The Scrumptious Final Course’ evaluation: an actual high-class bout

Cuphead: The Scrumptious Final Course pulls no punches, but it surely’s not all ache and porcelain. Earlier than you may press begin on this nightmarishly tough run-and-gun platformer you’re welcome with a handy guide a rough showtune that leaves your jaw on the ground and your foot tapping alongside. Take pleasure in it when you can: it’d take awhile to wring this earworm out of your mind, but it surely’s the final enjoyable second you’re getting for awhile.

In developer Studio MDHR‘s first enlargement, brothers Cuphead and Mughman are on a quest to revive Ms. Chalice to her mortal, ceramic kind. Ms. Chalice isn’t only a damsel in misery: in The Scrumptious Final Course she’s a playable character with a robust moveset, which affords a saving grace to anybody who (understandably) discovered Cuphead too tough.

Although Ms. Chalice lets gamers equip any of the weapons they’ve already discovered within the sport, she additionally has a built-in double soar and a dodge roll, which offers an expensive body of invincibility. Enjoying Ms. Chalice is in no way necessary – you might want to equip a attraction to let her take management – so masochistic gamers received’t lose the problem they crave. As an alternative, Ms. Chalice affords an exquisite center floor for gamers who discover Cuphead‘s Common mode slightly too robust however discover dropping right down to Easy mode an extreme treatment.

Apart from Ms. Chalice, The Scrumptious Final Course additionally brings a number of new weapons and charms courtesy of Cuphead’s long-time business-pig Porkrind. One in all these weapons –  Crackshot – shortly turned a private favorite resulting from every shot’s means to interrupt off right into a barely weaker homing bullet, which lets you give attention to dodging with out shedding an excessive amount of injury output. By way of charms, a brand new one that permits gamers to regain well being from parries is that this enlargement’s largest draw, however sadly enjoying as Ms. Chalice counts as utilizing up a attraction slot – so these trying to play as Cuphead‘s latest character doubtless received’t get to strive it. It’s a disgrace that The Scrumptious Final Course too many additional weapons and charms, however these which were added are all nice additions.

With The Scrumptious Final Course, even seasoned Cuphead regulars might discover themselves giving in to Ms. Chalice’s attraction. Studio MDHR has approached this DLC with sadistic glee, and The Scrumptious Final Course‘s garishly evil solid of bosses put a few of the base sport’s third act villains to disgrace. Not even months of Elden Ring can put together those that have spent 2022 in search of a problem: having restricted well being means The Scrumptious Final Course‘s boss fights are much less forgiving than the misshapen monstrosities FromSoftware threw at players in February, and it could actually take for much longer to study a battle’s patterns as there’s usually a lot occurring without delay. In a single explicit battle – an outlaw cow whose phases see her slowly reworked right into a tin of sausages – you is perhaps fast to recognise when she’s about to fireside her double-shot from the hip, however are you able to do this whereas a dastardly chicken is raining down TNT and the wind is blowing the photographs you simply dodged again for an additional spherical?

Consequently, every battle can take time, tears and persistence to grasp. Typically making an attempt to beat a very difficult enemy (such because the DLC’s nightmarish fruit-flinging last boss) can really feel such as you’re operating headfirst right into a brick wall, however these repeated frustrations by no means really feel unfair: subsequent time you’ll realize it’s in your finest curiosity to duck when the Geese Crossing signal is raised. The Scrumptious Final Course manages to seize precisely what makes Cuphead so charming – at first each boss seems insurmountable, which makes lastly seeing “knockout!” ring throughout the display really feel unparalleled.

Nonetheless, Cuphead‘s phenomenal artwork type implies that you’ll nearly be unhappy to see the again of every foe. It could have been 5 years since Studio MDHR flexed its illustrative muscle mass with Cuphead, however The Scrumptious Final Course proves the workforce’s mastery of hand-drawn attraction hasn’t gone wherever. Whereas a mountaintop battle in opposition to Glumstone The Large closely evokes Disney’s unique 1937 Snow White movie (with added abdomen ulcers), Studio MDHR not too long ago advised NME that some “magic of the later Disney years” has crept into The Scrumptious Final Course, and that’s true. The sport’s spectacular finale may begin off like a bullet hell re-imagining of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, however in later phases it slips into the ’90s of Magnificence And The Beast if you begin keeping off animated pepper shakers. Whereas merely matching the fantastic thing about Cuphead‘s artwork type would have been an imposing process in its personal proper, Studio MDHR has managed to go a step additional and sprinkle some additional flavour in to maintain issues trying contemporary.

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In complete, it took round 11 hours to finish The Scrumptious Final Course, however the brand new content material doesn’t cease on the credit. Gathering each ingredient in Common issue affords an optionally available Skilled mode for followers to sort out, although the soar in issue isn’t as steep because it sounds. Skilled mode works the identical method it does within the base sport, with small tweaks to make these you’ve already bested pack some further punch. This implies quicker assaults and extra projectiles to dodge, in addition to additional well being to whittle down to attain a knockout.

All of it sounds very intimidating however even for gamers new to Cuphead, it’s value giving a shot – by the point you get to this stage you’ll already have gotten to grips with most enemies’ preventing patterns, which suggests the upper depth isn’t as daunting because it seems. Irrespective of which issue you sort out Cuphead, one factor is assured: The Scrumptious Final Course is a superb slam after which some.

Cuphead – The Scrumptious Final Course launches on June 30 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, Nintendo Change and PC. NME examined it on PC.