Cupheadwas a breath of fresh air when it was released in 2017. Rather than going for a pixel art aesthetic like the majority of indie games do, Cupheadwent for a 1920’s cartoon art style, mimicking Disney cartoons of old with the exaggerated facial expressions and onomatopoeia you come to expect from such a style.Â
Each environment in the game is just as fun to look at as it is to play through. Backgrounds are impressively detailed, enemies are expressive, and the bosses tell a story as you are making your way through each phase of the battle. Because the bosses are so exceptional, here is a look at 10 of the best, ranked from worst to the best.Â
10 Cala Maria
Cala Maria is a mermaid/medusa creature who wears an octopus on her head which is supposed to represent the snakes from the original greek myth of medusa. She shoots various things from the sea at you like blowfish and sea horses that shoot streams of water at you. In her second stage, electric eels surround her and shoot projectiles at you while she begins to use her gaze that turns you into stone. By the third form, her head detaches from her body and you fight her in a narrow cave before finally beating her.
9 Hilda Berg
Hila Berg is the very first boss you fight in the shoot ‘em up style. She is a plane with a woman’s face on it who keeps herself elevated by riding a unicycle which acts as her motor. She turns into a few different forms at random such as a bull, a cherub, and more which act as her second stage. In Hilda Berg’s final stage, she turns into a large mechanical moon that juts it face out as an attack while stars fly by and UFOs beam lights down at your ship before she falls for good.
8 Djimmi The Great
Djimmi The Great is a genie who smokes a pipe while his face detaches and shoots towards you. He has a magic carpet that holds a chest, within this chest a few different things come out at random: there are daggers, jewels, and more. After this, you must navigate through tight corridors before being met with a sarcophagus that shoots out eyes ghosts wrapped in bandages. Then a marionette doll dances across the screen while Djimmi The Great’s hat attempts to hit you. Finally, Djimmi The Great’s face takes up half of the screen, and eyes of Osiris float around you - after defeating this you have earned the bounty for Djimmi The Great.Â
7 Werner Werman
The fight with Werner Werman tells a story as you are battling him. You start off fighting Werner who is a war-torn rat who sits in a soup can. As he is shooting projectiles at you, you can see large eyes appear from the outside of the wall you seem to be battling in. You take out Werner’s soup can which also destroys a large part of the box where you can finally see that it is a cat who has been looking in on your fight. The cat bursts in and eats Werner and you must then fight the cat. After taking down the cat it is revealed that Werner was controlling the feline all along.Â
6 King Dice
King Dice is easily the most annoying fights in the entire game - not hard, just annoying. You must roll a dice that will land on either a boss, a safe spot, or a position that makes you start from the beginning which is located right beside the final slot. The annoying part comes from having to restart King Dice many times before you finally roll correctly.Â
There are many different bosses on this stage, the one you fight is dependent on where the dice lands. All of the bosses are casino based so you will be fighting things like poker chips, whiskey margaritas, cocktails, and cigars.Â
5 The Devil
The Devil ranks so low as he is much easier than some of the bosses that lead up to him and feels like a bit of a letdown. Another disappointing thing about the Devil fight is that he has very few transformations that don’t vary wildly from one to the next like many other bosses in the game.Â
In the first half of the fight, the Devil is simply sitting in a throne while his minions come from either side of you. You then travel deeper into hell where you find his head taking up a good part of the screen. You must dodge all of the odd things shooting out of his face as well as contend with the chubby purple demons firing at you. He then starts crying before you finally finish him off and complete the game.Â
4 Sally Stageplay
Sally Stageplay is a theatrical performance mixed with an entertaining boss battle. The battle starts off at Sally's wedding while her husband freaks out in the background as his wife-to-be throws projectiles at you. The now wedded couple head off in a car and the scene shifts to their first home together as their newborn baby throws bottles out the window. You then "kill" Sally while her husband cries in the background. She descends from heaven as an angelic force which you then also take out. She comes back for an encore while the crowd cheers for her before she finally goes down for the count. Â
3 Phantom Express
Phantom Express is the battle directly before taking on King Dice. The battle starts off with fighting a ghost that is coming out of the back of a train and shooting eyeballs at you. You then make your way to the center of the train where a large skeleton is bursting out of the train with a head coming out of one trailer and his two hands coming out of the ones to the left and right of him. You finally make it to the front of the train which has come to fight you itself with an angry grin that looks like it came out of Thomas the Tank Engine’s nightmare. You take out his heart which he conveniently shows you and you are done!Â
2 Grim Matchstick
Grim Matchstick, while not the hardest bosses battle is one of the most entertaining and serves as a sort of precipice you must overcome before you can take on the much harder bosses that will soon come.Â
Grim Matchstick is a dragon with a goofy demeanor. He starts off by shooting fireballs at you before arching his neck downward and letting small fireballs come out of his mouth like little soldiers. He then reveals that he has two more heads and begins to shoot fireballs more frequently before he does down while making the saddest of faces.Â
1 Dr. Kahl’s Robot
Both the setting and Dr. Kahl’s Robot himself seem as if they are from a different, slightly darker game with the juxtaposition to other bosses really making him stand out. Dr. Kahl’s Robot first starts firing at you with an antenna that comes out of his head while small projectiles fly around you - with the bombs exploding being an obvious reference to the Genesis classic Truxton. The robot’s head detaches from the body and repeatedly flies across the screen until Dr. Kahl himself comes out of the head and starts to fire a large barrage of bullets your way. After you take out the good doctor, you win.