Cuphead is a game that is as challenging as it is beautiful, and Delicious Last Course grabs the torch and runs with a few new tricks to master.
Cuphead – Delicious Last course (DLC)
Developer: Studio MDHR
Price: $7
Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review.
Three years after it was first announced, Cuphead was released meeting most of the expectations I had built up in my head. The incredible hand drawn art style was enough to pull me into what was essentially a chain of challenging boss battles, with the occasional run-and-gun segments. When the DLC (notice those letters also stand for Delicious Last Course) was announced in 2018 I couldn’t be more excited which is why I think the four years of waiting felt so difficult. Despite the long wait, I applaud the team over at Studio MDHR for taking their time, not putting extra pressure and stress on the team, and delivering the content they set out to create. If you haven’t yet played the base game, what are you waiting for? Go grab it and the DLC right now. If you need more convincing check out our review.
Let’s get into what all the DLC adds. Six traditional and six optional boss battles for a total of 12 beautiful and challenging experiences. New weapons and new charms all of which can be used across the core game. Plus one of those charms adds a third playable character, with a very different moveset, Ms. Chalice. All of these new abilities and moves can be used almost immediately from a new save (you just need to encounter Ms. Chalice from a Mausoleum first) and can also be used across all of the existing content if you need another excuse to revisit or remaster the core game’s boss battles.
At first, I was a little put off by the fact that to play as Ms. Chalice you need to equip a specific charm as either Cuphead or Mugman, and this in turn removes your ability to use any other charms. After spending time playing as Ms. Chalice, it became very apparent that this was done for balancing reasons, and once I mastered her moveset, I didn’t think twice about not having that charm slot. Ms. Chalice has a built in double jump, a vertical special attack, and her parry is activated while doing a dash. This adds a whole level of maneuverability to master, drastically changing how I approached boss battles. After spending hours and hours with the basic moves of Cuphead and Mugman it took a lot of getting used to playing as Ms. Chalice, almost like I was playing the core game again for the first time. I found this really exciting, and a great way to be forced out of my comfort zone and learn a new play-style. The bosses and content of the new island are tuned with these new moves in mind, and while they can be played as Cuphead and Mugman, most of them benefit from the verticality of having a double jump without needing to parry and are brilliantly designed around Ms. Challices differing abilities. The only issue I have with Ms. Chalice is how hard it is on my brain to go back to a basic Cuphead/Mugman run after playing with a double jump for multiple hours.
The new bosses and challenges in Delicious Last Course are of a quality and caliber that rival, if not surpass those of the base game. Beautiful and unique settings and character designs, interesting challenging, and often comical characters and gameplay interactions had me smiling through the frustration as I died for the 10th time in a row at the exact same moment because of a mistake I clearly kept making. I won’t go into any depth on what these stages are like, but everything is expertly designed and forced me to learn how to defeat the bosses through playing, with very little explanation or tutorial, something I personally value from game design.
The added weapons and charms and uniqueness of Ms. Chalice had me going back into the base game to see if I could improve my strategies, and finish those last few stages on expert mode. The newly designed weapons and charms mix perfectly into the core offering of Cuphead. With each configuration offering trade-offs, finding the right pairing depends on playstyle and the different situations the stages throw at you.
If you have heard of Cuphead you know what it looks like, and that’s a huge draw. The art style is unapologetically inspired by Fleischer Brothers and Walt Disney animation from the 1930s. It’s striking, beautiful and awe inspiring. Hand drawn, incredibly detailed, and animated flawlessly. The entire game gives the look and feel of watching an old-timey cartoon that you can actually control. This is what draws most people to the game, and some are then taken aback or unable to enjoy playing the game when they realize how challenging it can become. This is one of my gripes with the core game, extending to the Delicious Last Course. I would love for more people to be able to experience the artwork and music, unlike any other game, without simply watching videos on YouTube. I hope that at some point some accessibility options are added into Cuphead, allowing for crious gamers (like my 70 year old father) to experience the content on their own, albeit on an easier difficulty. Delicious Last Course does carry over the simple mode from the base game, and like the base game is unable to be completed on the easier difficulty. I understand the game being tuned to the difficulty and challenge of MDHR’s vision, a challenge that I appreciate and that keeps me coming back for more, but would love to see if they could add some assist mode type features so more people can experience the game at a level of challenge that is more tuned for the individual player.
The Final Word
If you didn’t like Cuphead when it first came out Delicious Last CourseI isn’t gonna change your mind. It’s both more of the same and also a whole new challenge to learn. The blending of challenging but fair gameplay and incredibly detailed artwork and style are unrivaled across the industry. I do hope that one day accessibility options are added, so more people can experience everything Cuphead has to offer, but on a personal level I do still love the challenge and difficulty. I hope The Delicious last Course isn’t the last we see for Cuphead content, I’d happily throw down at least $8 every few years for more new experiences in this style.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
