Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course (2022) [Xbox One]

“I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.”
-Gordon Ramsay

The Delicious Last Course adds more of what you’ve come to know and love about Cuphead: larger-than-life bosses, outstanding animations, finely-tuned gameplay, and catchy tunes. The new island opens up and offers new content that’s almost a step up from the main game in terms of challenge and inventive boss design. If you’ve played the original game you’ll know what to expect; 2D sidescrolling battles against tough bosses, but before I dive into the review I should give my short history with the game.

My Cup Runneth Over

I purchased the base game about a year after it originally came out and was instantly hooked. Certain bosses gave me quite some frustrations but I pushed through to the end. When I finally beat the final boss I couldn’t picture myself going back and doing it again, but I was curious. I went back and tried a few bosses on ‘expert’ to see how much harder they made them. Before I knew it, I ended up completing all bosses on the harder difficulty! Then I decided to go for all the achievements. The last one I needed was obtaining an S rank which requires beating a boss on expert mode without taking a hit. Dozens of deaths later I finally accomplished 100% completion of achievements and sighed with relief, knowing I was finally done.

Now, you’d think the next chapter of this story begins with the release of The Delicious Last Course, but the truth is that after I got that last achievement I was once again hooked, this time on a quest to get S ranks on ALL the bosses. In fact, in the past few years, I haven’t actually stopped playing the game. I may put it down for a month or so but oftentimes found myself picking it up for an hour to grind yet another boss until I achieved S rank. One of the bosses, the dragon (Grim Matchstick), kept me stuck for months. All this to say that I almost expected to fly through the new DLC bosses since I never let my Cuphead skills decline as I never took a break from playing. Oh, how wrong I was.

Ebb and Flow

I was absolutely floored with how much creativity was put into the six new boss battles in terms of design, attack patterns, and flow. The new music is also just as fantastic and I really enjoyed the jazzy bops. The newest character, Miss Chalice, mixes up the gameplay with new moves and dynamics. She doesn’t jump as high as Cuphead does but she can double jump. Her parry combines with her horizontal dash move which makes you think differently about how you approach the pink projectiles. Also, she has an additional roll dodge with invincibility frames useful for dodging many dangers. In addition, she has an extra health point so fighting bosses with her is a bit more forgiving.

When I first began the DLC I jumped right into the new character, which was a mistake. She feels so different that I felt like I was playing a completely different game and was wrecked by one of the new bosses. I decided I would go back to Chalice later after I would finish the DLC with one of the normal characters. But even playing as Cuphead, whom I have spent dozens of hours with, I still had a difficult time. At any given point in each battle, there is just so much happening on screen you must focus on that it becomes quite the effort. I didn’t mind since defeating each boss felt very rewarding in the end.

Everything, Everywhere

Some bosses have certain phases where there are so many enemies, projectiles, and dangers all around that it almost seems unfair. The enemy spam almost felt like an artificial way to add to the difficulty. For example, during the Esther Winchester battle you’ll encounter dynamite thrown from above that explodes and sends projectiles upwards all the while enemies may come from the left side of the screen while Esther herself shoots ink blobs from the right. Dangers coming toward you from literally all directions, and this is just her first phase. But with time I eventually understood that there is some method to the madness of the patterns. Everything has a tell, letting you know where enemies and projectiles will come from next. With practice and repetition, all bosses eventually became possible to beat, and I even played through some of them on the expert difficulty.

The Cup’s Gambit

There are no new run-and-gun levels in the DLC, but a new addition that I appreciated even more is the King’s Leap challenges. Here your character is stripped of all weapons so all you have left to fight with is the parry move. Some challenges seemed almost insurmountable at first but eventually, I realized how fun they were to tackle. This essentially provides 5 more battles that ask you to tackle the boss in a unique way and I personally really enjoyed playing through it. I also appreciated how each boss was cleverly themed around different chess pieces. Beating each of these challenges felt great, but it wasn’t until I finished all of them that I realized that Chalice’s horizontal parry might’ve been the better way to tackle these challenges.

In my opinion, the best type of downloadable content is that which not only adds new experiences but also enhances the base game, much like how the Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC added extra items you could find and use in the main game. The Delicious Last Course also does the same by allowing Chalice and the new weapons to be used in the main game as well. Since Miss Chalice feels so different, fighting the same bosses I’ve spent hours on felt refreshing. It was also a great way to get used to her new mechanics within the familiar patterns. In no time I was able to pull off parries and dodges with ease.

Best Meal Under $10

The new content is fairly short; six new bosses, five new challenges, and a hidden boss, plus the new character and weapons. However, considering The Delicious Last Course is priced at $7.99, I think it’s an amazing value. Seeing the new boss designs and amazing animations is enough to justify the price of admission. Plus, the fact that it gave me a reason to revisit the main game with Chalice, I think it was well worth the price and the years I had to wait for this release.

If you’re a fan of the base game then you should already own the Delicious Last Course. And if you think the base game is too difficult, I think that Chalice is a great way to have a bit of a handicap with her dodge roll move and extra health point. I will most likely be spending quite a bit more time with both the base game and new bosses thanks to this DLC, and I can’t recommend it enough!

PIXEL PERFECT

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Kalas, an aspiring content creator (but failing horribly at it) has found a wonderful community of friends to share his love of games through Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.