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A hypothetical Cuphead 2 - What artstyle/era should it emulate?

The exact same one, because it's awesome and unique. If there was to be a sequel the focus should be on making a bigger and better game, not changing the art. Just like Moon Studios are doing with Ori 2.
 
I'd love to see some 80s cartoon style like Thundercats, Heman or Transformers. There would be so much awesome opportunities for trashy bossfights with flashy animations
 
At the end of the day, so many suggestions in this thread are likely unfeasible for MDHR simply because they've had to spend many years figuring out the best way to revive Fleischer-style cel animation for a game based on bosses which inherently limit the amount of new animations and background assets to make. I hope the game does well enough for them to try something just as ambitious, but it's a tall order considering they had to drastically gamble their livelihood on this release. I hope for a sequel which plays well and builds a lot on what's been established. MDHR's not the sole developer which, in the future, could take a difficult yet beloved animation style and make a great game like this from that.

That factory of horrors? Please, god no.

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Poor choice of image. That really looks like Hugh Newtron at the right, holding a Howdy Doody-esque puppet which of course looks bad. That said, I don't need or want an early CGI TV show style. Something closer to mid-1990s game CGs, like CookTrain mentioned, would be funnier and more interesting.

Also, that's one hell of a troll OP. Not even an explanation why MDHR should go for "'80s anime" beyond the sake of it? They might have the skill to do it justice, but it'd be a lot of time spent on something which isn't as unique as what Cuphead offers, and which they probably don't want to do either.
 
An 80's anime-inspired game with Cuphead-level attention to process and detail would be amazing, so I mocked one up using bits and pieces from various anime:


Credits to the sources used:
Character: Bubblegum Crisis
Background: Akira
Missiles/Explosions: Macross
UX/HUD: Neon Genesis Evangelion
 
I was originally going to say "Ew, keep anime away from Cuphead!", but after seeing so many people already taking that position, I'm going to have to take hard-line stance in the opposite direction: if Cuphead 2 isn't anime, I'm boycotting it.





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Came to post this. Well done.
 
MS not owning Studio MHDR is a big mistake! I hope Phil Spencer announces at E3 - 'Studio MHDR is now part of XBox Studios family', mic drop.
 
Cuphead 2 doesn't need to move away completely from the 1930s style, but nor do we need another whole game of nothing but that.

Some Chuck Jones 1950s era stuff would be cool and so would anime even, but maybe classic Osamu Tezuka style stuff, I don't know if 1980s would make sense.
 
You couldn't have just made a new thread rather than bump a two year old one regarding art styles?
It's a bad rumor only speculating with no good fundamentals. No need for a new thread imo.

Not all the news/updates/rumors needs new threads.
 
If they were to create a sequel, I would hope it would stick to the same art style.

I actually don't think it needs a follow-up though. I'd love to see Studio MDHR tackle something new.

Keep the same style but Switch up the gameplay.

You could have a more adventure feel to it or a light RPG style

Spruce up the interactive map and have more places you can visit and more challenges.

I hope they don't go for another boss rush game. I loved it but it would be a mistake to try the same thing again.
More animated cutscenes would be nice. No need for voice acting though.

More retro styles of gameplay. You could do a racing outrun style game, a vertical shmup etc

The game is crying out for carnival like Minigames for a bonus item like you would have seen in a lot of 2D games.

Just expand on what you have and you should be fine. No doubt they're working on this already.
 
A time travel theme that emulates everything from 50s Chuck Jones to 90s Disney and 00s Cartoon Network (and 70s anime) could be an interesting shake-up. But keep the mains based in the 30s style.
 
This thread is weird. They will not do any other style if they ever plan a sequel. They already said how the classic cartoon era influenced them.
 
The "classic cartoon era" is a pretty broad period of time, from about the 1920s to the 1960s.

No, Wikipedia has so much misinformation its baffling. Read any animation history book (mostly by Jerry Beck), the golden age is usually described as the 1930-1950's. TV basically killed the theatrical cartoons that were the best the industry could do at the time, so the TV era is cited as a Dark Age, ending in late 80's when creator driven cartoons started to boom.
 
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No, Wikipedia has so much misinformation its baffling. Read any animation history book (mostly by Jerry Beck), the golden age is usually described as the 1930-1950's. TV basically killed the theatrical cartoons that were the best the industry could do at the time, so the TV era is cited as a Dark Age, ending in late 80's when creative driven cartoons started to boom.

That still leaves the 40s and 50s, it doesn't have to all be 1930s again.

A sequel should definitely mix it up with different eras, we don't need all 1930s for a whole new game again.
 
That still leaves the 40s and 50s, it doesn't have to all be 1930s again.

A sequel should definitely mix it up with different eras, we don't need all 1930s for a whole new game again.

1940's are still pretty similar in aesthetics as the 30's, the main difference is the acting/expressions. And a game like Cuphead is highly unlikely to focus on that as its an action game.
 
The biggest style shift would be if Cuphead took the UPA style of the 1950s-60's. But again, this is never gonna happen.
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It's Sailor Jupiter....

Id sacrifice the literal existence of Cupheads art style and all the toons that inspired it for a good Sailor Moon game

I normally make fun of people that over defend anime, but the sheer vile for (80s at that? !) Anime is absurd. Every decade has had wildly different animes and the looks and aesthetics are always changing too. There are 0 80s aesthetic anime games unless you count DBZ or Jojo.

Modern moe is as far removed from stuff like Sailor Moon or Evangelion that it's stupid to lump them together
Girl in first post isn't Mskoto Kino / Sailor Jupiter.

It's Rumi Natsumi from Call Me Tonight.
 
It's a bad rumor only speculating with no good fundamentals. No need for a new thread imo.

Not all the news/updates/rumors needs new threads.
It still sounds like a rumor that has some credibility (otherwise I'd doubt you'd post it.) which also regards cuphead in general getting a sequel, that alone deserves its own thread as a rumor thread imo. This thread is less about an actual sequel and more of what art style should a potential sequel be.

It likely would've gained more traction and now there's people quoting posts that date back to 2017. Just seems like an unnecessary necro-bump.
 
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