It has been over five years since Studio MDHR graced us with their masterpiece Cuphead, or Cuphead: Don’t Deal With The Devil. It is renowned for its exceedingly difficult gameplay and gorgeous art direction inspired by the classic, rubber hose cartoons of the 1930s (painstakingly hand-drawn to capture the essence of the decade). Cuphead served as an excellent homage to the golden age of animation while pitting players against over 20 different bosses, each just as absurd and outrageous as the last. The game has several awards under its belt and has even earned its own Netflix adaptation, titled “The Cuphead Show.”
In Cuphead, players have the option to either control Cuphead or his brother Mugman. They can also play co-op with a friend and have both brothers share the screen. As they venture across Inkwell Isle, they can earn coins through special run-and-gun stages that can be used to purchase both potions and charms. Potions provide players with different types of projectiles, while charms give players special perks, which can help make the game easier. Should players encounter a pink object, they can parry it without getting injured. Parrying objects allows players to use a more powerful version of whatever projectiles they’re shooting. If players parry objects five times or hurt a boss enough times, they can use a super move to deal massive damage to enemies. These can be earned in mausoleums after players protect an urn from bothersome ghosts. The urn contains a spirit known as the Legendary Chalice, who thanks you each time by giving you a super move, or art.
Players the world over devoured Cuphead upon its release, and although they found the game to be arduous, enraging and nearly impossible to beat without dying at least 10 times, they hungered for more. To satisfy their hunger, Studio MDHR immediately set off to create new experiences that would eventually find themselves in a brand-new DLC titled The Delicious Last Course. Released on June 30, “The Delicious Last Course” introduces new characters and an entirely new island for players to explore.
In The Delicious Last Course, players now can play as the Legendary Chalice, or simply Ms. Chalice. Ms. Chalice finds herself temporarily in the material world after consuming a special cookie known as the Astral Cookie, baked by the talented Chef Saltbreaker. To give her a permanent body, Chef Saltbreaker must bake a special pastry known as the Wondertart, whose ingredients can be found throughout the new island. But the residents of the island are unwilling to give up the ingredients so easily, so the trio bands together to retrieve them.
As most people know, the bosses of Cuphead are what make it stand out. Each island of Inkwell Isle has its own set of bosses to contend with, lurking in certain parts of each island. On this new island, there are six main bosses just waiting to meet and beat you to the ground. If you wish to play the DLC with an open mind, turn back now. If you wish to enter with some prior knowledge, continue onward.
The Moonshine Mob
Deep underground lies a town populated by bugs. The Moonshine Mob is a criminal gang living among them, comprising four members: the Spider Mobster, the Lightning Bug, the Anteater, and the Snail.
Most of the fight takes place on three wooden platforms you can hop on or off of. The Spider Mobster comes first. He crawls on the screen from left to right and vice versa. His tactics involve summoning his goons to attack the player or dropping bombs from the sky that are dangling from sticky webs. From the left and right sides of the screen, police bugs will occasionally appear and attempt to spray the Spider Mobster with bug spray cloud rings. Be careful, though: The bug spray can also hurt you. Pink bug spray clouds will sometimes be emitted for you to parry.
The Spider Mobster will eventually grow tired and summon the Lightning Bug. She will dance to the music of a phonograph on the center platform. The phonograph emits three sound waves that rotate like blades of a fan. When these waves turn yellow, it means they will turn red and harm the player. Police bugs and living liquor barrels will run on the upper and lower platforms and should be destroyed or avoided. Pink barrels will sometimes show up for you to parry.
Once the Lightning Bug leaves the scene, the Anteater bursts through the wooden platforms, so the only place you can step on besides the ground is the rock ledges the platforms were built between. The Anteater will push his snout between these ledges and eventually extend his long tongue, snatching a group of goons and police bugs before spitting them out. The tongue can be parried as it is pink, as one should expect.
After the Anteater is defeated, a banner reading “Knockout” will fall from the sky. This, however, does not mean the fight is over: The Snail is still alive. Hiding underneath the Anteater’s hat during the Anteater phase, the Snail appears and sends sound waves at the player from his megaphone.
Defeating the Moonshine Mob earns the player the Distillery Dough.
Glumstone the Giant
Living high in the mountains are Glumstone the Giant and his army of gnomes. Players will first see the giant sleeping, but once a gnome strikes his gold tooth with a pick, the battle begins.
During the first phase of the battle, players will be placed on five pillars of rock that move up and down. Gnomes will occasionally climb onto these pillars and try to destroy them with picks. Below, in the snow (which is actually the Giant’s elongated beard), gnomes will pop out and dance around before shooting balls from their hats. This is quite annoying. Stepping into the “snow” will trigger the gnomes to pop out, so keep out unless you’re fast. The Giant himself will stretch open his jaw, exposing a small group of gnomes mixing potions in his mouth. The fume clouds of these potions can harm you, but pink fumes can be parried. The Giant will attempt to kill you himself by picking up a bear by the rear and drawing it close to you before getting bored. He will also turn his nose into a whistle to send a flock of geese flying at you, so you should get to a lower pillar before they hit you.
Eventually, the Giant will rip off his beard and grab two sock puppets. These puppets will appear to the left and right of the player and will bounce a ball to each other (if you listen closely, you’ll hear them say “Catch!”). Gnomes will leap out of the Giant’s beard and somersault in the air. Pink-uniformed ones can be parried. Once you beat the Giant in this phase, he will grow so angry that he’ll destroy the ground and swallow it along with you.
Inside his stomach, the player battles a large, laughing stomach ulcer. The player will have to stand on one of five dinosaur skeletons because the stomach is filled with stomach acid. The ulcer will spit chicken wings at the skeletons, who gulp them and submerge themselves into the acid. Chicken bones will also be spat, which causes the skeletons to stick their pink tongues out and ring cowbells. Parrying the tongues will cause the skeletons to close their mouths, making it safe to stand on them. From the far right and left side of the screen, gnomes wearing scuba gear will leap out and shoot darts at you. Pink darts can be parried.
Defeating Glumstone the Giant earns the player the Gnome Berries.
Esther Winchester
The dry, hot desert is a wild place, kept in line only by the equally wild Sherriff Esther Winchester. A literal cowgirl, Esther Winchester is the only boss you fight with an airplane.
The fight begins with Winchester riding inside a wheeled saloon. She will fire snake oil from oil bottles that will first fly to the right of the screen, then strike it and rebound toward the player as living, black snakes. Grabbing her lasso, Winchester will also rope in a massive cactus and attempt to pull it toward her. High up in the sky, a flying horse will sometimes appear from the right and fly toward the player while spitting cactus balls, with the pink ones available to parry. On the opposite end, a vulture will appear and drop sticks of dynamite that will fly out in crazy directions once they hit the ground.
After enough hits, Winchester will blow the player a raspberry before pulling out a giant vacuum and sucking in money bags, coins, stacks of dollars, etc. Then, the vacuum will be set to blow and release the contents of the safes. Upon hitting the ground, these safes will open and release their valuables, which fly toward the player. Pink dollar stacks will occasionally appear.
Winchester’s vacuum will eventually wind up sucking in its owner before transforming into a pressure cooker and exploding. Winchester will have survived the cooking, but she now appears as a figure made of sausage links (somehow, her clothes haven’t burned). The new sausage Winchester will go on all fours and gallop backward while spitting out T-bone steaks at the player, some of them pink. Flying cans of beans will fly at the player and open, their beans either dangling or climbing up to meet the player.
Once she incurs enough damage, Winchester cries out in rage before splitting her body and placing herself in a can labeled “Prairie Dogs.” A hole will appear in the can from which two sausage links will be released. Gaps will appear in the links, which players can pass through to avoid damage. Winchester, as an illustration on the can, will spit out hot peppers at the player. At least one of these peppers is pink.
Defeating Esther Winchester earns the player the Desert Limes.
Mortimer Freeze
In the cold tundra lies an igloo that serves as the base of operations for the Snow Cult, led by Mortimer Freeze. Freeze is not interested in new members, but he is interested in giving the player a hard time.
Freeze will fly to the right and left during the first phase of this fight. His attacks include sending living icicles careening at you; attempting to smash you with a giant, orange whale and summoning flying, rotating tarot cards at you with his crystal ball. Pink cards are also sent.
Freeze will grow tired of these attacks and encase himself in a massive snow monster. The snow monster will slam his hands down — setting off a shock wave that sends up four serrated blades from the ground — and roll from one side of the screen to the other. When he transforms into a fridge, he will pop out ice cubes that split when they hit the ground and become flying popsicles, some of them pink.
Once the snow monster is finished, Freeze transforms into a giant snowflake and dashes from right to left. The player must stand on platforms that rotate around the center of the screen. Snowflake Freeze will send out buckets that split into moon pieces once they hit the opposite end of the screen — these pieces will turn into an eyeball that shoots lasers or one of many killer snow cones.
Defeating Freeze earns the player Icy Sugar Cubes.
The Howling Aces
Family is family, whether you’re a human, a cup or a dog in the Howling Aces. Always found working together, The Howling Aces will do whatever it takes to keep their enemies down.
This fight takes place entirely in the sky, with the player standing on a bi-plane flown by Canteen Hughes, a character found in Cuphead. The first fighter is the patriarch of the family, a Bulldog. The Bulldog will jump out of his plane, reach the player with either a parachute or jetpack and will attempt to harm them with one of two methods. He will either pull out a cat and make it spit out large balls of yarn, or he will flex his tattooed arms, sending these tattoos spinning toward the player. From the airplane, his four sons will toss three tennis balls at the player. In the background, the player will see a massive, dog-shaped chinook fly by, controlled by the Bulldog’s Saluki wife. The chinook will fire rocket fire hydrants at the player.
The Bulldog’s plane will finally sustain enough damage for him to call it quits, so his four sons, the Yankee Yippers, take over for a bit. They will circle the player using jetpacks and bark out metallic spinning letters, some of which are pink.
When the four sons are defeated, the chinook will return and extend two robotic dog paws that grab the screen. From the pads of these paws, two laser emitters come out and attempt to zap the player, who in turn can damage them. Once the emitters go away, the paws will turn the screen sideways. The chinook’s mouth will open, and the Saluki will begin pushing buttons on the chinook’s tongue, sending flying dog bowls at the player. The player’s controls will be inverted during this part, so death is usually inevitable on the first try. Once the Saluki has been hit enough times, the paws will turn the screen again and the laser emitters will reappear. When the emitters have had enough, the screen turns again and it’s back to the dog bowls. This pattern will repeat until the Saluki has finally been beaten.
Defeating the Howling Aces earns the player the Pineapple Mint.
There is actually a secret phase to this boss. If the player can make the exhaust of the Yankee Yippers’ jetpacks turn gray without defeating them, the chinook will arrive and swallow them whole. The chinook will grab hold of the screen like usual, but this time no laser emitters appear (and fortunately, this phase does not involve screen turning or inverted controls). The Yankee Yippers and the Saluki will appear in the chinook’s paw pads and toss pineapple grenades and launch fire hydrants at the Saluki’s command. While the Yankee Yippers can be hit to make them disappear, the Saluki is the true target, so stay focused on her.
Chef Saltbreaker
After a tiring ordeal, the player has at last obtained all the ingredients for the Wondertart. They arrive at Chef Saltbreaker’s bakery, but strangely enough, he isn’t there. A secret passage leads to the basement, where Saltbreaker is hiding a secret. The Wondertart requires one last ingredient: a soul. Saltbreaker is interested in using the soul of either Cuphead, Mugman or Ms. Chalice, depending on who you’re playing as. After all, taking over the astral plane doesn’t come without breaking some eggs.
The player is transported to Saltbreaker’s cutting board, where he sends myriad ingredients flying at them: Gnome Berry slices, Sugar Cubes, Desert Lime boomerangs, etc. In the background, Saltbreaker remorselessly kills all the ingredients — yes, they are all alive, with the sugar cube’s death being the most painful to watch — before sending them your way. When he realizes the player won’t back down, he’ll finally stop his cruelty, put a pink mushroom inside himself and become a colossal giant, holding the player in his hand.
Leering down at the player, Saltbreaker summons four salt-and-pepper shakers to sneeze peppercorn while sprinkling Pineapple Mint leaves on the player. Whenever the salt-and-pepper shakers are defeated, they’ll careen toward Saltbreaker and hit him in the face, damaging his glass body (because Saltbreaker is a living salt shaker) until he finally shatters.
Now the area is filled with a desert of salt and the shards of Saltbreaker’s body, but Saltbreaker isn’t done yet. Two Saltbreaker clones leap out of the salt and begin jumping around, while a saw blade attempts to cut the player from below. This stage is thankfully easy, and that’s probably the reason it’s so short.
Saltbreaker turns himself into twin tornados while shards of his body fall from the sky, which can be used as platforms. A heart-shaped saltshaker will zig-zag from right to left between the tornados in an effort to hit the player; whenever it’s pink, it can be parried. The player must destroy the heart while avoiding the dead space below the platforms and the heart itself.
Defeating Saltbreaker does not earn the player anything but the satisfaction of finally beating “The Delicious Last Course.”
