Same. I absolutely adore everything about the game artistically from the animation to the visual effects to the music. But it's tough as nails.
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I genuinely think that Cuphead is the best-looking game ever made
- Thread starter ScOULaris
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It neve4 gets old, always brings a smile to my face whenever I see it. Too bad shits too hard for my degrading gaming skills
Art direction and execution is flawless when compared to the design expectations. By that definition, it is perfect.
I don't know if it is the best looking, that's subjective. But holy shit, it's incredible.
I don't know if it is the best looking, that's subjective. But holy shit, it's incredible.
I still have to play it, but every gif certainly makes me understand the sentiment. We really need better terms to talk about the graphics in videogames. Technical terms are okay in some cases, but we need to better discuss how graphics serve and complete a game's package. Consistency, cohesion, fluidity, vision, timelessness. Things that leave a mark on the player beyond a list of acronyms and rendering styles.
Same.
I have been saying this for years.
I think we might be in the minority on this one though.
It's pretty much a playable cartoon, in terms of graphics, style, and animation. The only other games to do that (AFAIK, at least) are South Park: Stick of Truth and its sequel, but even then, those are way stylistically simpler that it still puts Cuphead in a whole other galaxy.
We used to say things like 'Super Mario World is amazing, it looks like you're playing a cartoon', but this is literally playing a cartoon.
Love it.
Love it.
It is a super valid response to that question op. Its been years since ive been awestruck by a videogame setpiece and that final battle did it for me.
The level of animation and care we were treated with was unreal.
The level of animation and care we were treated with was unreal.
I agree with you OP and I never even got further than the first boss of the second island
shout out to the original Day of the Tentacle and Curse of Monkey Island as other examples of amazing looking hand drawn games
shout out to the original Day of the Tentacle and Curse of Monkey Island as other examples of amazing looking hand drawn games
I can see that being the case for the bosses. The backgrounds for the side scrolling levels always looked completely static though. The character animations are probably the most impressive of any traditionally animated game.
I guess it depends on the boss too, like some backgrounds are mostly a still image but others have moving parts.
I guess it depends on the boss too, like some backgrounds are mostly a still image but others have moving parts.
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The best thing about the game for me is, somehow, after 100 hours with these bosses, I still have fun fighting them. I feel like there is just a lot of great science behind the design of the fights to have just the right amount of RNG, visuals, etc., to make it replayable. The DLC puts that into overdrive with an entirely new character.
As somebody who used to have a massive Fleisher cartoon collection, I adore the art style, designs and music of Cuphead. I bounced off the actual game pretty hard because I suck at it, but I sure do enjoy looking at it.
This reminds me of that thread where somebody said Arcane was the best-animated show ever and people wanted to disagree but not one person put up a strong (or any) argument to prove the point wrong. I agree by the way this could be considered the best-looking game of all time.
Yes those dual sense gimmicks will definitely improve how the game looks
I think industry-leading haptics and force-feedback triggers are more than just a "gimmick".
It looks amazing for sure. I still remember the Microsoft E3 conference years ago, where they showed it for like 2 seconds as part of an indie reel and immediately everyone was like "What the hell was that? I want to play it right now!" That's when you know you have a striking looking game.
I personally feel another game that should prob be considered a playable cartoon is wonder boy and the dragon's trap. It looks really good and I love its art style. Sure it's not as good as Cuphead in that regard but I still like it.
i simultaneously agree and disagree with you
i agree because i don't think i've ever seen any game that achieved the level of visuals this game has in all of gaming. i've heard the phrase "a living" or "an interactive" cartoon for decades now. particularly back in the early 00s when stuff like cel shading started becoming popular. i never agreed with that description, and most cel shaded games disappointed me greatly on that end. one of the problems was that the characters always seemed out of place in their world. i don't mean the environments didn't match the character art style or anything, but rather, the characters always seemed obviously like they were superimposed on top their environments. they never felt naturally a part of them. they never felt organic. even what i consider probably the best looking cel shaded game, zelda: wind waker, did not fully achieve that result, as tremendously impressed as i still wound up being at the time.
cuphead however, succeeded where all other previous games failed. everything about the game's visuals feels completely organic. the character blend in PERFECTLY (or as perfectly as any game developer thus far can get) with their backgrounds and environments. this is a game that legitimately feels like it's earned the right to call itself an interactive cartoon. i always figured such a thing wasn't possible, otherwise i assumed we'd have dozens of games that could do something similar by now. i have no idea what graphical sorcery these guys did but musta been a tremendous undertaking.
all that being said, i disagree with the statement, only for personal reasons, that being that i never actually liked that 30s silent era betty boop/steamboat mickey style animation. the only exception was the early max fleishcer popeye cartoons and that was only cause i liked popeye specifically, not the animation style.
i agree because i don't think i've ever seen any game that achieved the level of visuals this game has in all of gaming. i've heard the phrase "a living" or "an interactive" cartoon for decades now. particularly back in the early 00s when stuff like cel shading started becoming popular. i never agreed with that description, and most cel shaded games disappointed me greatly on that end. one of the problems was that the characters always seemed out of place in their world. i don't mean the environments didn't match the character art style or anything, but rather, the characters always seemed obviously like they were superimposed on top their environments. they never felt naturally a part of them. they never felt organic. even what i consider probably the best looking cel shaded game, zelda: wind waker, did not fully achieve that result, as tremendously impressed as i still wound up being at the time.
cuphead however, succeeded where all other previous games failed. everything about the game's visuals feels completely organic. the character blend in PERFECTLY (or as perfectly as any game developer thus far can get) with their backgrounds and environments. this is a game that legitimately feels like it's earned the right to call itself an interactive cartoon. i always figured such a thing wasn't possible, otherwise i assumed we'd have dozens of games that could do something similar by now. i have no idea what graphical sorcery these guys did but musta been a tremendous undertaking.
all that being said, i disagree with the statement, only for personal reasons, that being that i never actually liked that 30s silent era betty boop/steamboat mickey style animation. the only exception was the early max fleishcer popeye cartoons and that was only cause i liked popeye specifically, not the animation style.
Cuphead is going to age extremely well as it just nails it's art direction. It's unlikely something is going to come along and do what cuphead is trying to evoke far, far better, as it's just that close to what it's trying to do. That's rarely the case with games pushing for realism, the stuff that blew my socks off 15 years ago has been improved upon today.
This is obviously something that's subjective as all hell, but if you're going to pick a single game, may as well be this one for obvious reasons.
It's beautiful, but I didn't get to see much of it because it's far too hard to me.
I can bang my head against the wall and get through challenging titles, FROM games, I got the the end of Super Meatboy, Trials HD. But Cuphead was just far too difficult for me. And I don't even blame age, I don't think I would have ever got anywhere at any age.
I can bang my head against the wall and get through challenging titles, FROM games, I got the the end of Super Meatboy, Trials HD. But Cuphead was just far too difficult for me. And I don't even blame age, I don't think I would have ever got anywhere at any age.
Agreed, I absolutely adore this game.I personally feel another game that should prob be considered a playable cartoon is wonder boy and the dragon's trap. It looks really good and I love its art style. Sure it's not as good as Cuphead in that regard but I still like it.
I can respect your opinion but I do think you're wrong. Cuphead is magnificent visually, there is no denying that, and the team deserves an immense amount of credit for what they were able to accomplish.
But the reason why I don't think it's the best looking video game ever made is because it doesn't look like a video game at all. It's emulating a style rather than creating it.
The most beautiful video games to me are the games that were born out of being video games, leading to a new direction in art form. Some off the cuff examples are Super Mario Bros. 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, or Street Fighter 2. These games made what they are and can't really be replicated in other media properly, and if they were emulated properly it would probably be seen as just as big of an achievement as Cuphead. Whereas Cuphead is just emulating what it wants to emulate extremely well.
But the reason why I don't think it's the best looking video game ever made is because it doesn't look like a video game at all. It's emulating a style rather than creating it.
The most beautiful video games to me are the games that were born out of being video games, leading to a new direction in art form. Some off the cuff examples are Super Mario Bros. 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, or Street Fighter 2. These games made what they are and can't really be replicated in other media properly, and if they were emulated properly it would probably be seen as just as big of an achievement as Cuphead. Whereas Cuphead is just emulating what it wants to emulate extremely well.
That would then mean that this statement is also true, "the best looking game ever made is on Nintendo Switch."
There's precisely nothing wrong with that statement.
I think another poster described it as Cuphead being a game that most closely meets it's 'artistic inspiration', which is Fleischer animation.
I cannot think of a many other games in the vein of the many that aim for photorealism (as well as stylised versions of the same), comic book aesthetic, manga and other inspirations that gets as close to it's inspiration as Cuphead does.
I doubt we'll see it because this style is incredibly long and expensive to make but a comic book version using similar hand drawn techniques would also shine.
The poster above also mentioning Yoshi's Crafted world is in the vein of what I've mentioned here too.
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It's definitely a gorgeous game, and in terms of execution of an artistic vision it might well be one of if not the best.
Though I don't know if I'd call it my personal favorite, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the artstyle. My personal pick for best looking game would be Okami
Though I don't know if I'd call it my personal favorite, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the artstyle. My personal pick for best looking game would be Okami
Since hopping back into the game after hearing about the release of the DLC my way of getting back into the game (and chalking off a few mid-game bosses since returning) was to just go onto YouTube search the name of the boss I'm struggling with and do as the video says.
Whilst you get some important hints about how to handle individual attacks it doesn't equate to an 'easy win'. The challenge is still there, just a bit more streamlined because you stop trying to do the wrong things and instead apply the most effective tactics available.
Not sure about best, but it's definitely up there and I'm sure the game will age like fine wine.
One huge advantage Cuphead has is that it's timeless. Because of the sheer amount of effort they put into their old as fuck, pain in the ass animation style, it's always going to look incredible regardless of when you play it.
Games focused on realistic graphics are always going to get to the point where they look dated.
Games focused on realistic graphics are always going to get to the point where they look dated.
This is a very narrow view of video games. Whatever art form that can be portrayed by VIDEO belongs to video games. Pixel art wasn't even born from video games and the first video games weren't pixel art. We don't have these purist arguments in favor of VECTOR GRAPHICS or whatever, and we shouldn't for pixel art. We had games like Dragon's Lair way before Super Mario 3, Sonic, or SFII.
I'm saying this as a boomer whose favorite era of games was the 16-bit era.
Better yet, it has 80s-90s anime artstyle (i'm thinking Cowboy Bebop or City Hunter)
Yeah, I love the style and just how damn good the game looks. I think I vacillate between Cuphead and the Ori games being the game I find "most beautiful," though.
Reminds me when they showed off No More Heroes 3 for the first time I was sooo excited because I thought that 90s cartoon style was the game and not just some intro or something.
View: https://youtu.be/g2nPg42xsXg?t=23
it's just gotta be doable to make a game look like this style now, right? I remember watching this announcement and just being so into what I was watching, but then noping out when I saw it was No More Heroes, lol.
Reminds me when they showed off No More Heroes 3 for the first time I was sooo excited because I thought that 90s cartoon style was the game and not just some intro or something.
View: https://youtu.be/g2nPg42xsXg?t=23
it's just gotta be doable to make a game look like this style now, right? I remember watching this announcement and just being so into what I was watching, but then noping out when I saw it was No More Heroes, lol.
