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Cuphead is going to be boss rush only? | Dev: There are platforming levels!
- Thread starter nkarafo
- Start date
Miles Quaritch
Member
Fell in love with it the first time I saw it. Will support for sure. It's nice to hear there are going to be platforming levels ala Contra. They can take their sweet time to get it right as long as they don't break their bank - and sink
Isn't MS funding the game now?
GhostTrick
Banned
Whenever this is boss rush or not, I don't care. I need this game. In fact, I'm happy they're working more on boss fights than levels.
Possumowner
Member
Yeah it's definitely NOT just boss fights as already stated.I await the PC release excitedly.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
They have been for years
Kent
Member
Love for boss fights in a thread about a game that's shown pretty much only boss fights in its released gameplay footage. Fancy that.
Games don't necessarily have to fall into some pre-defined pattern of level-boss-level-boss. In fact, many games don't - which is why I don't have a problem with the notion of there being a high concentration of boss fights in a game. Considering puzzle games, fighting games, and games like Punch-Out, I'd much rather have a game focused on great gameplay that the developers are genuinely impassioned about making, than arbitrarily having to space things out to fit a more traditional layout.
That is to say, if they love bosses, and can make great bosses, then let them make a game about bosses and it'll probably be a great game.
Nope.
I can't get into anything regarding specifics but Cuphead is owned and basically self funded by Studio MDHR.
You should see the mortgages!
Stairouais
Member
I don't know if that question's already been asked but is it playable with an arcade stick?
I never feel like anyone feels this way, sadly. I thought XBLA GH was fantastic, and really was an evolution towards making the game fresh and even better thought-out than it was before. The amount of tools they gave to let you customize the VS should be praised, and I think they went above and beyond the call for barely anything ported from the Saturn. But it doesn't get much talk anymore... which is a shame, to be sure.
It depends on how they're made. A boss battle can feel like the icing on a single cake, or like every desert in bakery, finely made by a master patisserie.
For example, I always felt like the boss battles in Megaman were the reward of a solid stage run. The stage is a way to gather resources, the boss is a way to spend them.
Compare that to something like Seven Force, or the Dice Palace in Gunstar Heroes. Because the bosses are the centerpieces, they get to go much deeper, per boss character, than the robot masters in a Megaman game. In many of Gunstar's boss battles, you could get new weapon power-ups or health between waves or forms. The resource gathering was RIGHT THERE in the battle, and I don't think it made the fights any worse because of it. And it surely didn't make the games less memorable.
I don't particularly find Robo Master boss rush in Megaman fun, because the bosses are defined by the stages beforehand, and the resource collection. Without this, they're very basic: they're made to have patterns that basically never change once you memorize them, and with the right weapon, many of them are basically cannon fodder.
But in Gunstar, the bosses can be used in a variety of roles, from Single screen momentary distractions, to huge muti-tiered set pieces that tell a story all on their own.
Cuphead here looks as if it aimed to use a "Boss Rush" in this style. A boss could range from a master and all his varied minions, 2 twins that work together, or one massive creature with enough power to challenge you alone. It's less like getting "Just icing", and more like getting a wide variety of cakes, pies, and ingredients, all mixed in different ways. Some upside down, some with the fruit cooked into the crust, some with outside icing, some with layers, and some with filling.
I appreciate how many people love all the stage-filled platformers that have come out in the past decade or so (N+, Super Meatboy, Dust Force, etc), but I find it kind of surprising such a style of gaming wouldn't also make people look forward to a game that focuses it's majority on boss battles. I feel like the amount of people that REALLY try to learn, replicate, and innovate on classic game boss design are much less than those who constantly show off their understanding of stage design.
Bosses used to be the graphical showpieces of games. They received the best animation, the only voicework, the largest color ranges... they were treated like kings.
Now many in 2D are animated in the poorest ways possible. Anything that fills a screen get's animated with cheaply animated bone animation. Anything smaller might just be a big version of a normal mook with an accessory. They often feel like a traditional standby, rather than a proud centerpiece. As much an afterthought as a high score board, or limited lives.
I just find it really hard to fathom that people can look at bosses made with the love-and-care of 1990's arcade masterpieces, and not see the difference in the attention to detail and quality. A 2D game with the love for these epic battles seen only in modern games like Shadow of the Colossus or the best of Metal Gear sounds great to me.
Honestly my interest dropped slightly when it was revealed it wasn't pure boss rush. I was hoping for some sort of follow-up to GOAT 2D action game Alien Soldier, and now it sounds like it won't really be that. Still the boss fights are apparently the main part of the game so I guess we'll see (Alien Soldier is technically about a 70/30 split between bosses and levels so it might work out about the same if the game was literally nothing but bosses before).
Magic Mushroom
Member
A round of applause for this post.
BriareosGAF
Member
Hello from a Call of Duty dev! Very excited to play this when it gets out the door. My wife and kids are super stoked, too, as well as my officemates, who are children's book illustrators and run their own design firm. Hope you make bank on it due to the broad aesthetic appeal and game design.
Sir Ilpalazzo
Member
Just reiterating what has been said many times in this thread - but check out games like Alien Soldier or Contra: Hard Corps. The boss-focused action game is a proven concept.
Mr. Smiley
Member
I'm glad some here have made the Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes comparisons. I was a bit iffy, but I loved those games and now I'm excited for Cuphead's formula.
I didn't know about it either. Much less interested now.
Well.... During Paris Games Week i tried Cuphead and was really disappointed.
I don't have anything against boss rush as i love Treasure which tends to do that (as mentionned by a lot of people) but those boss really bored me. They were difficult, yes, but have very few attack pattern, nothing seemed to change about them and they appear as the most annoying bullet sponge i have seen in a long while.
I think i managed to beat one but i didn't even felt particulary happy about that. I'm sure it's highly difficult to make a game with such visual and a lot of different attack (this is why having stuff like arms or leg made of different line of ball was highly efficient for Treasure on the Megadrive) but as it was the demo really worked against you.... Well, in my opinion of course. I hope it will get better.
I don't have anything against boss rush as i love Treasure which tends to do that (as mentionned by a lot of people) but those boss really bored me. They were difficult, yes, but have very few attack pattern, nothing seemed to change about them and they appear as the most annoying bullet sponge i have seen in a long while.
I think i managed to beat one but i didn't even felt particulary happy about that. I'm sure it's highly difficult to make a game with such visual and a lot of different attack (this is why having stuff like arms or leg made of different line of ball was highly efficient for Treasure on the Megadrive) but as it was the demo really worked against you.... Well, in my opinion of course. I hope it will get better.
for fucking real
to me the main draw of that game is the agile and powerful as hell player character, though. Cuphead doesn't seem to be going for that but the fact that there is a 2D boss rush game being made in this day and age makes me happy.
The title is a question and the post has been changed. It's all good. I Had the same doubt OP had. It's good to clarify things.
Magic Mushroom
Member
That's weird, because the ones I played at Gamescom had a lot of attack patterns and they changed in appareance as well, like the frogs turning into a slot machine for example.
And did you know about the machanical intricacies mentioned by the dev, like the EX meter and parries and such? It's a very clever game, but an expo is probably not the best way to experience it.
In my case I didn't have a 360 until I could get one for $99 that wouldn't red ring so I didn't have a chance to play GH HD until then. If they had released it on any other platform I would have played it a lot sooner.
Doug Heffernan
Member
Nope it's not just bosses. I'm pretty sure they started expanding the scope of the game after they got funding from Microsoft. Hopefully we hear more about it tomorrow when the press event embargo is up.
Totally yes, didn't saw any frogs turning into slot machine, only the carrot boss, the train, and the bee one. I think i beat the carrot boss but it didn't felt particulary great.
I don't know about parries and EX Meter though, you may be right.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
I'm a bit sad to hear that Cuphead is no longer primarily a boss rush game, along with the Fleischer-style it was my main source of hype for it.
Will be interesting to see how Cuphead approach the platformer sections - the only run'n'guns I've played that I thought did platform sections really well was the Turrican games and maybe Gunlord, which went for kinda more of a metroidish vibe.
Will be interesting to see how Cuphead approach the platformer sections - the only run'n'guns I've played that I thought did platform sections really well was the Turrican games and maybe Gunlord, which went for kinda more of a metroidish vibe.
Yeah, I love the idea that this game was (initially) a boss-rush game. How many games do we get like that anymore? It's disappointing to see so many people constantly complaining about the game, wanting it to be something it is not. Assuming it's a small dev group, this seems like a case where having to put in stuff for those who weren't really interested in the game to begin with will take away resources from the originally designed focus/content of the game, unlike larger studios where that might not happen.
Still excited about it and will be picking it up for sure, but threads like these that keep popping up are so frustrating to me. I can only imagine what the devs feel like. Hopefully it isn't too demotivating for them, because a lot of people really appreciate the original design goal.
Man that sounds soul destroying - no wonder devs end up making games more accessible if most of their time showing off a game is with them having to bite their tongues while smiling with their heads slightly bowed...
Surely the journalists that youve showed it to that have captured footage are at least competent enough to attempt to show off the mechanics?
ps3ud0 8)
There is still hope for a PS4 version
Probably not
you dont have a pc ?
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Is there like
ever gonna be a release date on this shit
I know its just two dudes but they've been working on it since 2010 >_>
ever gonna be a release date on this shit
I know its just two dudes but they've been working on it since 2010 >_>
You know the "two dudes" who are working on "this shit" are reading this thread.
Show some fucking respect?
Glad it's appreciated, even if only a bit!
Yeah, I know the feel. My PS4 is pretty much a SFV machine, heh heh. I'm glad the game was made, and it's not like it can't come back on PC, or even be a basis to some future releases... just like the Bleach DS games basically served as a backbone for it.
I think arcade gaming seriously taught me about loving Quality over Quantity. Sure those games had fewer stages, and could be beat in a sitting with enough quarters, but the experiences were often so good, it felt like a good tradeoff.
As many games as we have releasing now-a-days, I want more games that offer tight, great experiences that can shift and improve within an hour or 2's playtime. I'm surprised people don't seem to share in that, and want everything to be a 10+ hour uber-epic with leveling systems and loot up the wazoo. Why does EVERY game have to be made as if it's the last game you'll ever play?
The dev posted what he felt like right in here! Gotta love that about GAF. I love that they're sticking to their guns overall, and every interview or forum post sounds like they *get* it well, and aren't being manipulated too much.
GAF really is a place that helps me more consistently view developers as PEOPLE. Which is shocking to me, because often times the place seems to make forum-goers forget that, too.
That "insider" nature was the thing that drew me to the forums in the first place, so it always feels weird when topics come up that sound as ill-informed and lacking in understanding as old GameFAQs or Gametrailers (RIP) threads...
I'd love to think that journalist get just as effected when rubbing shoulders with creators, but I guess the sheer amount of games they see in a day makes many gloss over details, even in the midst of work.
thomasmahler
Member
The question is what the ratio will be between bosses and actual platforming.
I guess the issue is that they planned it as a 90% bosses kinda thing and then saw that people wanted more of a Metal Slug / Contra, so they started to accommodate.
Whatever it is, I'll be there Day1. Love the style and animations and just want to see it all
I guess the issue is that they planned it as a 90% bosses kinda thing and then saw that people wanted more of a Metal Slug / Contra, so they started to accommodate.
Whatever it is, I'll be there Day1. Love the style and animations and just want to see it all
thomasmahler
Member
Game Development is really hard, man. It's easy to make a nice little prototype - But that's like 10% of the work. Making an actually great, full game is a whole different challenge.
Diprosalic
Banned
flip flopped on the boss rush thing, really disliked it at first but now i'm cool with it.
My most anticipated indie game coming out.
A shame some research wasn't done before making this thread, as StudioMDHR had posted here last year on GAF saying that the game isn't just boss rush.
But I guess it worked out in the end since Teeth posted some nice extra info, awwwww yeah.
A shame some research wasn't done before making this thread, as StudioMDHR had posted here last year on GAF saying that the game isn't just boss rush.
But I guess it worked out in the end since Teeth posted some nice extra info, awwwww yeah.
Can you elaborate on why you feel that way? At the very least it would be helpful to developers to have actual concrete feedback. The game is still in development after all.
LightOfTruth
Member
Looks totally amazing, and pretty fun too. I'd definitely buy it if it was on PS4.
Lucky Xbone owners!
Lucky Xbone owners!
Magic Mushroom
Member
Yeah, especially since people want it to be a platformer, the likes of which we get dozens a year.
Not every genre is for me either, but I still appreciate that games are made for those audiences, especially more niche ones, as there is enough homogenization as it is. Gaming could do with more variety.
It really doesn't. It's responsive, fluid, fun, challenging and has way more depth to it than people think, as explained earlier in this thread.
The question is what the ratio will be between bosses and actual platforming.
I guess the issue is that they planned it as a 90% bosses kinda thing and then saw that people wanted more of a Metal Slug / Contra, so they started to accommodate.
Whatever it is, I'll be there Day1. Love the style and animations and just want to see it all
I just wanted to say, I loved Ori so much. The bash ability is one of my favourite platformer mechanics ever. I would just cruise from one side of the map to the other, bashing through things and wall jumping off of everything. I even collected all of the hidden stuff, which I never do normally.
Plus, the challenge gave me faith that people may come around on Cuphead's challenge level.
what is this bullshit
I think so, if only to avoid additional posters coming in going "Well, that's one less game on my list".
[ Disclaimer: I understand that Cuphead will include regular non-boss stages. ]
Is a focus on boss battles really so bad?
It all depends on how varied and deep the boss battles are. Shadow of the Colossus is 100% bosses and that is a great game. If you took the boss rush stage from DMC3 and packaged it as a standalone title, it would be short but really fun.
The comments about gameplay are more troubling. The game's visuals are totally unique, but an indie title can't stand on those alone. The gameplay has to be solid.
Is a focus on boss battles really so bad?
It all depends on how varied and deep the boss battles are. Shadow of the Colossus is 100% bosses and that is a great game. If you took the boss rush stage from DMC3 and packaged it as a standalone title, it would be short but really fun.
The comments about gameplay are more troubling. The game's visuals are totally unique, but an indie title can't stand on those alone. The gameplay has to be solid.