Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Review (raw maw)
'Delicious Last Course' AKA 'DLC'
Nice acronym pun, ey? I agree, and the same smart ideology is used all throughout this entire DLC, with its hefty push towards even higher standards compared to the game's main-campaign. Every single thing about this DLC is like 10 steps above the main-campaign's experience; which of course is not to dog on the main-campaign, but instead to praise the soaring improvements made in the DLC campaign, ones I could've never even imagined being possible myself.
The mere jolly return of Cuphead is enough to be praised on its own, however to the extent MDHR went with that is unbelievable. It is such a refined & perfect experience; further enhanced by the continuous betterment of every single game-play loop as the DLC goes on, and on, and on.
Rowdier game-play
I really enjoy the new bosses in this game, they're a big skill step-up compared to the main-campaign's. I can appreciate that, that craves some clad rag balls. It reminds me a lot of DOOM Eternal's first campaign DLC.
The new bosses are very impressive within all applicable contributes -- There has been possibly thousands of hours dedicated to refine every single part about them, as that is expressed very clearly in-game as you're playing, as you're getting your buttocks kicked by them.
As I played, I noticed that the new bosses tended to have a much different attack philosophy compared to the original roster's. They acted quite different, that was very apparent instantly, and I don't believe that was accidental.
MDHR trusted that the folks returning to Cuphead for the DLC had already beaten the game multiple times, and were able to play it without much clumbsy nature. They trusted that the playerbase had already mastered the ability to clearly read & avoid incoming attack, as they were always very clearly telegraphed before typically a singular attack.
In the DLC it feels so much more rowdy, and I believe that is due to the fact that the bosses no longer are focused on pushing out big incoming attacks with clearly telegraphed attacks easy to avoid, no. Here they feel more focused on blasting attacks out with multiple different smaller points of damage, as your focus is not to avoid one big attack, no, it's more-so avoiding a multitude of well-coordinated attacks. It makes for a much more stressful & craving loop of defeating bosses, especially as there are times where bosses may have 2-3 different attacks ongoing at once, making for some extreme game-play, especially in the last boss-fight. I can truly appreciate that, I enjoyed that here. I know that a lot of main-campaign bosses used the same philosophy as well, but they were much rarer, not to the same extent, and not as overwhelming.
I also really enjoyed that secret boss-fight, as it was a very neat & quirky twist, Albeit it is maybe too niche, and with largely being very repetitive I have not come back to fight it again, sadly. I liked the puzzle to start him though!
And I'm a little confused as to why the castle exists, as I feel like all the mini-bosses could've been just been reused as one singular boss........ somehow. I don't know, it just feels quite odd in my opinion. Still, the vast majority of the parry bosses in the castle are really fun to fight.
I'm not a huge fan of the newly introduced attacks, I kind of felt the same about some of the main-campaign's attacks too. Many of them are just too situational or outright worse than some of the ones you already own, which means they discourage me from experimenting with them, even if they were to be really fun. I still largely keep the same preferred attacks.
I do enjoy a lot of the new upgrades here however, sure some of them are a little useless. But I found some really useful with the higher difficulty, especially the one that heals you after a few parries.
Wackier art-style
The art-department of Cuphead has never been better. Bosses are far more abstract & cartoonish than ever, they're far more animated that before. Sure, in the main-campaign you'd have a magic queen bee call the police, and thereafter transform into a airplane with chainsaw wings... sure. Yet in the DLC campaign you have a comically large-sized cow stuck in a saloon barely larger than itself, only to break out of it to bear a vacuum, only to vacuum itself up and turn itself into a flying sausage bull spewing meat, which then falls into a beef sausage tin-can. The lengths the animators went with their creativity is nothing but praiseworthy, and this largely continues with all bosses in the DLC.
And I truly appreciate the last boss-fight, as the music is outright fabulous, just like the rest of the DLC -- yet his absolute wild aura perfectly aligns so seamlessly with his theme, it's rather quite impressive. He's also maybe one of the most beautifully animated animations ever, as his characteristics & personality is so finely conveyed. He was also a really difficult challenge for me to overcome the first time around, it took me a good many hours to beat. And I'm very proud to say that I now have beat him on 'Expert' difficulty with a 'A+' ranking!
There are just so many bosses worth nitpicking every single animation of, as they look just so wonderful.
It's like a wonderland of mayhem with the extent of how varied each of them are, not only from a design perspective, but also presentation! None look alike, and they all have a very unique theming. I really enjoyed that giant boss-fight, he was really entertaining to yell at. His RNG inside of the mouth was maybe a little too cheap at times, I'll admit that. But his puppet section beat me up so much haha!
The first boss-fight, the mafia bugs were a little lame visually, I'll be very upfront with that. I enjoy how they re-envisioned their previously scrapped spider boss-fight from the main-campaign however, that was very neat. Yet the latter-half with the anteater & slug were hilarious! I died of laughter at the fake-out false "Knock Out!" screen. It genuinely killed me the first time I encountered it.
Conclusion
If you loved Cuphead's main-campaign, I'd wage that you'll love this DLC as well! It's still true-to-earth with the Cuphead game-play loop & mentality; yet adds a nice shake-up with a newly found challenge & philosophy.
However if it has been awhile since you played Cuphead and want to return for the DLCs, I heftily recommend clearing the main-campaign all-over again at least once. You really truly need the refresher, as the DLC does not provide a real tutorial for returning players, not provides the pacing for them.
The DLC recaptured my love for Cuphead, as it had been awhile since I last played it, and I am very happy that I did.
I'd put the DLC as a contender for my GOTY list so far!