Cuphead Review and Why Its Hard Bosses Still Feel Fair

You have died to the same frog boss 14 times, the screen just flashed "KNOCKOUT!" in old-fashioned letters, and you are wondering whether the game is hard or simply unfair. That question decides whether Cuphead is a joy or a chore, and this Cuphead review is built around answering it.

I played the full base game on Regular, finished it with every soul contract, then went through The Delicious Last Course expansion. Total time was about 16 hours, a fair chunk of it spent on three bosses. Here is what holds up, what still frustrates and who should pick it up today.

Cuphead review at a glance

The art and music are the hook

Cuphead looks like a lost 1930s cartoon. Every frame was drawn by hand in the rubber hose style of early animation studios, then painted with watercolour backgrounds. A boss does not just switch phases. A flower grows teeth, a dragon spins into a new pose and a carnival turns into a nightmare in a sequence that feels like it was drawn just for you.

The soundtrack does the same work for your ears. It is full big band jazz and ragtime, recorded with live players, and it is one of the few game soundtracks I still play on its own. The music also helps your timing, since patterns often lock to the beat.

None of this would matter if the controls were loose. They are not.

Why the difficulty feels fair, mostly

Each boss is a pattern puzzle. Attacks have clear wind-ups, usually half a second or more, and the hitboxes match the art. When you die, it is almost always because you jumped too early or got greedy with a shot. You can see it, and that makes you want to try again.

Three design choices keep the frustration in check:

• The progress bar. After every death, a line shows how far through the fight you got. Seeing that you reached 85 percent turns a loss into a reason to retry.
• Fast restarts. You are back in the fight in about two seconds. No long walk back, no loading screen worth mentioning.
• Loadouts. Shot types such as the Spread or the homing Chaser, plus charms like the Smoke Bomb dash, let you change approach when one setup is not working.

Where it slips

A few fights rely on random attack orders, and some late bosses stack projectiles in a way that can feel more like luck than skill. King Dice in particular, with his mini-boss gauntlet before the real fight, is a test of patience more than reading patterns. Expect to lose an evening there.

Parrying is the skill that changes everything

Pink objects can be parried by jumping into them and pressing jump again. Each parry fills your super meter, and the super arts deal enormous damage. Early on, most players ignore parrying because it feels risky. By the midgame, it is the difference between a C grade and an A.

My advice: spend one session on the tutorial area practising parry timing until you can hit five in a row. It is the best ten minutes you will spend in the game.

The counter-take: co-op does not make it easier

A common suggestion for players who find Cuphead too hard is to bring a friend. It sounds logical, since two players means twice the damage. In practice, co-op often makes fights harder.

Boss health goes up in co-op, the screen gets twice as busy, and it is surprisingly easy to lose track of your own character in the chaos. When one player goes down, the other has to parry their ghost to revive them, which pulls attention away from dodging. Play co-op because it is great fun with the right partner, not because you hope it will carry you through a wall. If you are stuck, a solo run with a new loadout is usually the faster fix.

How it runs and plays on each platform

Cuphead is not demanding. It runs at a locked 60 frames per second on every platform I tried, including the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, and load times are short everywhere. The most important thing is your controller. A pad with a good d-pad helps a lot, because many players find precise eight-way aiming easier on a d-pad than on a stick. Keyboard works, but most players will prefer a controller.

Remap your buttons early. Putting dash and shoot on the shoulder buttons frees your thumb for jumping and parrying, and several players I know only got past the later bosses after making that change.

The Delicious Last Course

The 2022 expansion adds a new island, six new bosses and Ms. Chalice, a playable character with a double jump and a dash parry. She is noticeably easier to control and is a good option for players who struggled with the original. The new bosses are some of the best in the game, with even more inventive animation. If you liked the base game, the expansion is an easy recommendation at its price.

Who should play Cuphead today

If you enjoy games that reward learning, Cuphead is still one of the best examples around. Fans of Celeste and its kind approach to tough gameplay will feel at home, though Cuphead is less forgiving. If fast restarts and sharp timing appeal to you, the Katana Zero review covers another game built on that loop.

If you get frustrated quickly or want a relaxing evening, this is not that game. Simple mode exists, but it locks you out of the final stages, so you will have to beat bosses on Regular to see the end.

Verdict: Cuphead is hard in the best sense. Its art, music and tight controls make every attempt feel worthwhile, and the handful of unfair moments do not undo that. Score: 9 out of 10.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cuphead too hard for beginners?

It is tough, but beginners can finish it with patience. Expect several attempts per boss, sometimes 20 or more for the later ones. Playing as Ms. Chalice from the expansion makes things noticeably easier.

How long does it take to beat Cuphead?

Most players finish the base game in 10 to 12 hours, depending on how many retries each boss takes. The Delicious Last Course adds around 3 to 5 hours. Going for A+ or S grades on every boss can double that.

Can you play Cuphead online with friends?

No, co-op is local only, with both players on the same screen. On PC you can use remote play features to share a local session with a friend online, but there is no built-in online mode.