Despite what the title suggests, Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is so much more than an elegant custard or fruit pie to complete the gourmet food that was the original game. This is an expansion that certainly favors quality over quantity, which mainly consists of just six main boss fights, but there are six amazing boss fights, each of which stands out as some of the most fun, challenging and visually stunning so far. To sweeten the pot are several new weapons, new charms that add subtle new approaches to fighting bosses, some tempting secrets with a valuable reward, and a whole new character to Ms. Chalice, who comes up with several skills that take some of the advantage. The intense difficulty of Cuphead without feeling directly like an “easy mode”. My first game ended in a few hours, but those were hours I would consider essential for any Cuphead fan.
The Delicious Last Course consists of converting Mrs. Chalice, a character who appeared in the main game only as a spirit that grants super moves, a real person alive and breathing. To this end, Cuphead and his friend Mugman head to a new island where they are told that Chef Saltbaker, the country’s greatest chef, is able to create a Wondertart that can grant a body to Mrs. Chalice permanently. The problem, of course, is that they have to collect their ingredients by defeating the powerful enemies that guard them. The story is obviously not the reason anyone is here, but it is nonetheless charmingly told with fast-paced scenes and more of the exceptional art that fans expect.
… Some of the most spectacular 2D action platforming bosses I’ve ever faced.
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So the stage is set for another round of some of the most spectacular 2D action platforming bosses I’ve ever faced. The content of The Delicious Last Course is accessible almost from the start of a new game, just after cleaning the first mausoleum and meeting Mrs. Chalice for the first time, but if you’re new or rusty, you’re sure to want to get your feet wet with other enemies first, as the six bosses in this DLC don’t punch. The first makes you fight with projectiles in the air, spikes on the ground that force you to keep moving, changing platforms that put you in danger if you get up at the wrong time, little gnomes coming out of the ground to shoot. you have more projectiles, and more gnomes that appear on the platforms and will hammer you if you stay too long. And this is only the first phase.
Screenshots of the Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course
While the mechanical difficulty of The Delicious Last Course bosses is increased, Studio MDHR is not without mercy. Of course, there’s still an easier difficulty, but there are also a number of new charms and weapons that help tip the scales backwards in your favor, including one that allows you to play as Ms. Chalice. When you play as Ms. Chalice, you can’t equip any other charm, but it comes naturally equipped with a double jump, a dodge that you can use while on the ground to overcome obstacles, an overwhelming stop that does a lot. easier to stop objects that reach you directly, and most importantly, four HP instead of the standard three.
Some may look at it and think “oh, so it’s basically a very easy mode,” but that’s not entirely correct. Mrs. Chalice also has a much worse single jump than Cuphead, so she has to use her double jump to overcome certain obstacles that Cuphead could easily overcome; its script stop is ideal for objects coming straight at it, but it is more difficult to use than the traditional double jump stop in some situations; and she can’t equip any of the other powerful charms available, like my new personal favorite, the Heart Ring, which rewards you with HP on your first, third, and sixth stops, essentially giving you the chance to duplicate your HP if you can successfully stop a boss’s attacks. Another powerful one is the charm of coffee, which passively fills your super counter along with all the normal ways to build it, which means you have access to your super moves much more regularly.
As for the new weapons, I’m a big fan of the homing weapon called Crackshot, which can be fired without worrying too much about aiming and has a special EX move that drops a turret, which can then be stopped and throw yourself at an enemy for great damage. Another great novelty is the Converge feature, which shoots three full-screen projectiles in a wide diffusion, and this propagation can be restricted by holding down the target button. It’s a great weapon for quickly eliminating small weak enemies that a boss generates, making it a perfect combination for my usual weapon, the shotgun.
To get the coins needed to afford these new weapons and charms, The Delicious Last Course introduces a replacement for the main game’s race levels and guns in the form of a series of minicaps led by the King of Games. At the beginning of the DLC, you’ll be able to climb a ladder to reach the Castle of the King of Games (which is a fully hand-sculpted stop motion model, by the way) and from there you’ll be able to challenge yourself. their champions. The problem is that each of these chess-themed minicaps fights is not won with your weapons or charms, but is completely won with your stopping technique. One fight requires stopping all the tops of an army of pawns, while another requires you to extinguish a pile of candles in order to damage your head with a stop. They’re all smart fights, and tackling them is a fun change of pace and a unique challenge, especially when you’re trying glove mode and trying to beat them all in one lifetime. But more than anything, it’s certainly a step beyond execution levels and weapons when it comes to earning the money needed to buy new equipment.
Everything else in The Delicious Last Course is what you would expect from Cuphead, but to an even greater degree. Maja Moldenhauer of Studio MDHR has stated that the number of animation frames in this DLC alone is comparable to the whole basic game, which seemed crazy to even think about before playing, but now that I have it, it’s not hard to believe. Each phase of each boss in The Delicious Last Course completely transforms the battle. You’ll go from fighting an ice wizard to a diabolical fridge to an upset snowflake throughout a fight, with each phase with between three and seven unique attacks, and each attack is so absurdly full of detail that I did it. . I didn’t even notice most of the smaller fragments until I recorded and looked at my footage. This includes things like the way these gnomes climb the mountain slope and climb under the skin, the way the background changes subtly during each phase of the sheriff Winchester fight, or the way the said upset snowflake literally twists his own body to take his eye out for one of his attacks.
Each attack is exceptionally well telegraphed
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The magic of Cuphead’s head design, and one thing all the bosses in this DLC exemplify, is that while it throws you a lot of stuff, it’s usually pretty easy to avoid if you know it will come. Each attack is exceptionally well telegraphed, the patterns are easily recognizable, and the visual language is always simple and clear. So even if you were expected to do something that isn’t normally very intuitive, like stopping a pink bell to shut the mouth of an acid floating cow skull to create a platform, it’s something I can understand quickly because I had already been taught to stop pink objects before now. The Delicious Last Course skillfully nails the hard-to-reach balance of being tough but fair, and saves the really hard stuff for expert mode, which poses a very valuable challenge for die-hard fans once the main campaign is over. And for those who want even more challenges, there’s something for you too, but I wouldn’t want to spoil what it is or how to get it.