding mechanics are both fun. The New Game Plus in SoT is probably the most creative out of the 3 campaigns i've played, but King of Cards is still more challenging imo with the gem dropping and 4 hp.

Steam didn't track my first save, so including that i probably spent at least 35 hours beating this game multiple times and 100%ing achievements. Definitely worth £11. Charming animations, sprites and 8 bit music. Good platforming and pretty fun bosses (♥♥♥♥ frost knight though). Combat is tricky since swinging your shovel on the ground leaves you stuck in place, but its fun once you figure it out. Definitely enjoyed it. Achievements were a fun challenge too. Gonna go beat specter of torment and king of cards now.

Took me 43 hours to get all the achievements in the base game. Its nothing great but its pretty fun and theres a lot of side stuff to do in the open world New York City, including almost as many small side levels as main story levels and a bunch of other small stuff to get 100% completion. There are a few bugs such as characters getting stuck in place in certain areas but nothing major that I can remember. Its nice to be able to unlock so many characters, although most of them arent much use. A minor thing that annoyed me was the seemingly-random order of the characters in the select screen; they could have easily ordered them by movie or comic series.

Things I liked about the game:
- Fun combat. Dodging projectiles and comboing enemies is usually very fun. Enemies respond to hits in ways which are satisfying, such as the flying jellyfish jiggling as you stab them. Swarms of enemies can be overwhelming but if you are upgraded enough it will be manageable (this may require a few deaths though).
- Good ability system. The ability tree (with stat upgrades and the like) can seem a little repetitive to fill but I didn't mind it after two playthroughs. It allows user choice of what to upgrade and lets you get OP against lower level enemies. The bigger abilities (to do with mobility, combat etc) are unlocked as you travel the different areas and I found them to be enjoyable to find and unlock and really great at improving the experience as the game progresses. You can also make the abilities more powerful by returning to the ability shrines later in the game after defeating bosses.
- Visuals. The art in this game is superb. Landmarks and hand-crafted rooms (the rooms that don't change with each death) are stunning. Animation is also incredible. Your character's movements, attacks, abilities, death animations (of yourself and enemies), bosses (BOSSES), and everything else to do with art is well done. The game is visually excellent.
- Sound. Music during bosses is great: growing in tensity and pace as the fights progress. Outside of bosses, the music is less great, but I'll get to that later. Voice acting is great too - the guttural made-up language is well-acted and good fun to listen to.
- Bosses. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the bosses are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ incredible. The mini-bosses are okay but the full bosses at the end of each area are mental. They are humongous, brilliantly animated and fun to beat. The end-game bosses (of which there are 4, unlocked by making different decisions during the game) are very difficult, although they can be made easier by having a full skill tree and high-level perks. I loved all of them; they are crazy but you learn how to effectively target their weak points and evade their attacks as you replay them.

My problems with the game:
- Some elements are repetitive. You will travel through the same style of room hundreds of times because rooms are procedurally-generated rather than hand-crafted. You will beta down many hordes of enemies during your playthrough, which can become bothersome and tiring rather than tense and enjoyable.
- Story is weak. There's some effort by the devs to have subtle lore but I don't think it was well executed as a whole (like, say, in hollow knight). The world is so beautiful and it's somewhat of a shame there isn't a compelling story to go with it.
- Occasional frame drops.
- Music can at times be underwhelming. I actually didn't mind this too much as I think the subtle music fits the genre well, but music outside of bosses is not very noticeable.

Overall, I really liked this game. I bought it on sale but would buy it again at full price. I played it twice, unlocking the 'bad' ending during my first playthrough and the 'neutral' and 'good' endings during my second playthrough. My first playthrough was tough and took me around 16 hours, but I managed to complete my second playthrough in half the time because I knew where to go and what to do during boss fights and so on. I decided against playing on hard mode since normal mode is already very hectic and I feel like any more would be inconvenient rather than genuinely challenging. I would recommend this game based on its visuals alone, but it has a lot more than that to back it up, and my 'problems' are more nitpicks than genuine concerns.

This game is brilliant. Soundtrack and overall sound design are excellent, as well as the animation. Lore is subtle but powerful. Movement and combat are smooth and satisfying. Bosses can be soul-crushing but feel good to beat, and are usually pretty easy once you get the hang of them (except the final final boss of the Godmaster DLC, that one's just toxic). The world is massive and well thought through. This game is SO worth the 5, 10 bucks it sells for. Cop.

In my 17 hours playing cuphead, I have beat all bosses in normal and expert mode, S ranked all bosses and P ranked all run 'n' guns. However, this is my second playthrough so my first was much longer.

Having said that, it was an absolute blast. The bosses can be infuriating at first (and continue to be infuriating if youre trying to S rank them) but once you get used to them, each level is winnable and the satisfaction of beating them is unparalleled in any other game I have played.

The animation is obviously superb. The music is great and fitting for each level. This game is a joy to play. I was happy to pay the 15 bucks to get this game at full price because it feels like a labour of love from the creators throughout.

i enjoyed playing this game, although i found it incredibly not challenging: with melee enemies you spam or with ranged enemies you wait for them to peek then snipe them. in this sense the gunplay is quite repetitive but it isnt really game breaking. the world looks beautiful although up close it is underwhelming. there are only a few side quests and most people you talk to around the world pretty much add nothing to the game, so it isnt really open world because pretty much everything to do is the main story (please correct me if im wrong). anyways if youre looking for a relatively short (maybe 10-20 hours) game to play this is for you.