Cuphead, the gorgeous Contra-meets-ol'-timey-cartoons platforming shooter that dazzled us earlier this year, is an example of hardcore difficulty done right. But in a few rare instances, that challenge was artificially inflated by the presence of pesky bugs, or undermined by unintended exploits. Those kinks in Cuphead's cloth have now been ironed out, as Studio MDHR has just released a patch for our favorite chalice-cranium brothers.
In a blog post, Studio MDHR details the welcome tweaks being made to all the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts. From the sound of things, errant glitches that induced crashes or ceaseless controller rumbling have been largely done away with, which is always a plus, and saving and loading are more reliable than ever. Some fixes are sure to alter speedrun strategies, like "Fixed rapid-weapon-swap damage glitch," "Slight charge weapon damage reduction," and "No longer possible to damage bosses that are off-screen."
Having *lowers shades, smiles, camera zooms in to see my teeth glimmer* beaten the game, it's amusing to see how a few changes soften Cuphead's demanding difficulty ever so slightly. King Dice and his grueling gauntlet of boss fights are easily the most challenging encounter, and the Gunstar Heroes-style game board you have to make your way across has a soul-crushing dead zone: the Start Over square, which sets you back to the beginning of a peril-filled series of dice rolls. In an act of mercy, the Start Over square can now only be triggered once per attempt. As someone who landed on that square twice and wanted to jump out of the nearest window, let me tell you, this change is a blessing. And back in my day, we dodged unintended invisible hitboxes on The Devil's attacks and we liked it, even if their removal is obviously a correction for the better.
Interestingly, you can now unequip your secondary weapon, Charms, and Super attack if you want to take on levels in your original form for even more challenge. Other tweaks are a bit more cryptic (and sound hilarious out of context), like "No longer possible to create a Mugman army" and "Touch fuzzy, get a little dizzy." I know that last one is likely just a Yoshi's Island reference, but I want to believe that it reflects an actual change made somewhere in the game.
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