Cuphead in "Mechanics Mishaps"

[Voodin im back]

With this game toting itself as a difficult boss rush game. I'd like to discuss the artificial difficulty posed by the games mechanics.

A. EX and Super moves
THEY ARENT INVINCIBLE ON RECOVERY. Using ex and super moves is a death sentence, there are little opportunities to use these without getting hit immediately after, this just leads to frustrating deaths because you cant defend yourself after spending your meter. The only super move that is safe is the atomic bomb in Shmup stages. Whether it be immediately plummeting into a pit, or landing right on top of an enemy or an invincible projectile rolling straight through it, super moves prove to be more of a headache than a useful option.

B. Health (and wellness)
Straight out of the coin-guzzler handbook, there are no health pickups or checkpoints whatsoever. While this makes for climactic boss battles, it just makes run & gun stages pure agony. You're mostly gonna kill yourself from falling into pits, bouncing out, and getting projectile'd

[socks]

Get gud

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by s0cks:

Get gud

Well structured comment, how constructive

[Tsuki Zero]

Yeah, the game has good aesthetics but a lot of design flaws. And a terrible community to boot. I'm inclined to believe it is overpriced by now...

And on B point: they could have added a point system to regain health if anything.

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

Yeah, the game has good aesthetics but a lot of design flaws. And a terrible community to boot. I'm inclined to believe it is overpriced by now...

And on B point: they could have added a point system to regain health if anything.

Yeah 20 bucks is a bit of a stretch.

They could've easily had a mario checkpoint that just gives you 1 health once you touch it, doesn't even need to save progress.

[Stationary Traveller]

The only part of artificial difficulty in the game is the high RNG of later bosses where you can have two or three sets of bullets/enemies at the same time on the screen that put together become very hard to avoid. The rest is pretty fair. Stages are short and need no checkpoints, and about EX/super moves, just wait until there's nothing on the screen so you can use them safely.

[Tsuki Zero]

Another way that I think a health regain could work is via filling the Super bar. Once you fill it, you gain one health. But the penalty for losing health would stay and the gain wouldn't count outside the level you are in.

[Camui Kushi]

If you could parry every projectile, but only the pink projectiles gave you a power meter boost, that'd be really great. It'd still be challenging but give you a chance for those moments when there's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ number of projectiles on screen.

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Moonmadness:

The only part of artificial difficulty in the game is the high RNG of later bosses where you can have two or three sets of bullets/enemies at the same time on the screen that put together become very hard to avoid. The rest is pretty fair. Stages are short and need no checkpoints, and about EX/super moves, just wait until there's nothing on the screen so you can use them safely.

In most bosses theres pretty much never "nothing" on the screen. Except for on shmup bosses.
I actually have a list of all bosses in which using a super will get you killed :

-Slot Machine phase of Ribby and Croaks
-All of Cagney Carnation
-All of Beppi the Clown (pretty much just land directly on top of the train/get hit with a horse shoe)
-Phase 2 of Grim Matchstick

Havent gotten to world 3 yet

[Ratgirl]

I think with the super moves they're designed in a way that you need to time them in order to not get hit, using them recklessly is a bad idea. Unless you're using the bomb form in the plane or the second super art then you should focus on where and when to use a super. They're also not going to work in every situation, so if one isn't working then it'd be a good idea to swap your weapons about to see if it'll work better.

While the platform stages are challenging, they're also short in nature, so generally it's best to try and play them safe. As you practice and improve, you can start taking risks and shortcuts. If there was health pickups, you could abuse the invincibility frames to just brute force your way through a level. And remember that there are some equippables that can help depending on the situation, such as the extra health or the smoke dash.

[Birmancat]

OP, you said it yourself it's a coin-guzzler... well, without coins. I'm really bummed that they did not went full arcade hardcore and have not inluded limited continues and stuff.

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Birm:

OP, you said it yourself it's a coin-guzzler... well, without coins. I'm really bummed that they did not went full arcade hardcore and have not inluded limited continues and stuff.

Well it only takes the unfairness of a coin-guzzler, but without the coin guzzling. And even in the worst coin guzzlers you have I frames after specials, like come on

[Marble]

I stuck with the invincibility Super. The other two don't do nearly enough damage to bother having. Also didn't bother with EX except against normal enemies sometimes.

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by Birm:

OP, you said it yourself it's a coin-guzzler... well, without coins. I'm really bummed that they did not went full arcade hardcore and have not inluded limited continues and stuff.

Play Metal Slug Advance and Metal Slug 1st/2nd Mission. See how a non-coin-guzzler can still be challenging, specially for 100%.

[Angry Luigi]

TL;DR Game is too hard so it should be cheaper. Like, what the actual ♥♥♥♥ are you on?

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by Angry Luigi:

TL;DR Game is too hard so it should be cheaper. Like, what the actual ♥♥♥♥ are you on?

It's not a matter of too hard...
It's unfair and unrewarding
A fair game provides recovery opportunities (like Dark Souls)
An unfair game tries to simply destroy you just like you destroyed all my faith in Cuphead community.