By avoiderdragon : There have been more games being released that have little to no combat or any other form of eliminating opponents in them, which is a welcome change for those who have been growing weary of the usual violent fare in video games. If you liked titles like Journey and Antichamber, then you might like this one. This is MirrorMoon EP by Santa Ragione.
One thing that stood out immediately is the old-timey cartoon aspect of the visual design. Cuphead looks very similar to an old Mickey Mouse cartoon. Other critics have added Popeye and Betty Boop to the list of inspirable sources.
Some have said that Cuphead was inspired in part by the Mickey Mouse game, World of Illusion, which came out for the Sega Genesis in 1992. While it certainly is evident that Cuphead resembles Mickey Mouse, the games are very much different art styles. Cuphead is way more old-school, and World of Illusion does have decent graphics given the console, but World of Illusion is cast more in the actual Disney universe, whereas Cuphead has the freedoms and fresh animations of an indie title. Both games feature platform elements and co-op gameplay, but a clear line of inspiration is thin at best. Cuphead is a revolutionary addition to the platforming genre.
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion on 3DS could also be another source of inspiration
It's a game that is purpose made to look like 1930's era cartoons...I imagine the old school Mickey Mouse cartoons aren't to far from that classic look too. 'meh, Cuphead stands on its own as a unique and creative experience.
It borrows from many avenues; I'd say the number one inspiration for Cuphead is Megaman!
The whole marketing/appeal of this game is that it took inspiration from these cartoons.
Pointless article is pointless
It's inspired by that era of cartoon art. Nothing wrong with paying homage to that. Would be cool to see more art styles in videogames from past eras of cartoons. I would love more 2D hand drawn games. I miss games like SF that had it in fighting games. Because some 3D is terrible choices for side scrolling. Except if it looks like Trine. Trine is a beautiful looking game. But even Trine would look awesome with hand drawn art like Cup Head and some parallax scrolling.
Arc system works are the new king of fighters. They don’t release incomplete games like marvel vs apron infinity.
Did Cuphead capture an era in cartoon and animation as well as make a well crafted and tight platformer?
Game Designer Pietro Righi Riva shares his thoughts on how game design needs to evolve in the first installment of In Design.
Sometimes it seems like designers and developers are reluctant to "say something" with their games. It would be great to see more games address complex themes and ideas in a thoughtful way.
Yup. I definitely think we're slowly on the verge of that happening. Now it's just a matter of just how far devs will go with the subject matter, and how they'll craft the gameplay around it.
Definitely. I just hope it really is integrated into the game and not just a message with a game loosely wrapped around it.
This idea here is what game designers should be looking towards. I went through a time of fatigue where all nostalgia shed away and I realized I was just playing better versions of games I have already played, just with different stories. I had to get over it, but what if games evolved faster? What if they had messages, like movies usually have good messages now.
Hardcore Gamer: Last week, the Humble Mobile Bundle 14 launched with a slew of games for a great price. Today, three games were added to the Beat the Average lineup
