17. (tie) Cuphead (2019*)
- * released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019; original Xbox release in 2017
- Final score: 25 points
- Total placements: 2 lists
- Highest placement: #6, Bill
Schnei writes:
Such a unique piece of art. It’s uncanny how “old-school animation/music” gels with “old-school hard” to make a whole compelling game out of, at its core, a moderately short boss rush.
Bill writes:
I first picked up Cuphead under the impression that it was "what would happen if an indie studio tried to make a playable 1930's cartoon and also they decided to make it pretty tricky." By the time I got to the mad scientist pulling a dead-on Wiley Eybrow Wiggle, I finally came to understand it as "what if a game was made by an indie studio with an uncanny ability to see the leylines connecting 30's animation and early 2D gaming, and that vision told them that every player must be punished."
Casey writes:
There have been a number of 2D and 3D games since Cuphead that have tried to do what it does stylistically and looking at them side-by-side with the original is such a great example of the level of polish this game innately understands that it needs to hit in order to be more than a novelty. The hand-painted backgrounds, the effects that make it feel like it was fed through the camera lens one frame at a time… making a game that looks like Cuphead is more than slapping some Steamboat Willy-esque characters onto the screen and using some expired-copyright big band music. Cuphead knows this, and invites you in with its attention to detail and how it uses the framework of an action game filled with set piece boss fights to show off its team’s aesthetic skills. Then it slaps you in the face over and over and over again until you git gud.