“Cuphead” isn’t so much hard as it is different.
At least that’s Tyler Moldenhauer’s take on the game he helped create.
“We never aimed to make it super hard,” Moldenhauer told Variety in a recent interview. “It was just that we kind of wanted to keep the action intense and that was sort of the way that it came out.”
Moldenhauer sees the perceived difficulty of being more a byproduct of player habits.
“Honestly, I find that a lot of people, once you get used to it, once you sort of Grok the controls at that point it’s a lot smoother ceiling. It’s kind of unlearning a lot of things that modern games have taught people that they can just get away with.
“Once you unlearn those tricks and kind of get back into the game and have a good time.”
Moldenhauer thinks that Nintendo fans — who will be able to start playing the game on the Switch on April 18 — are particularly suited to handle the game’s unique brand of play.
“If they’re from back in the day they know what Nintendo hard is,” he said.
The fact that the once Xbox exclusive game is now coming to the Nintendo Switch is the result of a lot of internal discussions. Moldenhauer said it happened after Studio MDHR, Nintendo, and Microsoft “kind of came together.”
The Switch version of the game will bring with it possible Xbox Live integration to the Switch, much of which will be added in a post-release patch.
“We’re still trying to figure out what we can do,” he said.
The Switch game will run at 60 FPS and feature a bunch of new art, and new animation for some of the characters. Those art improvements, as well as support for nearly a dozen languages, will be added to Xbox and Windows PC as a free patch.
“Cuphead” arriving on the Nintendo Switch is just the latest sign of a game industry becoming more open with its titles. Where once platform holders like Microsoft, Nintendo, and PlayStation, fought over games coming exclusively to their gaming hardware, that seems to be loosening up a bit lately.
“It’s an exciting time,” he said. “A lot is changing. A lot is in flux. I think there’s going to be a lot of things coming up in the background. On the dev side, it’s really nice. It gives us a lot of options. It reminds me of back in 1995 when you originally had Sega and Nintendo and then you started having rumblings of Sony coming into the industry 3DO with Panasonic. We’ve just got a lot of extra, big players coming into the scene now.”
FAQs
“Cuphead” isn't so much hard as it is different. At least that's Tyler Moldenhauer's take on the game he helped create. “We never aimed to make it super hard,” Moldenhauer told Variety in a recent interview. “It was just that we kind of wanted to keep the action intense and that was sort of the way that it came out.”
Is Cuphead the hardest video game? ›
Cuphead Is Hardest Due To Its High Stakes Pace
While Dark Souls is notoriously difficult for good reasons, Cuphead has proved that true punishment comes not from enemy difficulty but defeat by the smallest mistakes.
Is Cuphead harder than Hollow Knight? ›
Hollow Knight is easy compared to Cuphead, with cuphead you're stuck on one boss until you can beat it and that's the only way to progress, but in hollow knight after you beat the boss in forgotten crossroads there's a lot of things to do, if you have trouble with the next boss you can come back to it later after you' ...
Are the creators of Cuphead making a new game? ›
The Studio MDHR surprised the industry with the passionate development story of Cuphead, their first video game, which ended up being a huge success, to the extent that it even has a cartoon on Netflix. After this phenomenon, its creators are already working on a new project.
How was Cuphead programmed? ›
The game was developed in the Unity engine, one of the most popular game engines for independent and AAA developers, where it featured a plethora of tools to help bring Studio MDHR's vision to life such as the Sprite Renderer and 2D physics.
Was Cuphead meant to be hard? ›
“Cuphead” isn't so much hard as it is different. At least that's Tyler Moldenhauer's take on the game he helped create. “We never aimed to make it super hard,” Moldenhauer told Variety in a recent interview. “It was just that we kind of wanted to keep the action intense and that was sort of the way that it came out.”
What's the hardest video game ever? ›
From a particularly infuriating tutorial level to the Souls games, these are our picks for 25 of the most challenging video games of all time.
- 1 of 25. 'Bloodborne' ...
- 2 of 25. 'Contra' ...
- 3 of 25. 'Cuphead' ...
- 4 of 25. 'Dark Souls' ...
- 5 of 25. 'Demon's Souls' ...
- 6 of 25. 'Dragon's Lair' ...
- 7 of 25. 'Driver' tutorial. ...
- 8 of 25. 'Dwarf Fortress'
Super Meat Boy is about on the same level as Cuphead. Maybe a little harder if you include everything.
Is super meat boy or Celeste harder? ›
Technically, the levels in Celeste get a lot crazier than the levels do in SMB. but that doesn't (to my estimation) make them actually feel harder, since Celeste offers you a wider range of movement options than SMB does, so things which wouldn't be navigable in SMB are in Celeste thanks to the extra movement tech.
Does chalice make Cuphead easier? ›
Chalice, that's fine, because the DLC also includes over-powered guns that significantly make the main quest easier (I beat it in under 100 lives, which is a marked improvement over the 713 I needed the first time).
Cuphead is Mugman's older twin brother and best friend. Like all brothers, Cuphead and Mugman often bicker over trivial things like ice cream or simply because they are not supposed to. Despite that, Mugman deeply cares for his brother.
Is Cuphead hand-drawn? ›
Reminiscent of the aesthetics of the 1930s and the Jazz Age, the game is noted for its animation and soundtrack: all in-game assets used hand-drawn animation with deliberate human imperfections, and the soundtrack was written for and recorded with a full jazz ensemble.
Why is Cuphead a cup? ›
When Chad randomly tried creating a character with a cup for a head, Jared said the initial design was "a lot skinnier and spindlier... but he had the cup for a head and the straw in it, and he just instantly felt like there's something right there that's going to work out."
How old is Mugman? ›
I'd say Cuphead is about 12 and Mugman 11. Same. I think they did the same with Chalice too, making her 12 alongside Cuphead. But in the game they're described as 'kidults' and are over 18.
How old is Chalice from Cuphead? ›
Cuphead and Mugman are adolescents so 10 to 19. Chalice on the other hand looks like the age of the cups, but in reality has existed since Ancient Greece.
What coding language did Cuphead use? ›
Some of the popular games developed with C# are Hearthstone, Stardew Valley, Cuphead, and Osiris: New Dawn. Unity, CryEngine, Godot, Microsoft XNA Game Studio, and Stride are some of the game engines and frameworks using C# coding language.
Is Cuphead too hard for kids? ›
It is a very hard game, but fun nonetheless. It takes lot of hard work and determination to complete it. There is a giant cigar that shoots fire, and mini cigarettes, and there is also two faces melting, but the rest is ok. It is a bit scary, but it will help get your kids focused.
What percentage of people have beaten Cuphead? ›
13.8% of all Cuphead owners on Steam have completed the game on normal.
What is the hardest fight in Cuphead? ›
1 The Delicious Last Course: Chef Saltbaker
This secret boss is perhaps the hardest challenge in all of Cuphead. The first phase in particular is extremely challenging and requires dodging projectiles from all sides.
