references

[KESHANTH]

a lot of the bosses arent made up from scratch. They are based on old cartoons.

the first reference is the werner wermin fight. His tank is from world war one and so is his hat.his tank is in the shaope of campabell soup,what soldiers ate in ww1.
The cat is tom,obviously, but many people think that the main boss is jerry.HE ISNT. He is a character from a show called looney tunes. His name is wile-e-cyote. Just wanted to get the message out there :)

[KESHANTH]

anyone got any more references?

[arejang]

He does look a little like wile e. coyote, but it's still a rat. I don't think it's jerry either, but I feel like it's probably something else. A lot of these bosses are pulled from multiple sources. For instance, the Root Pack's name seems to be pulled from the Rat Pack, a performance group in the 1950's, whereas their character designs look more like the three stooges.

Ribby and Croaks, look a lot like the Frog and Toad from the children's books, but they perform the taunts from Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, and indeed they're also wearing same colored pants they wore.

If you look them up on Youtube, you'll find a lot of these inspirations and cross-examinations with the source material. It's a pretty interesting watch.

[Moe Magi Maxima]

Grim Matchstick is basically a harder but more fair Robot Dragon from Megaman 2. Also, Kefka-Sally. Just...Kefka-Sally.

[KESHANTH]

edit : i realized i put shaope instead of shape. LoL

[Pom Pom 🍕]

He's more of a mix between Coyote and Mortimer Mouse. Visaully Mortimer and the ACME-craze of Coyote.

Also Ribby and Croaks are based a lot on Street Fighter 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Q2sFZtavU

[Koromaru]

I believe Dr. Kahls robot was based off The Iron Giant.

[RippoMadness]

Originally posted by arejang:

He does look a little like wile e. coyote, but it's still a rat. I don't think it's jerry either, but I feel like it's probably something else.

It's definitely a reference to Jerry. You know that WWI reference with the German helmet and the British flag in the upper-left background corner? Well, back during the war, Germans were given the nickname "Jerries" by the British. But the more interesting part is that the Germans had a nickname for the British as well. You know what it was: Tommies!

The entire Werman fight is a gigantic reference to Tom and Jerry.

[Koromaru]

Originally posted by RippoMadness:

Originally posted by arejang:

He does look a little like wile e. coyote, but it's still a rat. I don't think it's jerry either, but I feel like it's probably something else.

It's a reference to Jerry. You know that WWI reference? Well, back during the war, Germans were given the nickname "Jerries" by the British. But the more interesting part is that the Germans had a nickname for the British as well. You know what it was: Tommies!

The entire Werman fight is a gigantic reference to Tom and Jerry.

I just now noticed. Werner Werman is pronounced Verner Vermin in German.
Also the stage name is murine corps, clever.

[RippoMadness]

Originally posted by The Intelligent Rat:

Originally posted by RippoMadness:

It's a reference to Jerry. You know that WWI reference? Well, back during the war, Germans were given the nickname "Jerries" by the British. But the more interesting part is that the Germans had a nickname for the British as well. You know what it was: Tommies!

The entire Werman fight is a gigantic reference to Tom and Jerry.

I just now noticed. Werner Werman is pronounced Verner Vermin in German.
Also the stage name is murine corps, clever.

Clever indeed.

I've also looked up any possible meanings for "verner." Apparently it can mean "covered warrior," and Werner is alway hiding in something for most of the fight... huh.

[Koromaru]

Originally posted by RippoMadness:

Originally posted by The Intelligent Rat:

I just now noticed. Werner Werman is pronounced Verner Vermin in German.
Also the stage name is murine corps, clever.

Clever indeed.

I've also looked up any possible meanings for "verner." Apparently it can mean "covered warrior," and Werner is alway hiding in something for most of the fight... huh.

Even more clever!

[KESHANTH]

Originally posted by Pomikuza!:

He's more of a mix between Coyote and Mortimer Mouse. Visaully Mortimer and the ACME-craze of Coyote.

Also Ribby and Croaks are based a lot on Street Fighter 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Q2sFZtavU

wow thanks!

[NecroMaster]

King dice is based off of a singer named Cab Calloway.

[E3kHatena]

The ones I know off the top of my head:

-Cuphead being the more adventurous brother dressed in a warm color and Mugman the more cautious one in a cool color is a reference to Mario and Luigi's current characterization.

-The game features a ton of references to Grim Natwick, a Jewish-American animator from the 1930s. Grim Matchstick has his name and his trademark stutter, Cagney Carnation performs the hand shuffle gesture Natwick popularized in Fleischer animations, and the giant floating head in Inkwell Isle II that tells you how many times you died is based on his likeness.

-Goopy Le Grande is heavily based on Slimes from Dragon Quest.

-Cala Maria is named after 1) calamari, and 2) a beach in Spain, and seemed heavily based on a similar fight against a giant mermaid in the Shantae games.

-All Bets are Off, King Dice's boss fight, is a reference to the infamous RNG-based mission in Gunstar Heroes, and both stages contain a boss that is a disembodied face named after a fruit (Melonbread in Gunstar, Mangosteen in Cuphead).

-The achievement for beating the finale world is "Casino Night", a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog 2's fourth zone.

-Funfair Fever features a chorus seemingly ripped from Super Mario World's athletic theme, but it's worth mentioning that Super Mario World ripped that same verse from the Maple Leaf Rag, both a nod to the era of animation that inspired them but also to the games as well.

-The end of Murine Corps. has the cat's face falling off, revealing it to be a mecha piloted by Werner. If I recall, this is a reference to one of the Batman: The Animated Series games, in which Batman fights a massive, robotic cat that dies in a similar manner.

-Dr. Kahl is named after a Disney animator from the era, and is vaguely based after Dr. Wily from the Mega Man games. His final phase has him utilizing vividly colored gemstones, a reference to the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic the Hedgehog, and to the series' antagonist Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik.

-In the Devil's final phase, you chase his skeleton down a hole to fight a giant, extravagantly animated version of him. I cannot confirm it's a reference though it seems very similar to Satan/Mega Satan in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, where after fighting Satan in Sheol, you can unlock a room in the next world to fight a giant version of him with a lot more animation than any other boss fight in the game.

-In the overworld, Cuphead has white gloves and yellow shoes, in the victory screen he has brown shoes and yellow gloves, and during combat he has brown shoes and white gloves. This is a reference to early colorized Mickey Mouse shorts, where sometimes he was depicted as white or yellow gloves with no real significant reason. Even their animation errors are references!