60 VIDEO GAMES
CUPHEAD (or The Unexpected Virtue of Postponement) WORDS BY: ELIS DOYLE DESIGN BY: STEPHANY DAMYANOVA
Kids these days are spoilt rotten with their plasma pistols and HVK-30’s. Back in my day we had one handgun, with unlimited ammo! After a frantic exit from the buffet room, you desperately claw at your mum’s dress, begging for just one measly pound coin. Perhaps it’s a mixture of the blazing Majorcan heat and the sound of two old codgers rasping away Dire Straits covers, but she slowly relents and drops the comparably cold object into your outstretched hand. After launching yourself at the arcade, you pause. Metal Slug is etched in rusty calligraphy on the screen, and the fun begins. Run ‘n’ Gun sidescrollers are as old as the gaming industry itself; from Contra in 1987 to Alien Hominid in 2002, it has always been a constant staying power. The primordial delight of unloading a gun holding a bottomless ammo case, at a horde of baddies usually consisting of military grunts, evokes a simplistic pleasure only achieved in these kind of games. Some of these games also incorporated co-operative elements, which meant you and your buddy could work together to take down ‘insert X evil organisation’. If I were to cite a personal favourite of mine, I’d have to go with the aforementioned Metal Slug. The premise is simple, you play as a man donning a white bandanna, whose only purpose in life is to mow down endless waves of enemies, with his equally endless bullet reserves. If you’ve ever seen Commando, you have a basic idea of the chaos that ensues. You can also chuck ‘nades, operate the eponymous Metal Slug tank, and even beat these unsuspecting grunts to a bloody pulp. As a kid my mind was transfixed on the amount of unbridled fun to be had, and unlike what the right-wing press would have you believe, I did
for
not grow to don a white bandanna of my own. However, as a result of it’s lengthy lifetime and unchanging formula, the genre has grown stale and lost popularity in recent years. Enter Canadian brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer operating as Studio MDHR, who in 2015 released a trailer depicting their own take on the run ‘n’ gun sidescroller, Cuphead. The game’s story revolves around two cup-headed entities, who have been forced to repay their debt to the Devil by defeating a number of bosses. From the trailer, we can see that it doesn’t stray too far from the generic game-play elements of the genre. Surprisingly, it’s most pivotal elements can be found in it’s art direction, which draws heavily from traditional animation pulled straight out of the 1930s. The sheer amount of effort put into this thematic direction is evident from the smooth visuals, that harken back to a nostalgic age of animation. I for one was absolutely astounded by how ambitious these two Canadian brothers were, and eagerly anticipated any proceeding news. Evidently, the ambitious art direction has also taken a toll on the development process, as after almost two years the game has still not been released. A release date has been vaguely placed some time in 2017, but the future of this promising product is unknown. As well as that, game-play footage unveiled between the initial trailer release and present day have indicated a potentially more monotonous gaming experience in store. Of course this may not necessarily be a fault of Cuphead, as I grow up I have to ask myself, is walking in one direction holding one button really that fun anymore? So with a pensive sigh, I continue to wait patiently for the day that Cuphead reignites gamers’ love run ‘n’ gun titles.