Great Games on Xbox One?! Yes, Ori, Halo, Cuphead… wait, Cuphead is now available for Switch? Yes, it is! And it was revealed only a few weeks ago!

Cuphead is a jump’n’shoot game made by “StudioMDHR” in Canada, produced by Chad & Jared Moldenhauer. And it was an Xbox One exclusive… but now they decided to bring it to Nintendo’s successful Switch console. And it is a great port!

The technical aspects of the game is as superb as on Xbox One. No frame drops, no other technical issues. The game looks like an old stylish cartoon of the 1920s. MDHR loves Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” it seems – look on that great artstyle! It’s great that MDHR had the audacity to make something unique – that’s what we gamer miss so often since the golden 90s!

The sound is awesome, too, big respect to the composer Kristofer Maddigan. The music and the sound effects fit great to the artstyle and make the masterpiece perfect.

But… is the gameplay as great as the artstyle? Yes, it’s a very challenging and difficult shoot game. You can choose between “easy” and “normal” when you start the game, but this game is not for beginners! But pros will love it! And the controls are 100% precise, that’s good. Good for such a challenging game. They learned a lot from Konami’s Contra games, the best games in the jump’n’shoot genre.

You have three worlds and one final stage to clear. Every world offers five bosses and two jump’n’run levels. You have never seen such a variety in boss fights! I can only think of Parodius on Super Nintendo when I try to remember such a creativity… but this is Cuphead’s biggest problem, too. It offers only a map and tons of big bosses, but not a lot of longer levels to fight through. People who don’t like to play only on one screen to fight a boss for 10 or more minutes could find the game maybe boring. People who love the challenge like in Dark Souls and don’t care much about the level design will get a great game!

Achievements are on board too. It’s the same like in Wii Sports, do this or do that to get a medal. It’s great for people who search the challenge inside of the challenge.

My opinion? I like the creativity, I like the artstyle, I love the bosses and I like that difficulty – yes, I like pro gaming. If you search for a game you can “enjoy” on a couch a run through without a big challenge, get another game. “Cuphead” is a game for the pros among us. And for such who want to become a pro and love the challenge.

Pros

+ unique artstyle
+ stunning music and sound effects
+ great controls
+ lots of bosses…

Cons

– … but often only bosses
– only a few jump’n’shoot levels to fit through
– maybe too hard for most of the gamers

Soup Verdict: Microsoft cooked you a cup of a good… umm… soup – hot and tasty!

A review copy was provided by the publisher for this review.